Comments on: The Dangers of Games in the Workplace

By: Vasconcellos

Vasconcellos — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 20:30:35 +0000

@jesper I think this cognitive “bug” of oversimplification is very common and definitely plays a role in these situations. Speaking of Brazilian health field (the field I have more information about) I think this problem is aggravated by our tradition in public health communication (and communication in general): it’s normative, centralized and unidirectional, so people receive these norms but don’t really incorporate them in their minds. It’s easier to think about “good” and “bad”.
I’m currently doing in my PhD and in it I’ll try to propose video games as a viable and efficient alternative to public health communication in Brazilian context, particularly to the younger population. I think games’ interactivity can sidestep some of older media’ limitations, but I’m also worried about these “gaming the system” tendency. It would be very sad to have a lot of enthusiastic players in health-related games only to discover they don’t translate game information to their offline behavior.

By: Jesper

Jesper — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 18:27:07 +0000

@vasconcellos Interesting connection with public health messages. I see something similar in Denmark too where everybody by now has heard of “good” and “bad” cooking oil, which health food stores exploit by selling _extra_ oil that people are supposed to take as supplements. I wonder if it’s a type of cognitive problem with humans, that we always assume that if something is good, it must mean that we can never have too much of it …

By: Vasconcellos

Vasconcellos — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 19:08:27 +0000

@jesper I agree with you, there aren’t procedural rules which can substitute personal judgment and good sense, so no contractual norms can single-handedly address these problems. I think we see some related phenomenon on MMORPGs, when players pay more attention to theorycraft rules than mere enjoyment of the game. Like the saying about failing to see the forest for the trees.
I work in one of the most important Brazilian public health institutions and also see patterns like these in health communication strategies, where a lot of media campaigns fail because people become to attached to the normative do’s and don’t’s and really don’t grasp what the health guidelines really mean to their well-being.

By: Jesper

Jesper — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 15:39:11 +0000

@vasconcellos Interesting angle. I guess the problem simply lies in assuming that you can remove trust and personal judgment from the equation entirely – but that inevitably leads to mistrust, bureaucracy and gaming the sytem.

By: Vasconcellos

Vasconcellos — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 22:28:21 +0000

Excellent commentary. A post from behavioural economist Dan Ariely’s confirms your words when he compares strict rules (contracts) and informal agreements (handshakes) (http://danariely.com/2011/02/20/in-praise-of-the-handshake/). I think as soon we have very defined rules in place a large number of people will be tempted to game the system, bending the rules looking for personal gain. As you said, measures are only part of the solution.

By: Jesper

Jesper — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 10:20:13 +0000

@Gael What kinds of team management are you thinking of?

By: Gael

Gael — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 23:04:56 +0000

Great article!

I agree with the side effect of using the “goals” and “feedback” to the letter and you gave great examples.
However, when applied to team management, I believe this would give good results.

Regarding results of failure, they should be analysed to understand why it was considered a failure and see how to behave the next time the scenario arises…

Like any other principle or theory, common sense has to rule or it will lead to problems as the one you’ve mentioned.

By: Paul

Paul — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 00:08:38 +0000

Yes I think you were clear on that and I agree with you.
You really have to be careful what you wish for when you attempt to “gamify” as what often appear to be simple game rules can often lead to unintended behaviours and consequences.

As a teacher I feel I don’t yet know nearly enough about how game dynamics map to non-game scenarios and so I have to be very careful in how I apply them and in what contexts. Looking forward to you book.

By: Jesper

Jesper — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 14:43:00 +0000

To be clear, I am not at all against using game principles elsewhere – including education – it’s just that attention needs to be paid to how goals are defined, and what happens as a result of failure.

Yesterday I heard about a program to “gamify” the graduate program of a US university (Columbia). In this case it amounted to giving students clear feedback about the requirements and expectations that were taken for granted, but never had been explicitly stated. In such a case it can work very well.

It’s not an either/or question.

By: Paul

Paul — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 22:23:59 +0000

I’ve just started out on Reality is Broken, but your post does highlight a key issue regarding the perils of inappropriately applied game principles.

I use game dynamics in education in the form of locative games for language learning, and while I structure the rules to facilitate specific outcomes at certain points in the games, it is the overall experience of the gameplay itself that is centrally important.

When you strip gaming conventions from the context of play and apply carrot-and-stick styled performance objectives you risk demoralizing your workforce and, as you say, encouraging cheating when those goals become more important than the game itself.