That's the problem. He's right about the industry that's there to sell seminars and symposiums on the topic, but that's been around for ages, and doesn't apply just to gamification. What's more, he CALLS it gamification, when it is just something that latched onto it. Gamification is no more what he's writing about…

I agree. When someone makes an assertion, it should be as part of a proper argument - you know, with PROOF, or at the very least, some reasonable supporting rhetoric. This is especially necessary when using a provocative and confrontational title. Instead, we're just getting screeds without substance lately.

I think in many cases, like with the iOS app "Epic Win," people may already know that the act is positive, but through adding feedback and progress metrics to it, they may find motivation to see it through.

Except that gamification can be done for free. All this shows is that greedy scammers are jumping on it as an opportunity to capitalize. That doesn't make the thing itself bad - it just means that among those who make use of it, there are also those who would do so to turn a quick buck.

He very briefly touches on ways that gamification is not a game itself, but mostly he just throws around emotionally charged language without even touching on what gamification even means. I'd say that's failing to make his point because he's calling something bullshit without even defining it or demonstrating an…

That is pretty fascinating indeed. Railing against something with near-religious fervor and disgust, while at the same time, engaging in a form of the very practice whose name he's trying to villainize... (though not even discussing the concept in an article about it.)

Extra Credits is great. Those talks show how it can be used for good purposes, as opposed to this article, which just argues against capitalizing on training programs to explain it to people.

Ian, you are so being flip, glib, and provocative, or you wouldn't have chosen that headline. I've seen you rail against "gamification" before, but I still haven't seen a reasonable case made against it.

If they can't get over the control scheme, that's fair. This goes a bit beyond that though - it's a manifesto against the platform, written by someone who never allowed themselves to have fun with it, predicting its total failure in 5 years, and saying "I'm a gamer. I play real games. On real systems."

Damn sinkholes!

Yes! Here's a clip I shot at Video Games Live this year. It was awesome.

Hey now... that's a little unfair. You can also climb bushy moss! (and protruding ledges!)

It looks like a lot of people have asked for such a feature, so I wouldn't count on it. I know you can change where on the screen they show up, and maybe you can disable all notifications, trophy and otherwise?

A lot of people complain about the framerate, but I found that given the way it plays, that wasn't a big issue for me. I just played through the whole thing in anticipation of the HD version and two issues stood out the most:

Gamers who dismiss whole platforms are not more "real gamers," they are less so. They define themselves by the games they don't play. Anti-gamers if you will.

That's actually very true. On the other side of it, on a site like this you often have to pick the words which fit the meaning the best so people don't spin it another way and misinterpret it. Still, if you're not writing it for your intended audience, who are you writing it for? Good point.

I never even implied he was specifically calling me stupid - more like he assumed anyone who plays it with default settings has the same hangups he did, to a comically inept degree. For the sophistry, I notice these things because I choose my words carefully most of the time, and especially in business communication,…

dbzispimpin: "He wasn't talking about the HUD being a design flaw or the HUD being a nuisance, he simply wanted to share his pleasant discovery with us when he decided to turn off the HUD and all the immersion things he found along with the experience."

Haha, yes, and if you just drive a proper racing line and give gas and brakes at the right time, you'll beat all the courses in Gran Turismo. ;)

Nope... I've seen so many anime girls they're like wallpaper now. I got it for the mature subjects in the plot, and for the gameplay that reminds me of Intelligent Qube. I'm enjoying it too, but we'll see how it goes if I can get past the early enemy that just breaks your directional controls... that strikes me as a…