Here’s one of those neologisms from hell that I just recently came across: “gamification,” or, basically, turning something into a game. More specifically (via GreenBiz):

Gamification applies game design to make otherwise boring tasks more engaging. Think of airline points and loyalty cards. However, the rise of social media and mobile internet (smart phones, tablets) has taken games to whole new level of customer engagement (some say addiction!) and online sharing of brand loyalty.

Ergo, Badgeville has introduced its new Gamification Frameworks, a suite of six solutions for businesses to enhance customer interaction with some kind of game. Score points, unlock badges, get elected mayor...these types of rewards are believed to direct people’s behavior by appealing to our innate need for appreciation, and achievement. Proponents of gamification are using these principles to encourage people to “go green” by replacing the traditional “guilt and shame” approach with “fun and fame.” What are some applications of gamification to sustainability? As GreenBiz outlines: Recyclebank “attracts customers by offering them points for taking green actions like recycling, saving energy, and learning about sustainability-related topics.” Take quizzes, earn points, and redeem them for products. I can’t see this going over well: Opower, a utility company, mails customers personalized energy consumption reports and compares them with their neighbors. Oh, I don’t know. And if you haven’t wearied from seeing all those updates from players of Farmville, Cityville, or whatever-ville, now TerraCycle has a Facebook game called Trash Tycoon in which players “earn points by cleaning up a virtual small town and building sustainable businesses from the trash.” You know, for kids. Meanwhile, for drivers: The Nissan Leaf’s Carwings is “a digital tracker that both measures fuel consumption and ranks drivers according to fuel-efficiency. An online portal lets drivers know how well they are conserving energy compared with other nearby drivers.” Can’t I get extra points for walking or taking the bus? Finally, there is The Mutual, a sort of Green Groupon for charity-minded individuals, who are then rewarded with perks from green businesses. Maybe I just have zero interest in these types of games, but is this really a solution to serious problems? Aren’t we adults? Was Neil Postman right? I wonder how this kind of thing could be applied to the printing industry—or if it even should at all. After all, one of the problems with treating things as a game is that we eventually get bored with any given game.