Growing up, a good portion of my summer (and spring, and fall...) was spent helping out in my family's rather large garden.
Most of this involved rather tedious, repetitive labor. So to stave off boredom, we made up games to go along with it. "Fastest to finish hoeing a row of corn", "Most peas shelled in a minute", etc.
It helped. We got a lot more done, faster, and with less complaining because of it.
But... The games weren't really the goal, and no one ever thought otherwise: the point was the creation and preparation of food for the next year. If you "won" by chopping down all the corn or throwing out the unshelled peas, no one would think highly of you for doing so.
Too many people look at games - or especially "gamification" - as a silver bullet that will turn the efforts of lazy and unproductive players into gold... This is exceedingly naive. Any game played in bad faith will have disappointing results, whether the mechanics of that game involves throwing a ball around or answering programming questions.
Is that a good reason not to play? Hell no! Games are fun, and with the right players and attitude can be exceedingly rewarding. But you do need to keep some perspective, to remember at all times why you're playing.
Most of this involved rather tedious, repetitive labor. So to stave off boredom, we made up games to go along with it. "Fastest to finish hoeing a row of corn", "Most peas shelled in a minute", etc.
It helped. We got a lot more done, faster, and with less complaining because of it.
But... The games weren't really the goal, and no one ever thought otherwise: the point was the creation and preparation of food for the next year. If you "won" by chopping down all the corn or throwing out the unshelled peas, no one would think highly of you for doing so.
Too many people look at games - or especially "gamification" - as a silver bullet that will turn the efforts of lazy and unproductive players into gold... This is exceedingly naive. Any game played in bad faith will have disappointing results, whether the mechanics of that game involves throwing a ball around or answering programming questions.
Is that a good reason not to play? Hell no! Games are fun, and with the right players and attitude can be exceedingly rewarding. But you do need to keep some perspective, to remember at all times why you're playing.