If you are interested in viscerally understanding gamification, I suggest you install a free-to-play game with the sole intention of understanding how you are being manipulated. Pay attention to the slow cook, the social pressures, the dopamine hits, the sunk cost. I tried this (The Walking Dead: Survivors) and I learnt a lot.

Question to gamification engineers: do you play addictive “gamified” games, or does the internal knowledge of how the sausage is made ruin the joy?