Seven Points to Reappropriate Gamification

Games have always been everywhere. This is increasingly so because of the expanding pervasiveness of games in contemporary culture, shift to post-industrial era and the general awakening to the importance of human motivation, creativity and empowerment in the context of today’s human pursuits. This sudden but explosively expanding trend of gamification of our reality has suffered from growing pains, which has led to polarized, ideological and opportunistic discussions, narrative and debate about what gamification is, how it should be defined, how it should be applied (if at all), where it should be applied as well as about its overall ethical and societal premise and scope. In this chapter, we attempt to make sense of some of the prevailing foci of this discussion during the early growing pains of the development of gamification. We feel that this sense-making effort is crucial for a mature, constructive and healthy development of increasing pervasiveness of gamification, which commands an increasing meaning and importance in our daily lives. Therefore, in this chapter we wish to reclaim the discussion and help redirect it to its constructive rails and to save it from the dangers of Luddism toward ludism.