I've been thinking for a while that the next phase of my career might be as a "gamification expert". I enjoy Foursquare, Gowalla, etc. and have a reasonable amount of interest in game theory, game design and mechanics, and psychology. But whenever I even type "gamification" I cringe. Can it really be a good thing for so many companies? Does it matter as long as they'll spend money on it?

I love this quote from Chris Dixon: "The next big thing will start out looking like a toy". That's certainly the prevailing attitude about "gamification". http://cdixon.org/2011/09/28/some-lessons-learned/