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by mrbig4545 4171 days ago
what is it with gamifaction? I don't get it - it doesn't motivate me at all, infact it probably has the opposite effect.
2 comments

I doubt that. It's just that gamification requires you to buy into the premise of the game in the first place: to agree to try to maximize whatever "point" system the game scores you with. In some sense, income is a point system which you're almost certainly trying to maximize.

Your comment reminds me of myself when I used to claim marketing doesn't work on me, and that it even made me less likely to buy things. And then found out about the brown bag effect (a marketing technique which uses drab colors and minimal text to look non-flashy). Gamification isn't as developed a science as marketing, but it still works pretty well, and it's very unlikely that it doesn't work on you.

People are motivated by different things. This guy was motivated by quantitative value tracking with defined goals ('scores', 'winning'). Some people's brains increase levels of serotonin in response to situations where they perceive they've done something good - you have a physical neural response to a psychological event. Other people's brains don't (or they release less serotonin, or there's serotonin uptake inhibitor at work somewhere). People like that doesn't feel 'good' in response to 'winning' so classical gamification doesn't work.

The key to motivation is to make a psychological bridge between things that you don't want to do and the emotional state that releases neurological chemicals that in turn make you feel happy.