@Revenant_Evil It may not be new about a game, though I think it is important news for gamers to see. It is our culture and traits of our culture (XP/ranking systems) being used for purposes that have nothing to do with our culture as gamers (real world conflict). That concept is dangerous because non-real world conflict (be it in the form of COD, Halo or even crazier stuff like Final Fantasy) is a HUGE part of gamer culture. The danger lies in people trying to blur the lines between the two. I am a soldier, but also a gamer... and the two are independent of each other in a VERY profound way. If the younger generation isn't properly informed about stuff like this, they run the risk of starting to look at everything as if it's a game. Therefore I think gamespot publishing this article was a responsible thing to do in order to shed some light on WHY gamification is ethically problematic.
@kakashi552 "Gamification" is sort of a new term with a fairly fluid definition right now - but the wikipedia listing (which is crowd sourced as you likely know) defines it as "the use of game mechanics and game design techniques in non-game contexts" - The spokesperson can say whatever they want, but awarding people XP and ranks for spreading awareness of a cause is DEFINITELY gamification. I'm not taking a stance on the issue itself (here), but one thing I CAN say for sure is that people should spread awareness about a cause/war effort/military campaign because they believe in it, not because they want to get to level 5. This reads to me like a ploy to get kids with short attention spans to start tweeting about an issue that they likely have a very thin knowledge base of.
@Revenant_Evil Dude, I think that the point of the article was to make people aware that stuff like this is going on and allow them to form their own opinions on it. The article doesn't take an editorial standpoint, and if anything, points out the iffy ethical territory of awarding people "points" and "ranks" for supporting a war effort. I'm a medic in the canadian army. I'm proud of my job and what I do... but I would never support the idea of my government putting such a system in place in my country. The idea of "gamification" distracts people from how serious international conflict is and I commend gamespot for respecting the maturity level of their readers by publishing an article like this.
I think they should've just owned it from the get go. Having it be something that needed to be unearthed by codes/hacks and "discovered" just made people freak out about it more when it was found. Not long after, God of War had a sex minigame at the beginning of level 2! And has anyone played Heavy Rain? The sex scene in that is full on! Modern hollywood movies don't show as much as Heavy Rain did!
@poopinpat @cynicalundead I agree with there being people who are not satisfied with smartphone gaming for their portable needs; I own a Vita and a 3DSXL and I'm happy with both- particularly when I'm on a military course and setting up an Xbox in the barracks just isn't practical- but the market at large, prefers to get their portable gaming served in a more casual fashion; and if those kids don't have smart phones (and depending on your definition of "kid" I assure you, most of them DO in this day and age) their parents are more likely to get them an ipod touch than a 3DS/Vita ; as they are more practical devices with FAR cheaper games. The kids who want portable systems, are gamers today- not like the DS generation where they were just kids that needed a time-killer for a flight/road trip.
@poopinpat @cynicalundead Also, your DS example is VERY dated due to the fact that during the DS' era, smart phones, tablets, android and iOS did not exist the way they do today.
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