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“Life is a videogame.”

The electronic voice of Joshua, a rogue AI in the movie classic Wargames, has been echoing in my head for over 25 years.  Even though ol’ never said that in the movie, it used to amuse me to “hear” it said as I noticed a mechanic in life that paralleled the experiences I was having in front of my computer or console.  I’ve never escaped the feeling (or the voice), and the current excitement over gamification — of products, of marketing, of life — is a welcome addition to the dialogue around innovation.  If you’re one of our clients, you’ve perhaps rolled your eyes while I went on about gamification.  If you’re one of my friends, you definitely have.  Eye-rolling is for spouses and art-school contrarians.

Finally we have respected game designers like Carnegie Mellon prof Jesse Schell talking about it, companies like BunchBall (who add game mechanics to just about any website you like) applying it, and conferences springing up about the topic.

Sure, there are folks out there preaching caution.  There are those saying be SUPER careful to be artful about the application of game mechanics to non-game efforts (well, duh).

It’s one thing to get caught up in the purely tactical elements that gamification represents and think that’s all you need — quests, badges, incentives, leaderboards, and, of course — TRAYSURE, but it’s another to adopt the mindset that seeks the overriding principle needed for gamifying anything: FUN.  In the marketing world, I’ve heard people say “marketers don’t buy fun.”  Great, thanks, Buzzkill McGee.  I get it — they want impact, engagement, effectiveness.  But they’re forgetting that fun* leads to those things, when used in the right way.  We’ve written about fun before (and the dangers of ignoring it), and now it’s time to get serious.

Stop thinking that fun is frivolous.  It is not.

Fun is motivating.  Ask any 4-year-old.

Fun is productive.  Ask anyone who has ever played a sport ever.

Fun is addictive.  Ask anyone who has played a “casual” game on their phone.  Again.  And again. And again…

Now consider what we’re trying to do with marketing– to get people motivated to do something we want them to– something that is productive for our business.  And then get them to do it again.

Huh.

There’s a ton to explore on this topic (and we are, so stay tuned) — we’ve already seen the effects of applying game mechanics to individual marketing campaigns, to every loyalty program in existence and to tons of sites where you might not think “game” at first glance.  Can it get in the way?  Of course — but made optional, scalable or just so downright right, it can be a profound tool in the marketer’s toolbox.  Consider adding game design to the marketing skillset — and treat it like creativity, flexibility, tenacity and the other must-haves in the superpower set. Applying what we’ve learned from games to things such as the effectiveness of advertising creative, the tracking of  marketing efforts and the brand itself is interesting.  If it’s also fun, then it gets very interesting.

*For those of you that want to argue about whether game grinding is fun, social gaming is fun, or what constitutes a “real” game, the author humbly requests that you go and pound sand.