[bendotc]

While "juicy" interface elements are certainly found in games, the "+1" pop-up circle is no more a game mechanic than a text input box is.

(I realize I'm being pedantic. As a game developer, this sort of playing fast-and-loose with words annoys me in the same way people talking about "programming in HTML" may annoy you.)

Regardless, while I think it overstates the case a bit, I do think that that pop-up is actually a good driver of user behavior, at least on a moment-to-moment level.

[jdp23]

Agreed, and I don't think you're being pedantic at all. It's a great user experience, and the whimsical fun touches like this (and what happens when you remove them from circles) are the kind of thing we're more used to seeing in games than in "serious" software. But that doesn't mean it's "game mechanics."

Oh well, at least he didn't use "gamification" :-)

[talkingquickly]

I'd be interested to know what people consider a true game mechanic to be. Examples such as the op of including game like behaviour or incentives in interactions we wouldn't normally think of as games is increasingly popular and effective so at what point does it move from "gamification" to a true game mechanic?

[pak]

I would say there are three main elements of game mechanics: 1) rewards or penalties; 2) unpredictability, either through interaction with other players or pure chance; 3) utilizing player skills that can be improved with repeated play experience.

None of those are involved here, except maybe a little bit of 1) if you consider +1 a "visual reward". I'd really expect all three to be involved before saying something has game mechanics--you can easily find each of them in Foursquare, for instance.