Whatever Happened to Gamification?

Jan 07 2012

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You may recall that around about this time last year, the big buzz word in Social Media circles (before Circles even existed!) was “Gamification”. This methodology of building game-like functionality into social sites was intended to improve the longevity and stickiness of emerging sites and platforms, ensuring the new-found user base stuck around just long enough for the Developers to release that next big feature!

A slightly cynical view, perhaps, but with the exception of Empire Avenue, there are very few examples of gamification to be seen, today, in the social landscape.

Or are there?

Far from being the shortest-lived fad in social media’s short history, perhaps gamification has morphed into something else. Perhaps it had to. Once the notion occurs to social media exponents, of being manipulated in this way, the natural reaction is to scarper (Got Klout?)! The value of a startup is always in the numbers … users or profit (usually inextricably linked), and so the latest raft of platforms and devlopment teams have had to be a lot more savvy and “stealthy” with the way they encourage social marketing to occur, as well as ensure their signups stay loyal.

Take Proskore, for example. Supposedly a measure of influence in social circles, the score/skore itself is only partially influenced itself by the activity, engagement and reaction you illicit from your friends and followers, and almost more so by the number of “Trusts” you gather from your contacts … something that forces you to spread the message of Proskore and feeds their traffic and sign-ups. Connect.me works in just the same way.

The game is still there; it’s called “Get the highest score possible”. But as an enjoyable and congruent way to act, in a social networking sense, it doesn’t get me excited. The best sites mix gamification – be it obvious of by stealth – with tangible benefit, by aiding my relationship-building objective.

Gamification is still around. It wasn’t a fad, but for many sites, the game is far from afoot! What are your favourite examples of gamification in the social web?

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7 responses so far

  • Anonymous

    Actually getting recommendations and a bigger network doesn’t have a very big impact on your ProSKORE. By far the biggest impact comes from the size of your networks on the 5 that they count. Having 100,000 Twitter followers however is not nearly as valuable as having 10,000 on each of the 5 networks. G+, Facebook Page, YouTube, Twitter, and LinkedIn. If you had 10k followers on each of these, (And an upgraded ProSkore account) you’d have a skore in the high 90s. I have a very high ProSkore mostly because I have concentrated on those networks. I find those 5 to be the most valuable on the Internet, and compared to other ProSkore members I have much bigger networks in all 5 instances. Even when a user has a bigger network on one or 2 of them, they drop the ball when it comes to diversification.

    Whereas getting 60 Recommendations, 60 Network connections on ProSkore got me negligible gains on ProSkore, Switching from my old Youtube account with 20 subs to a new one with over 1,000 added 12 points. Subsequently upgrading to a Pro account added 7 points. Each network has cutofff points I think, like 10k Twitter followers gives you 1 more point than 9,999. I’m not entirely sure, but I got that sense across all of the 5 networks. I don’t think activity is even considered on ProSkore, just connections. (In the end, activity and Connections are easily gamed, and believe it or not, engagement is just as easy).

  • http://www.matthodkinson.com Matt Hodkinson

    Thanks for the additional info, Adam. I suspected the upgrade added points, and I would question why? How should upgrading your Proskore account – to a paid one at that – impact your influence? That’s a game in itself!

  • http://twitter.com/BillJula Co-Founder, PROskore

    Hey Adam… Thanks for clearing that up.  I would also add that the motivation behind the PROskore scoring system has less to do with gamification, and more to do with reputation management.   In that sense, the score serves a real purpose and provides real value to professionals by helping them to separate themselves from the pack…   The cream begins to rise to the top which makes for a more organized and intelligent overall platform.

    For those who upgrade to PRO+ Membership we take the time to verify all of the information they’ve entered into their profile to confirm that what they’ve entered is real.  The increase in scoring is a result of doing this verification… which actually does more to benefit the entire PROskore community by ensuring authenticity in the eyes of all other members.  Oftentimes the increase in score is a result of our having made recommendations to the member about how they can improve their score further.  The PRO+ membership actually has more to do with moving our members to the ‘front of the line’ to receive new leads being generated from the system.   Again, not a game as much as a real opportunity to discover business.

    Thanks for covering us Matt. 

  • http://www.matthodkinson.com Matt Hodkinson

    Thanks for dropping by, Bill, and for the clarification.  I can see the effort that goes into newly-signed Pro+ accounts, but it throws a blanket of suspicion over every other non-Pro+ profile, for me.  It implies an element in doubt as to the authenticity of “Free” participants.

    Appreciate the non-gaming intention, too, but I think anything with a score (or skore) will forever be associated with gaming of sorts.  After all, if there truly is value in the score, then it’s worth users effort to improve it (a game by it’s very definition).
    Great debate.  Thanks again for submitting to it!

  • http://twitter.com/mistergough Simon Gough

    Good question. As you’ve alluded to, I think there may be an issue with overly explicit games. So many social media have deep gaming baked into them at the core that when a platform builds itself purely around the game it always seems to lack something. Twitter is all about engagement. The purpose of Twitter is to connect with people and build a worthwhile network. If this was just done to earn points then it would ultimately cheapen the platform. The “game” of Twitter is about real engagement with real people and reaping the deeper rewards of that.

    I think some of the better games in social media are platforms like Instagram. Even though Instagram is not ostensibly a game platform, it rewards creative  experimentation and play. I think this is more rewarding than just being awarded points and I’d expect future platforms to offer deeper, more free-thinking gaming opportunities. After all, the least engaging element of Foursquare has always been its points system. On the other hand new platforms like This is My Jam understand that engaging people by choosing a very specific piece of music to share with them is gamification at its best. Pinterest does the same thing with images.

  • http://www.facebook.com/adena Adena DeMonte

    Gamification is still around and thriving! My company, Badgeville, powers gamification programs for some of the world’s largest companies — like Samsung, Dell, Deloitte, Universal Music, NBC, and many more. Most of the social experiences you engage with online are inherently gamified. Twitter’s points are your # of followers. Quora has a whole voting mechanism. On Pinterest you try to get other people to follow and like your boards.

    Gamification has become much more sophisticated than just getting a few badges. It is now about status, reputation, guidance, education, and many other types of reward and value. For more information on Badgeville, visit http://www.badgeville.com.

  • Alexander

    There can be no question people are interested to try game theory etc, especially large companies for which social media in general is uncharted territory. The question is whether they’ll see increased engagement/benefit and thus stick with it or view it as a passing fad…