Playing the game

More than just a game | The Economist

The whole notion of work seems excruciatingly boring, repetitive and generally devoid of any sort of enjoyability. This week's Economist article begs to differ. It presents a new idea from the book 'For The Win' being taken up by many firms eager to motivate their workers: gamification.

Gamification is, as the name suggests, derived from the gaming experience. The article explains how gamers are happy to pay 'good money' in order to engage in repetitive and boring tasks. Examples include the tedious task of levelling up on World of Warcraft, the bland activity of maintaining a farm on Farmville and repeating an Angry Birds level time and time again just to achieve a new high score. Firms are now asking themselves this: what is the 'special sauce' that manages to convince gamers that they should pay in order to work?

In response, firms have experimented with rewarding workers with badges (based on the Achievements system on Xbox) and ranking tables for top salesmen in an attempt to replicate the high score system. Though these have worked to some extent, it is important to realise that an achievement and new high score can only make a gamer happy for so long. Once a gamer loses interest in a game, he could quite simply go and buy (or download) a new one, but one cannot not simply change a job when he becomes bored of it.

The main issue with relating games to work is that games are played for their own sake. A person does not decide to play Halo or COD because they want to gain every Achievement possible; they simply like the gaming experience. Nevertheless, the article presents the very important argument that if we enjoy what we do, work does not have to feel like work at all.