The trend of gamification — applying elements of game play to other areas of life — is the apex of the neoliberal fantasy, rendering both work and our leisure time outside of it into a series of games that we supposedly enjoy playing for their own sake.
Agreed with you there about gamification and how it can be useful for some people.
I do think that the latter half of the article that tries to present the difference between “gamification” and “play” is fascinating, and I wish they dove into that a little bit more. I understand that they’re trying to say that having this endless churn of “goals” in “gamification” is potentially harmful, but then what’s the alternative look like when it comes to Fitbit, Duolingo, etc.?
It can definitely be a problem.
MMORPGs suffer from over gamification in that way. It’s a video game that has daily/weekly/monthly goals to keep your engagement. I stopped playing FFXIV because it was feeling like work. But the game Wild Star was the worst offender I ever came across. I couldn’t go 10 feet without an announcer yelling about a new goal that I could take part in. It was a shame, too, because the gameplay was actually very good in that game.
It’s important to have downtime to just gather ourselves and we have a tendency to ignore that need. It’s very easy to get over engaged. “What’s today’s Wordle?” “Did you run your miles today?” “The owl misses you!”
I think maybe the biggest issue is that they ask want your attention every day. Maybe it would be better if they only said something a couple of times a week each.