Exquisite Tweets from @tomcoates

I've spent years telling people not to put points and score boards in their software because it distorts social software and gets gamed.

#1 8:59pm Nov 27th 2010 via Tweetie for Mac

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Now, low-grade, poorly thought-out gamification is the trend of the moment and it's sort of driving me nuts.

#2 8:59pm Nov 27th 2010 via Tweetie for Mac

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I absolutely applaud people who are looking for new ways to make their service playful and fun - but competition != play *or* fun.

#3 9:01pm Nov 27th 2010 via Tweetie for Mac

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Competition can be an incredible *disincentive* to participate - when only one person can win out of thousands, why play the game?

#4 9:02pm Nov 27th 2010 via Tweetie for Mac

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My advice for anyone interested in gamification is to think about play, competition with oneself, thousands of different win states.

#5 9:03pm Nov 27th 2010 via Tweetie for Mac

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And of course to listen to some of the really good people who are expert at this kind of thing - @avantgame, @danhon, @neb, @stewart etc.

#6 9:03pm Nov 27th 2010 via Tweetie for Mac

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Finally, any professional will tell you games have a shelf life. If the game is the only reason someone is using your service, it's broken.

#7 9:04pm Nov 27th 2010 via Tweetie for Mac

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If you doubt my thesis by the way, think about the last time you were hideously mismatched in a game. Was it fun?

#8 9:11pm Nov 27th 2010 via Twitter for iPad

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And think about how you use Flickr or Twitter. Is you goal to win? Or is building social bonds and self-expression a pleasure too?

#9 9:14pm Nov 27th 2010 via Twitter for iPad

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