<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<meta content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">
Danny Yoo wrote at 09/01/2011 12:20 AM:
<blockquote
cite="mid:CAGZAPF64-Y3Sn7yf6-ozXH4FOQThZHSJnLpH4rZSdPy94jLMsA@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">I wish you could earn Racket badges and levels for completing exercises, getting +1'ed on the mailing list, and contributing code and documentation.
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap=""><!---->
+1. Stack Overflow does this sort of achievement system. It feels
very much like a game.</pre>
</blockquote>
<br>
When someone helps me out here or contributes a good idea to a
discussion, I appreciate it, but it's even more appreciated if they're
doing it out of higher goals, community, or altruism, without the taint
of working towards a merit badge.<br>
<br>
Stack Overflow's game is probably benign, but there's a context of the
last several years of connected society. Online sites are conditioning
us in various ways to accept ubiquitous buzz marketing, and to parody
social processes and fritter away social capital to promote products in
exchange for some consideration ("like us on Facebook for a discount"),
and this all being socially acceptable to the extent that people care
or realize it's going on. This isn't new -- we've enjoyed
entertainment industry generated 'news' and disingenuous performances
for TV talk show for decades -- but it's only the last decade or so
that everyone can see themselves acting a role and playing the game on
a large scale. I hope that individuals of the new generation somehow
manage to value being genuine and to have genuine connections, despite
an environment that's trying to push them otherwise. In this context,
do you *really* want to bring more of this game into a relative oasis?<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.neilvandyke.org/">http://www.neilvandyke.org/</a>
</div>
</body>
</html>