“Rest assured, Commander, we will be victorious. At whatever the cost.” “Worf, it’s just a game. A little friendly competition. You work up a sweat, you have a few laughs, and you make new friends.” “If winning is not important, then, Commander, why keep score?” Worf and Riker in Star Trek TNG: “11001001” So, I had another conversation about using points for operant conditioning in the context of gamification. And the more I think about it, the more skeptical I become. Some students seem to think points are these magical coins you can use in an app to automatically motivate human behavior. Magical in the sense you can create them for free, yet they are seen as valuable by the user. Just provide a task list and give them points for doing them (and badges if they get enough points), and they’re motivated. Beside the problem of starting the behavior in the first place, why on Earth should anyone work for points alone? In almost all games, points are more than just … well, points. They serve as indicators for something of value to the player. In many cases, it’s feedback about the competency of the player, as the points [...]
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