Thought You Should See This

February 2, 2012

"Gamification is marketing bullshit, invented by consultants as a means to capture the wild, coveted beast that is videogames and to domesticate it for use in the grey, hopeless wasteland of big business, where bullshit already reigns anyway."

—

I missed this post, Gamification Is Bullshit, by videogames critic and expert, Ian Bogost when he published it back in August of last year. But it struck a chord. Today, I found myself talking about “ideating.” Over the past decade or so, this has become a big part of the innovation process, yet, where I come from, “ideate” isn’t a word anyone would actually dare say out loud. Yet such terms ooze into everyday language and before you know it, we’re all gamifying and ideating up the wazoo—but we’re not really making any sense any more. Another case in point: Starbucks currently has a deal whereby you can get a cheap breakfast sandwich “with the purchase of any handcrafted beverage.” I guess they mean that a barista made my drink for me and I didn’t just pick up a carton of “un-handcrafted” chocolate milk. But, to me, such specificity is grandiose and unnecessary. Then again, this is the company that allows us to order things like the “venti-triple-half-caf-non-fat-caramel-macchiato,’* so I suppose it’s bang on-brand.

</rant>

* I have no idea if this is a real drink. If I find myself in Starbucks, I tend to ask for a medium cappuccino. What a rebel.

4:30pm | URL: http://tmblr.co/ZLv7dxFnU6ef
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(Notes: 16)