![\"Foursquare](\"https:\/\/sidewaysthoughts.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Foursquare_life_picture1.jpg\" "\\"Foursquare")
<\/p>\nIt is usually the player who determines whether a game is boring.\u00a0 After five months of playing, I find it is Foursquare that makes such a judgement on the player’s life.\u00a0 I have also discovered how meaningless that judgement really is.<\/p>\n
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Foursquare launched in March 2009<\/a> and now reports over 500,000 businesses<\/a> and over 10 million users<\/a> globally.\u00a0 I felt like a laggard when I joined the purported masses with my first check in on 6 May 2011<\/a>.\u00a0 However, my digital insecurities are kept at bay knowing there were only around 150,000 Foursquare check-ins<\/a> in Australia in 2010.<\/p>\n Foursquare is part of what is described in some circles as \u201cgamification<\/a>\u201d.\u00a0 In simple terms, gamification involves taking an everyday activity and applying game-like aspects such as challenges, levels, rewards and competition.\u00a0 I will admit to not having much fun<\/a> with the word.<\/p>\n As a student of the social sciences<\/a>, I take offence at popular terms that take decades of goal setting and motivation research<\/a>, add a dash of usability, layer over repurposed technology, and package it up using new language.\u00a0 Like social media and dotcom before, I am confident that the reality of commercial outcomes will burn away the noise to get us back to basics of manipulating human behaviour<\/a>. \u00a0German PhD student Sebastian Deterding\u2019s Google presentation<\/a> gives a healthy perspective on the topic.<\/p>\n Sebastian identifies and expands upon three requirements to make a successful game.\u00a0 First, The game must have meaning<\/strong>, some alignment to the user\u2019s values.\u00a0 Second, the game needs to result in a feeling of mastery<\/strong>, with appropriate challenges and rewards.\u00a0 Third, the user needs to have some degree of autonomy<\/strong> in their playing of the game.\u00a0 Without the appropriate application of the three components, your game will fail.\u00a0 Such has been the outcome of my Foursquare experience.<\/p>\n I jumped into the Foursquare game with both feet.\u00a0 Within a few weeks, I had a few mayorships under my belt and a collection of badges to my name.\u00a0 Each engagement with the platform seemed to hold surprise points for actions such as checking in with a friend, checking in three times in a week, or being the first of my friends to check in to a place.<\/p>\n These rewards soon<\/strong> became<\/strong> not enough<\/strong>.\u00a0 Foursquare offers businesses the chance to offer discounts for people checking into their establishments, but few around me offered anything of relevance.\u00a0 Without discounts to feed my face, the points alone were insufficient to adequately sustain my ego.<\/p>\n My check-ins also exposed privacy issues<\/strong>. Sites like Please Rob Me<\/a> highlight the fact that when you check into one place in a location-based service, you are obviously not in another place such as, oh, say… your home.\u00a0 I know someone who picked up a violent stalker who made threats relating to the person\u2019s home address, clearly visible through Foursquare home check-ins.\u00a0 From a corporate sense, I have another friend in business who picked up an account when he saw a competitor checking into a target client and knew exactly how to counter their value proposition.<\/p>\n The validity of the data<\/strong> is also in question.\u00a0 One client mentioned having to erase inappropriate and publically visible check-ins at their facility from maturity-challenged users.\u00a0 My own inner 12-year old was tempted to create a location in my neighbour\u2019s bathroom just to produce a screen shot of a 2:00am post that stated \u201cChad checked into Jason\u2019s bathroom<\/em>\u201d.\u00a0 My inner 39-year old decided it was kind of creepy and not worth the effort.<\/p>\n Finally, the game can be gamed<\/strong>.\u00a0 Clever developers tell me there are ways to check in anyone to anywhere through some programming hackery.\u00a0 Code-foolery aside, even regular people can game the system by checking into places they wander by, becoming mayor of the local pizza shop by checking in at the stop lights on the way home.<\/p>\n These issues alone are enough to dissuade the average punter here<\/a> and here<\/a>.\u00a0 Yes, the game of Foursquare lost meaning<\/strong> for me as I swapped mayorships at my local petrol station.\u00a0 I am persistent, however, and have played many games less engaging.\u00a0 Privacy<\/strong> is a concern on both a corporate and personal level, but there is protection available<\/a>.<\/p>\n I also can\u2019t really complain about people gaming the system<\/strong>, as I found there were not enough people using Foursquare to have a real competition. I did nearly succumb to cheating in order to get the badge for holding 10 mayorships at the same time.\u00a0 In the end, it was not worth the risk of permanent scars to my integrity.<\/p>\n No, the main reason why Foursquare is losing appeal is because it highlights just how uneventful my life really is.\u00a0 Within a few weeks, I was the mayor of my starting and stopping train stations, two local petrol stations, my bank branch, and a fast food joint.\u00a0 Foursquare encourages you to explore your area, but being the first of my friends to check into my lawnmower repair shop didn\u2019t have the appeal I thought it would.<\/p>\n While I pride myself on consistency, my achievements seemed to pale in comparison to my Foursquare friends who regularly checked into wine tasting exhibitions, far away bridges, and clever little cafes. Foursquare exposed my mundane routine of long work hours and weekends spent studying.\u00a0 My Foursquare iPhone application quickly turned into a mocking reminder of everything I was not doing.<\/p>\n I have come to realise Foursquare is a game that does not measure what matters to me.\u00a0 I do not need an app to check-in drinking my first tea with my wife<\/a> in the post-flood<\/a> house she built<\/a>.\u00a0 There is no badge for an afternoon watching 90’s cartoons<\/a> with my kid.\u00a0 Being mayor of my work is irrelevant to the real heroes in my studio that each deserve more than some virtual badge.<\/p>\n For my holiday starting next week, I am embracing my routine and letting my Foursquare accomplishments slip.\u00a0 I might draw, watch a few movies, read, have coffee with friends, and dream about the future.\u00a0 For something different, I may even see my family during daylight hours.<\/p>\n I respect that Foursquare would deem these things unworthy of reward.\u00a0 As I check out of Foursquare, I am looking forward to checking in with those things that have real meaning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bored mayors with privacy concerns<\/h2>\n
Exposing my boring life<\/h2>\n
Measuring meaning<\/h2>\n