Chore Wars and EpicWin exist. (Haven’t actually used ChoreWars. I used EpicWin for a while, I still technically do, but it’s not as effective as I’d like.
Up until recently I’d have been highly supportive of this. A few days ago I read a counter argument, specifically to the gamification of education, which made the point that a) when you have extrinsic motivators, people are less likely to care about the things for instrinsic reasons, b) people tend to game the system rather than actually accomplish the thing you intended.
I don’t know how true those statements are, but they dampen my excitement about this idea.
No matter what, I think one problem is that people are far too individual for any kind of universal system to work.
One thing I’ve experienced is that you do NOT want to assign points for number of things done unless you have some way to assess that they’re done well—I spent a while maximizing the number of things I did per day, and quality went wayyyyy down.
Thanks for the links! But EpicWin and Chore Wars are trying to solve the problem of getting things done, while I’m trying to solve a completely different problem.
Up until recently I’d have been highly supportive of this. A few days ago I read a counter argument, specifically to the gamification of education, which made the point that a) when you have extrinsic motivators, people are less likely to care about the things for instrinsic reasons, b) people tend to game the system rather than actually accomplish the thing you intended.
Dan Pink discusses some of the research regarding this problem in an RSA Animate video. (He also wrote a book about it.)
Chore Wars and EpicWin exist. (Haven’t actually used ChoreWars. I used EpicWin for a while, I still technically do, but it’s not as effective as I’d like.
Up until recently I’d have been highly supportive of this. A few days ago I read a counter argument, specifically to the gamification of education, which made the point that a) when you have extrinsic motivators, people are less likely to care about the things for instrinsic reasons, b) people tend to game the system rather than actually accomplish the thing you intended.
I don’t know how true those statements are, but they dampen my excitement about this idea.
No matter what, I think one problem is that people are far too individual for any kind of universal system to work.
One thing I’ve experienced is that you do NOT want to assign points for number of things done unless you have some way to assess that they’re done well—I spent a while maximizing the number of things I did per day, and quality went wayyyyy down.
Thanks for the links! But EpicWin and Chore Wars are trying to solve the problem of getting things done, while I’m trying to solve a completely different problem.
I use(d) EpicWin for something closer to what you’re talking about.
Dan Pink discusses some of the research regarding this problem in an RSA Animate video. (He also wrote a book about it.)