Miso, the mobile social TV outfit, and internet television network Revision3, have teamed up to use game dynamics as an avenue for tuning in, if not turning on. Now, when you use Miso to “check in” to a show on Revision3, you are playing a game.
“People who “check-in” to Revision3 shows can unlock special badges – they’re also giving away a prize every week for the next 10-weeks to a Miso fan who has earned one of the badges,” said Somrat Niyogi, CEO of Miso.
Miso also allows you to republish your check-ins to your Facebook and Twitter accounts.
beamME, the business networking app developers, have introduced beamME Live. Live unites input from location-aware sources, like Twitter, puts the whammy on them (via their proprietary algorithm they’ve called “Connection Genie”) and serves you up what they think will be the people most interesting to you in your environs. “Like Netflix’s ‘movies you’ll love’ but for people,” said beamME’s CEO, Gabe Zichermann.
Where do game dynamics come in?
“We are also using an implicit check-in model for beamME based on proximity rather than specific venue presence…We will shortly be adding Foursquare and Gowalla integration along with the option of updating status, and following or friending users across networks directly from within beamME (Twitter has already been built).”
The question regarding both these services, and others like them, is whether the activity of checking in itself constitutes game play. (Another question is whether they rob attention from the activity that a user is checking in for.)
Further, even with an occasional prize, will this mechanics make the difference if the user were not already interested in the simple peer communication they offer? The pay-off of game play comes in obstacle resolution, dynamics and scaling, not just bottlecaps. That is not to say they can’t be an element in a larger structure. I just doubt it will prove to be the magic bean.
