Yes, “winning” matters, but it’s winning at hard things - intrinsic motivation - that really matters. People aren’t stupid. Pasting scoring on trivial activities doesn’t make them less trivial. As Rilke said in his poem The Man Watching, “What we fight with is so small, and when we win, it makes us small.” We want to be challenged by vast, hard things.
Any company thinking about gamification should think hard. Jumping in the shallow end of the pool is a great way to break your neck. The right place to jump is in the deep end.
