Foursquare is about getting points for grabbing dinner, not enjoying the food. Nike+ puts the emphasis on a leader board, not a leaner you. And now Badgeville wants to turn the entire internet into a game. This is really awful.Gameification is a stupid made up word that describes an even stupider trend. Its simple: instead of doing something for its own sake, youre tempted with arbitrary, worthless arcade-y rewards. I get a badge on Foursquare for going to a bar. A little cluster of pixels. Your friends see the badge. They gaze at my pixels. My brain releases a small dosage of some chemical that makes me glimmer on the inside—Ive been acknowledged! Ive accomplished something! Except all that Ive accomplished is going to a bar—something millions of people are doing constantly, and I would have done sans Foursquare. So why should I care?

via Stop Turning Everything into a Game.