每天一篇经济学人 | The play's the thing 这出戏很棒（20

The mopei phone-swing device is ingeniously depressing. It is a cradle for smartphones that rocks back and forth when it is plugged in, and it is designed to cheat fitness apps into believing that you are on the move. If you have a step counter, this phone shaker can gull it into thinking you have taken 8,700 paces in an hour. “Ideal for those people who don’t have the time or energy to get your recommended steps in,” boasts the product blurb.

mopei手机摆动装置巧妙地令人压抑。它是智能手机的摇篮，插上电源后可以前后摇晃，它的设计目的是让健身应用误以为你在运动。如果你有一个计步器，这个摆动设置可以让它误以为你在一小时内走了8700步。该产品的宣传语吹嘘道，“对于那些没有时间和精力按照推荐的步骤去做的人来说，这是一个理想的选择” 。

Such cheating is pointless but not uncommon. Blog posts run through ways to trick a Fitbit into recording exercise, from strapping it to your children to swinging it on a piece of string. Strava is an app for runners and cyclists to record their times; becoming the fastest rider on a course segment is a lot easier if you use a motorbike. Players of Pokemon Go, a smartphone game, are supposed to walk a certain distance in order to hatch virtual eggs; taping your phone to a Roomba, an automated vacuum cleaner, is the couch potato’s alternative.

这种欺骗行为毫无意义，但并不罕见。博客文章遍布着介绍各种欺骗Fitbit运动记录的方法，从把它绑在你的孩子身上，到用一根绳子摇晃它。Strava是一款让跑步者和骑自行车者记录自己时间的应用; 如果你在途中某段使用摩托车，成为最快的骑手是很容易的。智能手机游戏《精灵宝可梦Go》的玩家需要走一定距离才能孵化虚拟蛋; 把你的手机贴在自动吸尘器Roomba上，是那些懒人的替代选择。

This behaviour is a predictable side-effect of a ubiquitous digital phenomenon: gamification. Adding game-like elements to non-game activities is part and parcel of app design. Streaks encourage users to log into products each day. Achievement points reward them for completing tasks. League tables add the spice of competition.

这种行为是无处不在的数字现象——游戏化——的一个可预见的副作用。在非游戏活动中添加游戏类元素是应用设计的重要组成部分。 计数器鼓励用户每天登录产品。成就点数奖励他们完成任务。排名表增加了竞争的趣味。

Such features are powerful, even if their effects often fade over time. Just as gamification can lead some people to cheat, it can help others stay motivated in pursuit of a goal they find difficult to stick to. When Duolingo, a language-learning app, went public in 2021, its prospectus was clear about the importance of game-like features in keeping its users engaged. Streaks, virtual currencies, leaderboards and a hectoring cartoon owl called Duo are all designed to encourage people to keep learning. On October 26th the firm launched a new mathematics app that relies on similar techniques.

这些功能是强大的，即使它们的效果往往会随着时间的推移而减弱。就像游戏化可能导致一些人作弊一样，它也可以帮助其他人保持动力去追求他们觉得难以坚持的目标。当语言学习应用“多邻国”在2021年上市时，其招股书明确指出了游戏类功能在保持用户粘性方面的重要性。计数器、虚拟货币、排行榜和名为Duo的“吓人”的卡通猫头鹰都是为了鼓励人们不断学习而设计的。10月26日，该公司发布了一款新的数学应用程序，它依赖于类似的技术。

But as “You’ve Been Played”, a thought-provoking new book by Adrian Hon, a game designer, makes clear, firms should be very careful about how they gamify experiences. Mr Hon argues against slapping the generic paraphernalia of rewards, points and badges onto activities without thinking hard about the context. Get gamification wrong, and you can annoy three types of stakeholder.

但正如游戏设计师阿德里安•霍恩发人深省的新书《You’ve Been Played》所指出的那样，公司应该非常谨慎对待游戏化体验。霍恩反对在没有认真考虑具体情况的情况下，就把奖励、积分和徽章等泛泛之物强加到活动上。如果游戏化出现问题，你可能会惹恼三种类型的利益相关者。

One is the customer. The obvious dangers—badgering people with endless notifications about streaks, say, or demotivating them by showing how low down a leaderboard they sit—are not the only ones. Gamification can work with the grain of a product, or against it. Apps that are designed to encourage people to save money can happily use gamified features like totalisers and money jars to track progress: the technique fits the product snugly. But some activities really don’t need added “fun”. One reading app offers to unlock animations if users hit certain reading landmarks; if you present reading as a chore, a kind of mental flossing, you are telling readers they have the cultural hinterland of a tapir.

一个是顾客。最明显的危险是，用没完没了的关于计数器的通知纠缠着人们，或者显示他们在排行榜上的排名有多低让他们失去动力，但这并不是唯一的危险。游戏化可以顺应产品的本质，也可以与之背道而驰。旨在鼓励人们省钱的应用程序可以愉快地使用游戏化功能，如累计器和存钱罐来跟踪进度: 这种技术非常适合产品。但有些活动真的不需要额外的“乐趣”。一款阅读应用程序可以在用户到达特定的阅读地标时解锁动画; 如果你把阅读描述成一种苦差事，一种净化心灵的过程，这就仿佛在告诉读者，阅读就像做噩梦一样让人难熬、痛苦。

The second stakeholder, and a new one to worry about, is the regulator. Gamification is meant to encourage people to do more of something. If that something is learning Japanese, great. If that something is eating lard, less great. Worries about how gamified financial-trading apps might lead investors to undertake more transactions than is good for them have prompted the Securities and Exchange Commission (sec), a markets regulator, to look at what it terms “digital engagement practices”. Firms are already changing their behaviour as scrutiny intensifies. Last year Robinhood, one of the apps now in the sec’s sights, felt compelled to get rid of a confetti animation which showed when a customer made their first trade.

第二个利益相关者，也是一个值得担心的新利益相关者，是监管机构。游戏化意味着鼓励人们做更多的事情。如果是学习日语，那太好了。如果那件事是吃猪油，那就不太好了。由于担心游戏化的金融交易应用可能会导致投资者进行过多的交易，而非对他们有益，市场监管机构美国证券交易委员会开始关注其所谓的“数字参与实践”。随着审查的加强，公司已经在改变他们的行为。去年，美国证交会盯上的应用程序之一Robinhood觉得有必要去掉一个显示客户进行第一笔交易时间的五彩纸屑动画。

The third group is employees. Turning repetitive work into video games is a technique that Amazon has reportedly used in its warehouses, by representing workers’ progress at picking and boxing items in a racing-car format. Firms that sell employee-engagement software offer the usual armoury of points, leaderboards and virtual currencies.

第三类是员工。据报道，亚马逊在其仓库中使用了一种将重复性工作转化为电子游戏的技术，该技术将工人在拾取和装箱物品时的进度以赛车的形式呈现出来。售卖员工敬业度软件的公司通常提供积分、排行榜和虚拟货币。

These ideas are likely to backfire. Forced rankings incentivise some people and stress others out. GitHub, an open-source coding platform, withdrew its streak feature after concerns were raised that it was prompting programmers to work every weekend. And as Mr Hon observes, games are a lot less enjoyable if you have no choice over whether to take part. Manufacturing fun can work, but only if it is taken seriously.

这些想法很可能适得其反。强制排名激励了一些人，也给了另一些人压力。开源编码平台GitHub取消了“计数器”功能，因为有人担心该功能会促使程序员每个周末都工作。正如霍恩先生所观察到的，如果你无法选择是否参与游戏，那么游戏的乐趣就会大大降低。制造乐趣是可行的，但前提是必须认真对待。