【Economist】Bartleby The play’s the thing

01 文章脉络

02 外刊音频

03 外刊原文

 正文字数629 words

Gamification requires much more thought than many companies give it

【Para.1】The mopei phone-swing device is ingeniously depressing. It is a cradle for smartphones that rocks back and forth when it is plugged in, and it is designed to cheat fitness apps into believing that you are on the move. If you have a step counter, this phone shaker can gull it into thinking you have taken 8,700 paces in an hour. “Ideal for those people who don’t have the time or energy to get your recommended steps in,” boasts the product blurb.

【Para.2】Such cheating is pointless but not uncommon. Blog posts run through ways to trick a Fitbit into recording exercise, from strapping it to your children to swinging it on a piece of string. Strava is an app for runners and cyclists to record their times; becoming the fastest rider on a course segment is a lot easier if you use a motorbike. Players of Pokemon Go, a smartphone game, are supposed to walk a certain distance in order to hatch virtual eggs; taping your phone to a Roomba, an automated vacuum cleaner, is the couch potato’s alternative.

【Para.3】This behaviour is a predictable side-effect of a ubiquitous digital phenomenon: gamification. Adding game-like elements to non-game activities is part and parcel of app design. Streaks encourage users to log into products each day. Achievement points reward them for completing tasks. League tables add the spice of competition.

【Para.4】Such features are powerful, even if their effects often fade over time. Just as gamification can lead some people to cheat, it can help others stay motivated in pursuit of a goal they find difficult to stick to. When Duolingo, a language-learning app, went public in 2021, its prospectus was clear about the importance of game-like features in keeping its users engaged. Streaks, virtual currencies, leaderboards and a hectoring cartoon owl called Duo are all designed to encourage people to keep learning. On October 26th the firm launched a new mathematics app that relies on similar techniques.

【Para.5】But as “You’ve Been Played”, a thought-provoking new book by Adrian Hon, a game designer, makes clear, firms should be very careful about how they gamify experiences. Mr Hon argues against slapping the generic paraphernalia of rewards, points and badges onto activities without thinking hard about the context. Get gamification wrong, and you can annoy three types of stakeholder.   

【Para.6】One is the customer. The obvious dangers—badgering people with endless notifications about streaks, say, or demotivating them by showing how low down a leaderboard they sit—are not the only ones. Gamification can work with the grain of a product, or against it. Apps that are designed to encourage people to save money can happily use gamified features like totalisers and money jars to track progress: the technique fits the product snugly. But some activities really don’t need added “fun”. One reading app offers to unlock animations if users hit certain reading landmarks; if you present reading as a chore, a kind of mental flossing, you are telling readers they have the cultural hinterland of a tapir.

【Para.7】The second stakeholder, and a new one to worry about, is the regulator. Gamification is meant to encourage people to do more of something. If that something is learning Japanese, great. If that something is eating lard, less great. Worries about how gamified financial-trading apps might lead investors to undertake more transactions than is good for them have prompted the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), a markets regulator, to look at what it terms “digital engagement practices”. Firms are already changing their behaviour as scrutiny intensifies. Last year Robinhood, one of the apps now in the SEC’s sights, felt compelled to get rid of a confetti animation which showed when a customer made their first trade. 

【Para.8】The third group is employees. Turning repetitive work into video games is a technique that Amazon has reportedly used in its warehouses, by representing workers’ progress at picking and boxing items in a racing-car format. Firms that sell employee-engagement software offer the usual armoury of points, leaderboards and virtual currencies. 

【Para.9】These ideas are likely to backfire. Forced rankings incentivise some people and stress others out. GitHub, an open-source coding platform, withdrew its streak feature after concerns were raised that it was prompting programmers to work every weekend. And as Mr Hon observes, games are a lot less enjoyable if you have no choice over whether to take part. Manufacturing fun can work, but only if it is taken seriously.

04 单词解析

ingeniously adv. /ɪnˈdʒiːniəsli/

in an ingenious manner 聪明；有才能

The plot of the film is ingeniously conceived. 影片的构思相当巧妙

boast v. / boʊst/

if someone boasts about something that they have done or that they own, they talk about it very proudly, in a way that other people may find irritating or offensive 吹嘘

Carol boasted about her costume. 卡罗尔吹嘘她的戏服

blurb n. /blɜːrb/

the blurb about a new book, film, or exhibition is information about it that is written in order to attract peoples interest 推介

Please look through the author blurb. 请浏览作者简介

couch potato phrase

someone who spends most of their time watching television and does not exercise or have any interesting hobbies 电视迷；大部分时间在家看电视，不运动或者没有其他爱好的人

You are such a couch potato on weekends. 周末你会变成宅男

ubiquitous adj. /juːˈbɪkwɪtəs/

if you describe something or someone as ubiquitous, you mean that they seem to be everywhere 无所不在的

“I can envision a future in which robotic devices will become a nearly ubiquitous part of our day-to-day lives,” says Gates. 盖茨说：我可以预见，在未来，机器人设备将成为我们日常生活中几乎无处不在的一部分

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