Urgent Evoke

A crash course in changing the world.

RE: Sparks Lost; Evoke Burnout Disappointing but not Unexpected

For context see Stephano's post on agents loosing their spark and Wintermute's take regarding the panamerica event.

Like many evoke players, I came to the game inspired after seeing Jane McGonigal's Ted Talk (also embedded below). One of the most memorable lines is how she thought that by assigning a points based feedback system would could provide an immediate sense of gratification while simultaneously solving the world's problems:



So Evoke exists to act as a catalyst for those who want to a better future to find each other while providing point incentives as encouragement. The problem is that the small victories of writing a well received blog post or earning points for an idea pales in comparison with the challenges we're meant to be solving. Writing a blog post does not make one more secure. Even the token accomplishments undertaken in the name of the 'ACT' missions, do little to quell unease when the evening news comes on. To many here it feels like attacking a building fire with squirt guns - sure, it sounds exciting, empowering, maybe even fun in the beginning but in the end the building is still burned out (pun intended).

I'm reminded of a recent article from Fast Company regarding non-profit fatigue. In talking about the volunteer model the author states:

"The biz model destines us for burnout. We take people with big hearts and crush their souls; you sign on to help cure cancer and then leave
because you're just shilling rubber bracelets. You want universal
literacy, but the only way to move toward it is a big chicken dinner at a
fancy hotel."

People signed on to change the world. What they get is mad sprint to friend people, confusion as to just how they're helping as they accrue points, and finally guilt when they can no longer justify time away from their real life to do more homework.

It's probably too late to retool the Evoke experiment in world changing with game incentives. But if you could change an aspect of how this platform is administered what would it be?

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