PleasingFungus's Devblog

Degamification

blackbeardblog:

1. Only The Sillies

And the little bears growl to each other, “He’s mine,
As soon as he’s silly and steps on a line.”
And some of the bigger bears try to pretend
That they came round the corner to look for a friend;
And they try to pretend that nobody cares
Whether you walk on the lines or squares.
But only the sillies believe their talk;
It’s ever so portant how you walk.

There are two notable things about the activity AA Milne describes in his poem “Lines And Squares”.

The first is that it’s a very good case study of gamification. It has almost everything! A boring activity – walking somewhere – is made more engaging by the addition of a game element – the challenge to walk only on the squares and not the lines. There is also a narrative – involving child-devouring bears - which adds a rationale for the challenge, changing it from an abstract activity into something more resonant. OK, there aren’t bear-avoidance badges and bear survivor leaderboards, but this was the 1920s so let’s not blame Milne for his lapse in futurism.

And the second notable thing about it is that of the many children who gamify their walks in this way, almost none of them keep on doing it as an adult.

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