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Do You Really Wish to Continue?

Posted on December 22nd, 2009

Gizmodo tells the tale of Kristin, a 24-year-old stay-at-home mom who, well, obsesses over her XBox Live Gamerscore (which she racks up through in-game achievements). However, despite her obvious passion for points (by some accounts she’s the fourth-ranked female Xbox gamer in the world), by her own admission she doesn’t even enjoy the gaming. This Baxter is mortified.

“Once I found sites that had guides on which were the easy games, I beat (20,000) in like a month and a half,” she says. “It got me hooked and it was like a drug. A bad drug. A bad habit … I definitely play more games I don’t enjoy than games I do … Like, maybe 65 percent of the games I play I don’t enjoy.”

That, friends, doesn’t sound like play to us at all.

One Comment

  1. Natron Baxter says:
    December 22, 2009 at 10:34 am

    …But clearly it speaks to the power of point systems and leader boards that span multiple games. So imagine a point system that spans multiple work activities over an extended period of time.

    And of course we’ll do our best to make it pleasant, if not fun. :)

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