The Dangers of Gamification
The other day I was going for a run along my usual route in my neighborhood. I was about halfway through my run when I went to check my Fitbit watch to check on my steps and heart rate. At that very moment, a sickening feeling hit me in my gut! My FitBit watch was not on my wrist, but rather sitting peacefully attached to its charger at home. All that work I had done so far in my run all those steps...all for naught!
Herein lies the danger in gamification. The reason I originally took up running was because it improved my physical health and mental well-being. Once I got a Fitbit, however, my goal was to hit 10,000 steps every day along with other metrics and goals that are tracked in a weekly report card I get emailed to me. Out of habit with the gamification, I had placed an overemphasis on metrics and proxy goals and began to forget about why I run in the first place. I know I am not the only one this happens to.
Another great example is Duolingo, the mobile app that helps you learn one or more foreign languages. Believe it or not, especially those who have tried to speak French with me, I currently have a 2,918 day streak of doing at least one French lesson on Duolingo. That is almost eight years' straight (my 8 year anniversary is on Sunday)!
On the surface, this seems like a great success, and in many ways, I guess it is. However, there are many days where I am doing a lesson not because of my inner passion for learning French, but because I need to keep my streak alive. Or maybe it is because I don't want to drop down to a lower league, or to fail to reach my Friend's goal for the week with my assigned friend. Quelle tragédie!
In all of these cases, gamification is crowding out my intrinsic motivation with extrinsic motivation. Gamification may be appropriate and helpful in supporting people to establish new habits, but once the habit is formed, we need to find a way to turn off the extrinsic motivation and tap into our intrinsic motivation. Fred Wilson, a venture capitalist and frequent blogger whose articles I enjoy reading, talked about the power of streaks in a recent posting. The article makes good points about the power of streaks, but I think you can see the seamy downside of gamification techniques just as much as you can its power.
The bottom line: use gamification in your products and in your organizations with great care, foresight, and moderation.
The best and most enduring way to establish a long-lasting relationship with a customer or employee is to help them to tap into their intrinsic motivation. Restrict your gamification to helping people start positive habits that they are not able to establish otherwise.