It seems that this whole behaviour manipulating gaming thing is very much in vogue (see also several posts from earlier this year (why not try my tag cloud? ;-)); TED published another talk on the topic from the Oxford TED conference earlier this year.
Although there was not much new material in the talk, Tom Chatfield certainly made a convincing case for the creativity of gamers. I particularly liked an anecdote about how a MMPORG required gamers to join forces in large numbers to defeat an evil dragon, but only rewarded a couple of the players. The result? A website set up by players to exchange an entirely invented currency ("dragon kill points") for items they wanted in the game.
If we can apply the same kind of motivation (or "engagement" as Chatfield calls it) to learning or enterprise "games" we can change the way we do business, whilst making it more fun in the process. Sounds to me like something worth exploring (think how performance reviews might work in a gaming context - check out the New Zealand company, sonar6 for a taste of where this is going!).
The talk can be found here;
Tom Chatfield: 7 ways games reward the brain | Video on TED.com.
