I once wrote on the gamification of writing. Consider Substack, where writers hope people read their work, though the most active writers are vocal. Exclusive readers aren't. So writers preach more to other writers, converting the writing experience into one that also needs extensive marketing.
Getting your intentions right for writing is important, just as you have done with reading, to gauge if one continues playing the game, or create a different alternative.
I've thought a lot about my values for writing and how to uphold them while writing on a platform like this where there's so much data on views, subscribers, followers etc. I hadn't thought about the idea that writers are more vocal though that certainly seems true.
Nice post, and congratulations on the Intrinsic Perspective link. I relate to it even though I haven't hit my Goodreads reading goal in years and have successfully stopped caring about it. For me it's that I find it increasingly difficult to do any open-ended project without quantizing it into a to-do list I can check off.
For me, my problem with Goodreads and gamification-adjacent anxiety was the entire social aspect itself. I committed years ago to always writing down my thoughts on books (and always right after finishing) because I found myself otherwise forgetting them immediately. This started out with fairly brief reviews where I stated the points I thought were interesting and my overall impression. After a few likes from strangers and requests from authors to review their ARCs, I started writing excessively comprehensive reviews that encompass everything I've identified in the book and all of my thoughts on them. Now I feel anxious about finishing books (I have literally dozens of started, unfinished books in my home) and "needing" to then write a long review.
I'm slowly getting over this by writing my notes as I go, and in notebooks or local files where no one else can see. I know I have the option to post them later but then I don't feel the need.
Thanks! I didn't write about it here but I also had a similar problem with writing reviews that I started as a way to better remember books I read then feeling less motivated to finish them because of the pressure of reviewing (plus I had a problem with not wanting to publicly review guilty pleasures books that I know are "bad" but enjoy anyway).
I've had some pretty amusing private conversations with friends who noticed my guilty pleasure reviews (which include both positive reviews of "bad" books and negative reviews of "good" books). My favorite was when I started a review with, "reading this was torture" and a friend DM'd me a screenshot of this in his feed with the comment, "2 stars??" So I don't feel much anxiety about that anymore.
I probably should've embraced it. The contrast in reading dense theory and YA sci-fi or steamy romance of whatever is funny and can lead to interesting conversations.
Interesting post, thanks for the prompt to think about this! I am, ironically enough, reading a novel about video games (Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow) right now which seems very pro-game — and it will be interesting to read the rest of it in light of the perils of gamification.
Check out Actionable Gamification by Chun-Kai You for positive values of gamification (which he calls White Hat values)
I like your solution.
I once wrote on the gamification of writing. Consider Substack, where writers hope people read their work, though the most active writers are vocal. Exclusive readers aren't. So writers preach more to other writers, converting the writing experience into one that also needs extensive marketing.
Getting your intentions right for writing is important, just as you have done with reading, to gauge if one continues playing the game, or create a different alternative.
I've thought a lot about my values for writing and how to uphold them while writing on a platform like this where there's so much data on views, subscribers, followers etc. I hadn't thought about the idea that writers are more vocal though that certainly seems true.
Nice post, and congratulations on the Intrinsic Perspective link. I relate to it even though I haven't hit my Goodreads reading goal in years and have successfully stopped caring about it. For me it's that I find it increasingly difficult to do any open-ended project without quantizing it into a to-do list I can check off.
For me, my problem with Goodreads and gamification-adjacent anxiety was the entire social aspect itself. I committed years ago to always writing down my thoughts on books (and always right after finishing) because I found myself otherwise forgetting them immediately. This started out with fairly brief reviews where I stated the points I thought were interesting and my overall impression. After a few likes from strangers and requests from authors to review their ARCs, I started writing excessively comprehensive reviews that encompass everything I've identified in the book and all of my thoughts on them. Now I feel anxious about finishing books (I have literally dozens of started, unfinished books in my home) and "needing" to then write a long review.
I'm slowly getting over this by writing my notes as I go, and in notebooks or local files where no one else can see. I know I have the option to post them later but then I don't feel the need.
Thanks! I didn't write about it here but I also had a similar problem with writing reviews that I started as a way to better remember books I read then feeling less motivated to finish them because of the pressure of reviewing (plus I had a problem with not wanting to publicly review guilty pleasures books that I know are "bad" but enjoy anyway).
I've had some pretty amusing private conversations with friends who noticed my guilty pleasure reviews (which include both positive reviews of "bad" books and negative reviews of "good" books). My favorite was when I started a review with, "reading this was torture" and a friend DM'd me a screenshot of this in his feed with the comment, "2 stars??" So I don't feel much anxiety about that anymore.
I probably should've embraced it. The contrast in reading dense theory and YA sci-fi or steamy romance of whatever is funny and can lead to interesting conversations.
Interesting post, thanks for the prompt to think about this! I am, ironically enough, reading a novel about video games (Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow) right now which seems very pro-game — and it will be interesting to read the rest of it in light of the perils of gamification.
I've heard that book is good. I've wanted to check it out sometime.
tl;dr you get goodhart'ed