Interesting piece in Wired that pushes two of my buttons:
- Games and scoring in everyday life
- Making email better and more strategic / thoughtful
There’s some similarities with this talk I did at Playful last year about scores.
I’m mega-pumped at the moment about injecting game rewards and strategy into everything. So I was excited when I spotted this piece about What GTA Can Teach Us About Connecting with Consumers yesterday. It’s almost 80 charts and it’s less about scoring and more about environment and interaction, but there’s some great stuff in there. I especially love the notion of ‘Embracing the Glitch’…
And Tim gets bonus points for mentioning Imogen Heap’s skill at opening up the process.
Thanks to PSFK for the link to the Wired article.
Doesn’t your point underscore the confusion around the term ‘social’?
So we’ve got (cover your eyes) social media. And many have assumed that meant ‘socialist’ behaviour. Which is a lazy slip.
Put people in a social space, e.g. a bar, a shop, a sports ground, and only socialists will behave like socialists. Most individuals will behave like individualists, because we still live in an individualist culture.
1. Early days of Facebook – all about getting the most ‘friends’
2. Mainstream talk about Twitter – all favours the story of the individual, e.g. Ashton Kutcher and his 1m followers
Then there’s your example of Blip.fm
I guess Blip hasn’t had the sign-up rate of Twitter. But when I’ve introduced friends, it’s been much more sticky.
It’s all in the rewards – ‘props’, ‘listeners’ – and the terminology: you are a ‘DJ’. Something aspirational. Something an individual might want to be.
Your insight is an exciting one and, as ever, well put. Look forward to hearing more about the email-as-game.