Until 11: Gamification, Social Media, and The Human Response
In today's readings there was a lot of emphasis on social interaction through social gaming, fan websites for shows like Star Trek and human responses to what the media is creating for us. This is all creates a very interesting topic for today's discussion; that topic is gamification. Gamification is the idea of using game mechanics for non game situations. A lot of corporations are using this one company that made this big is called Zynga who makes games such as Farmville. These games take real world situations and everyday tasks and create them into a game that for some reason people enjoy. Now these games also come with social interactions and an achievement based rewards system that keeps users playing these games. Many researchers of this field see this trend of big companies moving towards gamifications and even in the future using this in actual real life situations such as purchasing a piece of clothing could give you 10 points or a badge. This is a bit excessive and more of a luddite interpretation on the idea of gamificatoin and social interaction via online gaming. However, there is a more optimistic side to it. For example we will take an excerpt from the article "Interactive Audiences" by Henry Jenkins which discusses how online communities have been shaping and creating more content from shows or video games that they enjoy. Jenkins states when quotting Nancy Baym, "A large group of fans can do what even the most committed single fan cannot: accumulate, retain, and continually recirculate unprecedented amounts of relevant information……. [Net list] participants collaboratively provide all with the resources to get more story from the material, enhancing many members' soap readings and pleasures" (Jenkins, 2006). This idea of collaboration online creates a richer environment for enthusists of many different things. This is not really gamification, but it falls under the idea of socializing online and creating other rewarding things based on original content. I see in the foreseeable future that we this is the way our media will be moving. We are moving toward a more social and weisure based lifestyle based on gamification and Web 2.0's ability to allow everyday people to interact and collaberate with developers.