Gamification: the ultimate game-changer in social control
If you layer elements of rules, feedback systems and reward over reality, you will make any activity or behaviour motivating and (potentially) fun. But at what point do we recognise this as a guise for social control?
Want to influence behaviour? Turn it into a game. Now a bona fide HR and marketing phenomenon, gamification is the application of gaming elements into non-gaming contexts. This Silicon Valley model is now taking over the leaderboard as the go-to method for changing player behaviour in the real-world.
Bred through a lack of consumer and employee engagement and driven through the addictive affordances of video games, gamification aims to motivate and drive ideal behaviours for organisational success. Games have been found to be one of the world’s most powerful and oldest psychological motivator, able to make any behaviour enjoyable.
Gamification is everywhere we look. It’s in the loyalty cards at your local coffee shop, the fuel discounts on the bottom of your Coles receipts and are your virtual ‘trophies’ when purchasing new courses in language apps. It is in the driver interface of Uber, offering incentives to work longer and harder hours and is the premise of fitness games such as Zombies, Run! It’s there and we don’t even know it (let alone sign a waiver to be sold by it).
Applying gaming concepts such as points and rewards but giving them real world value and a how-to guide to achieve them pushes consumers to do more of a desired behaviour. Following the psychological methods of Operant Conditioning, when a behaviour is followed by a pleasant outcome, it is more likely to be repeated over a behaviour followed without reward or by punishment.
Earn enough Woolworth Rewards points? Get discounts in-store or convert them to Frequent Flyer Points! Be rewarded for your spending to encourage more spending. You’re ‘rewarded’ for the desired action and therefore more likely to spend at Woolworths Group franchises over Coles, earning the organisation a loyal customer, increased revenue and market share.
For employees on the other hand, the desired behaviour is peak task productivity and engagement. Gamification aims to enhance workplace performance by rewarding hard work and in-turn reinforcing ‘good’ or desired employee behaviour. Organisations collapse the domains of labour and so-called “fun” for the benefit of the employer, rather than for the fulfilment or benefits of employees.
An example of this in action is Disneyland Resort Hotel’s laundering facilities where electronic tracking is employed to incentivise competition and productivity. The number of items washed, dried or folded is displayed is recorded, showcasing exactly how fast each employee is doing their job, in real time on scoreboard monitors for all staff (managers included) to see. Live worker input is set against KPIs, with employee names changing colour in accordance to their work rate. If displayed in green, you‘re on track, yellow you’ve slowed down and red, if below the desired input rate.
This workplace tracking taps into the human psychological need for instant rewards, gratification and competition. What’s more, is that it challenges employees to consistently ‘win’ or have their name displayed green in a race against others. In Disney’s case this led to an ethical and Workplace Health and Safety issue with employees skipping bathroom breaks and an increase in workplace injury. “They felt like they couldn’t stop.” But Disney is hardly alone. Target, Amazon and Deloitte are all facing exploitation claims due to workplace gamification models which have pushed employees to achieve ‘desirable’ behavioural outcomes.
Mentally pushing employees in this game-like state increases workplace productivity and makes the employee feel like they are in the driver’s seat of their destiny — but at a cost. When do these organisations consider the ethical implications or where do does the rulebook come into play?
“We like to think of it as behaviour management,” says Steve Sims vice-president of gamification firm CallidusCloud.
On a national scale, China has infamously introduced a gamified social credit system to measure and evaluate citizen’s lives. This model aims to create a gamified nudge to “behave better” — or inline with the policies of the Chinese government. Identified as the most prominent manifestation of intention to reinforce desired behaviour through gamification, this reward and penalty system poses a significant threat to citizen autonomy as a means of social control.
Determining prizes such as receiving loans, obtaining a visa, faster internet speeds and job opportunities, the system could also become a powerful tool for social conditioning, as player citizens lose points for having friends with low ‘obedience scores.’
But if you think about it, this notion of ‘social credit’ serves merely as an extension of financial scoring systems like the FICO score in the US, which can determine the rewards of whether you can get an apartment, a car or a job.
The surface psychology of gamification like any game is motivation through reward: “earn points, get a badge, win a prize and repeat.” These are tools, not toys. The prizes offered by these games shadow the very little control we actually have in our lives and the unprecedented control organisations, tech giants or even government have over us.
What’s more is that scientific research into the neurological effects of games is evidencing that they have compelling similarities to the effects of drugs and alcohol addiction on the minds of users, leading consumers and employees to continuously seek the highs offered through gamified rewards. By capitalising on the addictive nature of games, these tools are introducing hidden pseudo-goals or actions unrelated to the primary goal of the consumer or employee in question. Such positive or negative reinforcement then strengthens a particular desired behaviour, fostering the potential to control and encourage specific behaviour in the real world.
It is therefore important to recognise the potential misuse of gamification has in manipulating consumers and employees towards results that aren’t in their own interest. Dubbed by some as “exploitionware,” gamification does have real normative concerns.
The Pew Research Centre’s report into gamification warned it can “easily lead to behavioural manipulation” and is an agent of control.
The trapping of fun and game-like competition into our lives, masks the fact that these aren’t really games or rewarding us at all. But rather those playing the pawns on the board. And what if we apply Jane McGonigal’s idea of using “Everything we know about game design to fix what’s wrong with reality” — or what those in charge deem wrong with society? I say game over.
