I’m having a lot of fun with Duolingo right now. They definitely gamified the process of learning words (if not conversation, but I have a Spanish speaking friend who is cheering me on), I keep gaining experience and I have no idea what the point of the exp is but it has leaderboards and everything.

It’s also smart about putting you in “bronze tier” leaderboards then slowly upgrading you if you’re more into it, so you’re competing with your peers.

RuneScape teaches (or taught?) a lot

May sound stupid, but I credit playing it since 2003 while in preschool (stopped around 2007, bounced back/forth a bit from 2007-2010ish) with leading me down the life path that ended up getting me a full ride scholarship in engineering.

Also the life path that ended up getting me a completely busted neck & shoulders.

It taught many people programming, as they found many things about the game tedious & wanted to automate with bots.

If you search “RuneScape” in the HN search bar, you’ll find many anecdotes of HN users getting into programming after writing bots/scripts while they played RuneScape as a young kid/teen.

I think that falls into the “tricked into learning” category.

Minecraft has done the same for many a bit younger than I am from what I’ve heard. Roblox as well.