Complex Numbers

I'm Game, Said the Deer

I've never been a big fan of this source, but whatever... this article seemed interesting.

How 'Gamification' of Everything Is Manipulating You (and How to Recognize It)  
Companies are using gamification to manipulate you. Here's how to see it and fight against it.

"The only way to win is not to play?"

“Gamification” is the practice of adding game-like elements to non-game contexts. It isn’t new, nor it is always a negative, but it is being aimed at consumers and employees more and more frequently, whether to keep you addicted to an app, motivated at work, or inclined to spend your money on something.

And I'm usually okay with it if they're up front about it. Duolingo, for instance, uses psychological tricks from gaming to try to keep people motivated. They make no attempt to hide it. It works for me.

There’s nothing wrong with gamifying our lives. We do it all the time, like when we promise ourselves a reward for cleaning the garage, or work out extra hard to get a little higher on Strava’s leaderboards.

Who? No, I can't be arsed to look that up.

There’s nothing necessarily wrong with making consuming a product or doing a job “fun,” but when marketers and employers are hacking our pleasure centers in ways we don’t fully recognize, that’s manipulation, and that’s not really a game.

Marketers have been manipulating us forever. I rarely watch stuff with commercials, so I'm not exposed to them on a regular basis -- hence, when I do see a commercial on someone else's TV, I'm generally amazed at how blatant the manipulation is. I get the impression people who are used to it just take it in stride.

Behaviorists’ studies of rats and humans prove that both species are more motivated by intermittent, unpredictable rewards than anticipated ones.

Only rats are probably smarter about it.

I used to think Twitter just loaded a little slowly because that’s how long it took, but it turns out that it’s a feature not a bug. Twitter, Instagram, and other social media sites reportedly artificially lengthen the time between when you click on the app and when the content shows up in it as a way to increase the sense of anticipation—and keep you coming back again and again.

For whatever reason, this little tidbit -- if true; I haven't checked it out -- pisses me off way out of proportion. I'm on the internet because I want instant gratification. When I click on something, I want it to load right the fuck away, not spin the cursor. That doesn't build anticipation for me; that makes me close the window. When I get sent a YouTube video, I have a simple rule: if you spend more than 5 seconds on logo or other extraneous bullshit before getting the damned content, I don't watch. And that's me being generous; if the video is formatted vertically, I don't even give it that long.

Fortunately, I'm not on social media so I haven't experienced these supposed artificially extended load times, myself.

In any case, the rest of the article describes some other game-type techniques used to maintain engagement. As noted, not all of these things are inherently bad, but it doesn't hurt to be aware of how you're being manipulated.

I'll only note one more thing from the article:

A streak offers nothing beyond the streak itself. The longer a streak goes, the more you’ll be motivated to keep it going, mainly because breaking it would cause you some tiny amount of disappointment.

*Looks at my 26-month daily blogging streak*

*Saunters off whistling innocently*