Why You Should Not Integrate Game Mechanics Into Your Service

As a game designer I get a little frustrated when people use the phrase "game mechanics" to very specifically mean giving our points, badges and achievements that are publicly displayed to a group of social connections online. Using this definition neither chess nor Super Mario have any "game mechanics".<p>I guess it is too late but I wish we had some other phrase for them. "social status notifications?"

I associate game mechanics with sites that are supposed to be more "fun". For example, I can totally groove with seeing Newgrounds using "experience points" in order to encourage participation, but if I see "Achievement Unlocked!" at the bottom of the timesheet app I use I risk punching the monitor.

There are some good points here - and this is coming from a founder of game mechanics platform (iactionable.com). Like any piece of a design, you can't just throw it in blindly, you have to approach it with a well thought out plan and goals. Some sites are a better fit for game mechanics than others. Even when it's a good fit if the system is designed poorly it can do more harm than good. It will be fun to see the ideas behind game mechanics mature over the next year or two.

One possibility is to give your service so that other applications, via your API, can provide game mechanics they believe would be relevant. Then Darwinian selections of which game mechanics work out. Ie. Focus on what your service and its core benefit(s)/reward are about and outsource to your ecosystem the game mechanics layers.