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Re:Soviet gamification by mjn on Saturday March 02, 2013 @08:28PM (#5312055)
(I'm the author.) What makes you think I'm not aware of those? The essay is in effect an attempt to express skepticism about gamification by pointing out that it looks awfully similar to something that was tried in the '20s/'30s in the USSR. Admittedly I make that point more clearly in the expanded paper version of the essay (linked at the bottom), where I discuss the descent of the '20s / early '30s gamification experiments into late-'30s Stakhanovism.

I think there is overall (including today) some pretty strong internal difficulty when claiming to "gamify" work but still retaining the context of a hierarchically controlled workplace where work is mandatory, with penalties tied to the "game". Then it devolves into just another method of workplace accounting & control.

Re:Soviet gamification by omonra on Saturday March 02, 2013 @08:51PM (#5312109)
Ok - apologies, I must have misread it.

It's just to me - discussing Soviet attempts at gamification without mentioning things like the law I described or placement of peasants back into serfdom (after they had been granted freedom 60 years earlier) is akin to discussing whether Nazi train schedules were effective.

Re:Soviet gamification by derefr on Sunday March 03, 2013 @03:47AM (#5313023)
> discussing whether Nazi train schedules were effective

Honestly, that sounds like a great HN article.