Saatchi S Perspective: Gabe Zichermann - CEO Gamification.com

Where has intrinsic motivation gotten us so far? Gabe Zichermann talks about the use of game thinking and game mechanics to engage people and solve problems. Saatchi S asks Gabe about the world of possibilities for positive societal change with gamification.

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• Gabe Zichermann
• games
• gamification
• engagement
• sustainability

[Cruzzzzz1988]

@TheKozjavka

There are studies done in psychology (and its almost a general notion), that if you start giving external rewards for something, it will replace the intrinsic motivation. Subsequently, if the extrinsic motivation is removed, the intrinsic motivation is removed as well. So, in this case, using extrinsic motivation to support that little intrinsic motivation is clearly not a good idea. Maybe in short terms, but in long terms, it kills it.

[TheKozjavka]

@Cruzzzzz1988 In the exampe with drivers, if you don't care about the goal - "Cleaner Environment" you probably will quit the game after some time. The challege of the system designers is to shape and support your intrinsic motivation and not to ruin it by moving the focus from the actual goal to the game. Not the badges or leaderboards, but the goal "Cleaner Environment" should be in the center.

[TheKozjavka]

@Cruzzzzz1988 Right! Gamification itself doesn't solve any problems at all, and thats exactly what he is saying. When you don't have any intrinsic motivation at all, even 10000 tons of badges and all this crap won't bring you to to do anything on a constant basis. The starting point of any gamified expierience is a desire to achieve something, whats valuable for you. Gamification just helps you achieving your goal using all these mechanics, which motivate us and make the process fun.

[TheKozjavka]

@TheSpiritProject Actually he is not blaming the "intrinsic desire", his point is: in the modern world governments/companies CANNOT RELY on peaople's intrinsic motivation only and expect a constant engagement from them.

[TheSpiritProject]

At the last part of the video, he discusses building "intrinsic desire", but in the beginning he all but blames intrinsic motivation for global warming. At the least, he is being awfully sloppy with the terminology and thinking around concepts with crucial and subtle distinctions in psychology. Also, labeling any form of feedback as "gamification" isn't useful, because it risks confusing what is proven to work: feedback loops, with the superficial extrinsic reward sometimes associated with thos

[Cruzzzzz1988]

A moral or ethical question here is the notion of artificially created motivation. In the example of driving more eco-friendly, we want drivers to be intrinsically motivated to care about their environment and not to beat their friends in a social game. Gamification to solve problems sounds nice but is quite utopian. Gamification tackles only problems in a superficial manner. It is suppressing the symptoms instead of dealing with the virus.