The dictionary definition for Gamification” is……… well it’s not in the dictionary because it’s not a real word.
It doesn’t even appear in the Urban Dictionary (for those of you that haven’t used the Urban Dictionary before, give it a go and have a giggle at the terms people come up with)
Some people, like the famous but overly annoying Ryan Carson, uses the term gamification to descibe subtle changes to user experience of websites to further market or push user interaction.
Other people, like Sam Doust the Creative Director of the ABC, think Gamification is yet another example of the interwebs trying to be hip and cool by applying a stupid name against something that has been in existence for centuries through other mediums.
So who’s right?
The web moves so fast that we just don’t have time to keep up with the words that get associated with the changes, so don’t spend you’re time worrying about what people are calling things and focus more on whether the new discovery is worth adopting or steering well clear.
Uptake the technology and new practices that help your site/brand/product and forget about the ones that don’t matter.