In all honesty "gamification" has been used for decades. It goes under different names like "bonus plan" or "rewards system". Companies use this all the time. The proper incentive will motivate people. But the trick is that everyone is different and different rewards will motivate different people. We intend to have a form of this within the community. I've talked many times about a points system that will reward contributions. Having points is one thing. Having something to spend them on is another.
One of the options I'm thinking will be to spend your points "voting" on the direction of the platform. e.g. If you really really want that cool new graphic special effect in the engine then contribute to the community in some manner. Obtain points. And spend them "voting" for that new feature to drive it to the top of the list. At regular intervals the developers would take a snapshot of the current voting ranks and make that the priorities. e.g. every 3 months or something. Or the other options is to wait for a critical threshold of voted points on a feature. Once it reaches 1000 points or something then it gets approved and entered into the development list. The problem without this type of system is that every request that people make gets thrown into the pot and eventually nothing gets done.
We have the user points system installed on our new Joomla platform. Its a matter of finishing the configuration and testing it. Especially determining the value of contributions and what points are worth, e.g. how much does it cost to use the points for certain things.
Thanks,
Shane C Fischer
"CobaltBlues"
"SirMaxwell"
"scfischer7"