Game Changing

It's no easy thing to radically alter how people perceive the tasks that they do. But I recently came across a very basic, powerful example: a former colleague of mine, techie columnist Chris O’Brien, signed his kids up for an online game, Chore Wars, that turns their chores into a warriors-and-monsters role play. Chores are labeled as adventures that enable the kids to gather gold pieces and fight all sorts of nasties. Chris’ eight-year-old son Liam took on the persona of a bearded hunter named ElZorro Bernardo, who carries a sword and fights basilisks.

These days, when my son wakes up, he says, "Dad, I've got to do my "Chore Wars." He often wanders into the living room to fetch the laundry I folded the night before and then heads to the dishwasher to empty it. All without a nudge from me... When I notice [my kids] haven't done a chore, I'll open the full dishwasher, for example, and tell them, "Cool, looks like I get to claim 'Chore Wars' points for the dishwasher." They'll come running over and intercept me before I can start unloading.

In one sense, this isn’t surprising at all. Kids love games, so why shouldn’t a game get them motivated to do chores? In another sense, it’s amazing. (Seriously, it's amazing!) I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen my five-year-old nephew have a tantrum when he’s asked to clean up his toys. And any amount of threats or rewards (“you can’t have dessert until you clean up”) don’t seem to make a difference.

The Chore Wars example taps into one of the hotter trends in Silicon Valley: looking for ways to “gamify” people’s experiences – to build in game-like dynamics that encourage people to carry forward with certain behaviors or to complete journeys that they’ve set out on.

Here’s Chris again:

For instance, if you use the professional networking site LinkedIn, you’ve seen a progress bar that tells you how much of your profile you’ve filled out. The company found that simple tool induces people to continue adding information, thanks to our innate desire to complete a task. That additional information creates more connections for you, leading you to spend more time on the site.

I haven’t quite figured out what are the best game-like ways to move forward with personal or organizational change. But I have no doubt there are plenty of people out there trying to come up with good examples.