At the "For the Win" symposium that took place this week at the Wharton Business School, Ian Bogost (professor at Georgia Tech) gave an opening statement, that was catchy in its title - "Gamification is Bullshit" - and in which he delivered a couple of quotable and (from my standup comedian's background) admittedly hilarious phrases about the topic (like "a Viagra for engagement dysfunction"), and that catered very well with the media, but didn't do anything constructive for the topic.
His statement (available in full in his blog) is basically an academic rant of somebody who's highly critical of how gamification is seen as the savior for organizations that seem to fail on all other aspects. But instead of providing us with an honest discussion, he discredits the idea from the beginning, most prominently with choosing a title that’s not helping to get into a constructive discussion and generally insinuating negative motivation of corporations for using gamification. Shortly: exploiting their employees "to pad their own bank accounts".
Let me be frank upfront: I am working for a big company (SAP) that is looking at gamification to improve processes and its own and its customers' employee engagement (my blogs on our gamification activities are here). I also come from a social democratic family, where being suspicious of motives of the other side was common – here the bad capitalists, there the poor workers. I would not have spent more thoughts on the opening statement, but seeing it as starting a conversation and making the symposium a little bit more interesting to begin a constructive and honest discussion about that topic. This kind of discussion is often of the type that happens in European countries, but in the end we get to an agreement and both sides are better off. Everybody knows that without each other, we cannot live. And believe me: I have a healthy critical view of big business, marketing bullshit, how stuff can be spinned, but I am also a realist and know that both sides have idiots and reasonable people in their ranks. Finding the reasonable people interested in solving problems is my task. I don't want to waste my life spending with the wrong people. My life is too short for that.
Seeing the cheerful reactions, accompanied by Schadenfreude from gamers, game designers and game-thinkers who hate seeing their stuff being "misappropriated", I feel that I must counter that with my alternative perspective.
First: you don't own the topic. You may know a lot about it, but you can't prevent others from showing interest in your area, and re-interpreting it. And why should you? Isn't it a confirmation for your genius that a topic that makes you passionate is also interesting for people from other disciplines? Honest discussion with them maybe will make you understand and master it even better.
Second: if others interpret and appropriate a topic that you know a lot about in a way that seems wrong to you, then come with constructive aid. If you can't or are not willing to, then why should I care about what you say? Ranting and choosing catchy phrases makes you a darling of the media and your fans in the short term ("LOL! Did you see how he takes it up with the big bad guys?"), but in the mid and long term you'll turn into the guy that everybody is embarrassed to sit at the table with.
Third: it seems to work in a couple of areas. Gabe linked in his reply to your blog some examples, SAP has a couple of them running (like the heavily gamified(SAP Developer Network or the carpooling application SAP TwoGo). Denying that is like yelling loud with the fingers in your ears so that you don't have to hear other opinions.
We have too many problems in corporations, education, health, government and other areas to waste time on not trying new approaches and concepts, because somebody thinks taking this idea is bullshit and everybody else's motivation is not truthful, but just to make more money, have more power, exploit more people etc. I don't have time to wait until academia and so-called experts are fighting out their battles over details. The problems are here today. If you can't provide a solution or try to help me finding one, why do you talk bad about me trying it in the real world?
Even if an approach fails, I learned from it. Even if an approach works only for 6 months, I made people feel happier, live healthier, give them hope for 6 months. That's better than waiting for the (maybe) perfect solution in several years, when it may already be too late and the world has moved on.
If me using gamification principles makes me an exploiter and my apps and processes "exploitationware" (attribution of the word to Ian Bogost), then Ians use of Twitter and blogs is nothing else than an exhibitionist and your tools exhibitionware. Ups, that hurts, I know.
"Gamification is Bullshit" resembles the style of discussion that are common nowadays in politics. For me it's the tea-party-statement of gamification. Extreme positions, extreme language, not willing to move, seeing the other side driven purely by negative motives. Expressed by grumpy, and mostly white people and dudes, who actually profit from the very same organizations that they despise.
It's sad to see that (some) people in academia – and I had spent several years in academia doing my Ph.D. as well – still can't stand that "their" topics and research fields that they "believe to own", are getting interest from people outside the core area. Not only that, those people really seem to embrace it, interpret it their own ways and try to apply it to other areas. Instead of feeling grateful for that and engaging with them and nudging them in the right direction, or maybe correct or enhance ones own academic views by learning from the diverse field, they dismiss this interest as not truthful, with hidden and mostly bad motives.
The blog "Gamification is bullshit" is nothing else than the expression of an academic engagement dysfunction with the real world. I wonder what's the viagra to solve that? I for myself will avoid such discussions in the future, I have a lot of issues on the plate around gamification that need my constructive approach. Those who want to help me in that are welcome, all others: just go away.
BTW: here is Gabe Zichermann's take on that: Lies, Damned Lies and Academics
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geschrieben von Juicy couture store, May 14, 2012
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