Interactive, Gamification and B.S.

Now, tell us,  do you feel engaged?

I don't have time to really do a proper post, but someone forwarded this to me and it's too good not to share.  It is a blog post titled "Gamification is Bullshit: My position statment at the Wharton Gamification Symposium."  It is a short, articulate statement, written in plain language, about the problem of when "experts" try to latch onto the new thing and how it can end up being a lot of, well, bullshit.  See also, Interactive Media.  And no, getting people to populate your content for you for free is not interactive media and please don't pretend that it's necessarily engaging with your audience.

The whole idea of viral in new media is starting a whole lot like old media, with a marketing sector out there providing "scientific" advice about how to create, distribute and, most importantly, track the people watching branded viral content distributed according to some master marketing plan.  Yes, it is the creation of the appearance of the spontaneous explosion of interest in branded online content.  There are people out there teaching classes on it as I write this.  I always knew those cute cats were at their core demonic messengers of doom.  Remember.  Nothing is free in this world.  If you are not paying for your content, you are the product being sold.

You Can Haz Branded Content

Content will not get better until the people with the money understand that the rules of the game have shifted.  The kids have come to play with their Bullshit Meters.

Well, ok, maybe not all of them.