[View the story "Playing For Keeps - The Gamification of al-Qaeda" on Storify ]Playing For Keeps - The Gamification of al-Qaeda Users lash out after counterterrorism experts claim the organisation has "gamified" various social media forums. Storified by The Stream · Wed, Oct 26 2011 21:59:43
Gamification started out as a corporate buzzword, meaning any attempt to ensure brand loyalty and engagement through applying gaming principles. It doesn't mean turning something into a game, but rather allowing users to gain status-based awards and reputation, earn meaningful badges, compete with others, use avatars, and trade in a virtual currency.foreignpolicy.com
Popular gaming website
The Escapist provides a detailed video explaining
gamification .
The Escapist : Video Galleries : Extra Credits : GamificationThis week, we talk about the ways game systems are starting to be applied to real life, and what this means for the future. Also, we are joined by our first guest artist!
But for a select few, the addiction to winning bleeds over into physical space to the point where those same incentives begin to shape the way they act in the real world. These individuals strive to live up to their virtual identities, in the way that teens have re-created the video game Grand Theft Auto in real life, carrying out robberies and murders.foreignpolicy.com
Foreign Policy ties the phenomenon to several Islamic-oriented websites, speculating that users may be inclined to put down the keyboard and pick up weapons.
Hard-line Islamist sites have been increasingly building in gamified elements to their forums. "Reputation points" are the most common of these. Users can now earn status for the messages they post and the quality of the messages as judged by other members. In many of the forums, members can only receive points after they have posted a certain number of messages, enticing users to post more messages more quickly.foreignpolicy.com
One Britain-based Islamic extremist website called Salafi Media measures a user's engagement level by a "fundamentalism metre." The more "radical" or "fundamental" a user becomes, the more power and legitimacy he holds in the forum.foreignpolicy.com
One man in particular has been able to take advantage of the incentives of online gamification to pursue real-life terrorist recruits: Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born al Qaeda cleric hiding in Yemen, famous for having helped encourage a number of Western-based would-be jihadists into action.foreignpolicy.com
Awlaki has used gamification to do what al Qaeda had been unable to do before him, at least in any systematic way: get Americans to compete with one another to put down their keyboards and pick up their weapons.foreignpolicy.com
Like virtually every other popular online social space, the social space of online jihadists has become "gamified," a term used to describe game-like attributes applied to non-game activities. It turns out that what drives online jihadists is pretty much exactly what drives Internet trolls, airline ticket consumers, and World of Warcraft players: competition.foreignpolicy.com
The article has sparked a large online reaction, with users debating the validity of the author's claim.
Blaming gamification for terrorism isn’t just a leap of logic, it ignores all the other factors behind radicalisation and jumps straight to the moral panic “human psychology affected by gaming” line (replete with a reference to GTAIV). Aside from the fact that this connection has been disproved by decades of study, attempting to link Islamic violence with gaming smacks of a convenient moral panic.kotaku.com.au
Gamification is just a technique used to engage people to the subject. Just because terrorist use a technique, it doesn’t make it badkotaku.com.au
Seems a bit of a stretch to make this bout gameification or game theory. Just seems like people with way to much time on their hands trying to seek approval from the similar minded faceless masses.kotaku.com.au
Blaming gamification as a whole for radicalisation ignores the real-world motivating mindset of potential jihadists and makes the mistake of painting gaming as a cause of, not a conduit for, extremist propaganda and teachings.kotaku.com.au
It’s claiming that yes, there has been violent crimes in the past in which video games are directly responsible (SPECIFICALLY teen violence), and that these Islamic extremists are seeking to utilise aspects of “gamification” in the same way that these supposed teens are effected by the Grand Theft Auto games.kotaku.com.au
Gamification is, like most buzz words, useful to an extent – but increasingly irritating when used out of context or, in this case, used to fuel a morbidly racist ‘investigation’ into how game mechanics are being used to ensnare Islamic terrorists in waiting. For the uninitiated, ‘gamification’ is the act of inserting game-like mechanics in non-game applications. Your Frequent Flyer points are an act of gamification – forum ‘rep’ points are another example.kotaku.com.au
My argument is simply that gamified environments are built strategically in order to enhance user experiences, which often helps to increase user engagement. When used for good, it can (per Jane McGonigal), save the planet. When used for hate (see the pro al-Qaeda websites), it can have the opposite effect. This isn’t meant to make you curl under your sheets and cry in terror – it’s just the reality of the pro- al-Qaeda boards. If you dont believe me, log on to a few and see.kotaku.com.au
Here is an example of beneficial gamification - an online game designed by Jane McGonigal to teach social entrepreneurship.
EVOKE trailer (a new online game)Evoke is your crash course in changing the world. The game begins March 3, 2010. Reserve YOUR spot in the game now -- visit urgentevoke.com CREDITS Creative Director - Jane McGonigal Executive Producer, World Bank Institute - Robert Hawkins Story Director/Producer - Kiyash Monsef Game Development - Natron Baxter Applied Gaming Graphic Novel Art - Jacob Glaser Graphic Novel Colors - Anthony Deicidue Motion Graphics - Nik Braatz Alchemy voice - Adam Behr "Through the Shadow and the Ligh...
