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Comment by SCAQTony | Hacker News Reader

The Gamification of saving lives! fk yeah! - "I AM LEVEL 3, yesssssss." (3-lives saved)

I think this is importantly different. What's usually called gamification is when you create a ticker/counter/award and convince a person to pursue that as a goal even though it has no other real-world importance. This basically hi-jacks the natural good feeling people get when they accomplish an intermediate goal (on the way to an intrinsic goal). It's like the fact that I can make up a goal (flicking a folded piece of paper through a gap in a cubicle -- and arbitrary game) and it feels good to accomplish it.

On the other hand, the blood donation text message is connecting the person to the goal they already had: to help others. It makes the satisfaction of this pre-existing goal more salient and unambiguous. I think it's a lot like the theory behind clicker training for animals.

https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/virtual-pet-behaviorist/click...

> What's usually called gamification is when you create a ticker/counter/award and convince a person to pursue that as a goal even though it has no other real-world importance.

I'm not sure this is right - there are plenty of examples where gamification is being used for real-life tasks. Things like recycling, exercising, dieting, shopping, etc. Look at how many todo list apps give you points for completing tasks.

Fair enough. Then you can read my comment as "The term 'gamification' covers two very different concepts, one of which is very constructive...".

Also, there seems to be a big difference between (1) "you completed the errand of picking up the milk; you get 10 million super points and this e-Trophy" and (2) "here are the real-world implications of your actions".

And that's the right place to use it to get people involved. Better than "7 people like your comment", "John and Mary endorsed you", ...

This is really one of a few examples of "hooking" people for good. There is even a book "Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products" about it: http://www.amazon.com/Hooked-How-Build-Habit-Forming-Product...

Genius. Maybe go the same route with organ donation, let you brag about how many people you saved on the way out. "And Joan is survived by two loyal sons as well as two children who formerly had leukemia."

Many places already do that... counting the number of times a person has donated (not actually used) and giving them some status accordingly.

Except we now live in the Internet age...where nothing happens unless you can post it on Twitter or Facebook.

Speak for yourself.

Maybe they should post it on Twitter too - "@JoezyDeco just saved the life of a premature infant." (Graphic of a God Mode badge.) ;-)

That's exactly it. I'm proud when I go and donate and I get to show the staff at the end my card that says I've donated 47 times. I spoke with a Canadian Blood Service staff member once and she said that people compete all the time. You can donate plasma (or platelets) every 2 weeks, so people use that to pad their numbers.

Achievement: Bronze Blood Donor (10 donations)

Achievement: Super Hero (10 lives saved)

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