making a game of it

I'm listening to the latest Distributing the Future podcast (which is occasionally interesting, if somewhat wide-eyed and breathless about all the wonderful things that are happening in Web 2.0 land). This one is about games. Kind of. The first part, at least, is about engaging users in game-like activities when they're using otherwise boring, non-game applications. Like eBay. Or Google Maps.

It just got me thinking about how it applies to work stuff. It can't be that hard to turn defect tracking into a game...

The trouble I'm running into here is... Accumulating points and levels is great for something like Amazon or eBay, it sounds a lot like performance metrics when you're talking about software development. There's no consequence to having a bad score on eBay. At worst, you can just create a new account. Here, in a shitty enough environment, a bad score can get you fired. And suddenly, your fun game mechanic becomes a lot less fun.

Also, you don't want to have people fiddling around with their work item tracking tool all day. You want them to deal with them and move on.

Interesting idea, though.

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