Ask HN: Resources for Adding Game-Like Elements

I'm starting work on a project where I'm going to need to incorporate some game-like elements to help users motivated to both interact with the application/community as well as motivate themselves.<p>I know this has been a popular topic over the last year or two, and a ton has been written, but I <i>have no idea what's good or bad</i> since I've never incorporated those sorts of elements into something I was working on.<p>I don't necessarily want thinks labeled as gamification, since that is pretty new and a lot of the techniques have been around much longer.<p>I'd really appreciate any links to articles, books, sites, HN threads, or software (esp. written in python!) that you think would be helpful.<p>To start things off, I've been looking at (but can't vouch for): - AskBot, a StackExchange clone ( https://github.com/ASKBOT/askbot-devel )<p>- Badgeville. seems like they know what they're doing, but I was a bit sketched out by having to give them contact info to find out more than superficial details. ( http://www.badgeville.com/ )<p>- https://wiki.mozilla.org/Badges/About -- This is interesting, although I may have privacy concerns which would keep me from integrating it.<p>- FourSquare -- I just signed up since I hadn't been using it, and it seems to be the poster child for making things into a game<p>Again, any help would be appreciated!