2011 / 12 / 30 | linklist

The Weekly – 2011 W52

The last linked list for this year! I have some exciting things coming up next year, but all in due time. It might or it might not have something to do with “Gamification”.

  • Gamification sucks
    Brent Simmons

    “Gamification” is a word and concept invented by idiocrats who confuse humane with manipulative.

  • Gamification is bullshit
    Ian Bogost

    This rhetorical power derives from the “-ification” rather than from the “game”. -ification involves simple, repeatable, proven techniques or devices: you can purify, beautify, falsify, terrify, and so forth. -ification is always easy and repeatable, and it’s usually bullshit. Just add points.

  • Pirate, colonist, slave
    N/A, The Economist

    ONE cold morning in 1591 an English sailor found himself shivering on Ilhabella, now an island of yacht clubs and well-appointed weekend houses that is to Brazil what Martha’s Vineyard is to America. He had been left for dead—again—the fourth or fifth time Fate had deserted him in his short career as a pirate.

  • The Dangerous Effects of Reading
    David Tate

    In our personal lives we tend to optimize for one of two things: input or output. Reading or writing. Consuming or creating. The environment we live in – the prevailing culture – by default is optimized for consumption.