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[Jackrabbit]

Fitocracy is a website designed around the concept of gamifying fitness. For those of you who don't have the time to watch the videos, essentially it's taken the concept of points and levelling up and the psychology behind that and applied it to a real life activity, in this case exercise, in order to engage people more about something a lot of people just aren't interested in due to the effort. No word if you can exercise with hookers, then kill them and get your money back in real life but I'm confident Jack Thompson is standing by if that is in fact the case, disbarment or no.

To give you a less rambling explanation, Fitocracy offers this:

• XP! For every activity you perform you will be awarded with XP, which leads directly to
• Levelling up! Yes, that's right, levelling up. There might not a light or noise when it happens and you may not be able to select perks or notice any immediate difference but one day you're going to saunter over to the fridge and rip the door off its damn hinges. You will not have meant to do this.
• Achievements! No, they don't mean anything here either. Which is why you MUST GET THEM ALL.

The point is, Fitocracy represents something big, the concept of applying video game techniques to the real world for positive benefit which could revolutionize the way we approach things in the future, though I'm probably just being dramatic.

Which all boils down to one thing, really. I don't have an invite, I want an invite, anyone got an invite? Send me an invite.

Oh also what do you think of the concept and what this means for future implementations of the concept yada yada send me an invite

[Sir Finkus]

Sounds a lot like Epic Win

[Darvi]

This is relevant.

[Jackrabbit]

Ah, that second one was the one I was really looking for but didn't find because I only put about ten seconds of google-effort into looking, thanks.

[Il Palazzo]

Oh also what do you think of the concept and what this means for future implementations of the concept yada yada

Regarding this bit, Jane McGonigal talked about this kind of "tapping the gaming spirit" on TED last year:
http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world.html

During her talk, she mentions two games she and her team developed, World Without Oil and Superstruct both of which appear to be closed by now. Still you can read everything about these projects on their respective homepages.

[BackgroundGuy]

Sounds interesting.  Is the intellectual extension of this textbooks written like game strategy guides, or textbooks like alchemy manuals?

[Flying Dice]

Sounds interesting.  Is the intellectual extension of this textbooks written like game strategy guides, or textbooks like alchemy manuals?

"The Lusty Argonian Maid: A Case Study of Interspecies Relationships and Emotional Psychology"

[SalmonGod]

The problem is, the benefits of this kind of work aren't immediately obvious, which causes people to lose interest.  People get addicted to character development in RPGs easier than to development of themselves in real life, because they can easily recognize their progress via constant up-ticking of numbers.  It's not really adding in a layer of fantasy so much as harnessing a powerful quirk of our psychological wiring.

I had a class about 4 years ago called "Creative Concepts" that basically focused on brainstorming technology, product development, and social engineering.  Every student got their own day to lead a discussion for the entire class and come up with a unique idea.  For mine, I mainly talked about restructuring educational systems to take advantage of this.

[woose1]

I don't understand; you can level up your CON and STR, but not INT or WIS. What the hell, Fitocracy?
EDIT: Oh, apparently there are certain trainers that you can use to boost your WIS. Still, sounds pretty lame.

[JoshuaFH]

I don't understand; you can level up your CON and STR, but not INT or WIS. What the hell, Fitocracy?
EDIT: Oh, apparently there are certain trainers that you can use to boost your WIS. Still, sounds pretty lame.

I just fought a man dressed as a goblin Fitocracy. How my experience points do I get?

[Jackrabbit]

"But polishing your spear will take all night!" says Lifts-Her-Tail.

Uhm. Erm.

Anyways, am I the only one who finds this disturbing? You don't work out for imaginary experience or levels, you work out to get healthier. That IS the XP and levels. At that point, I have to question what one actually hopes to gain from this structure or if we really need these layers of fantasy to motivate ourselves to work to our own well-being.

We don't need it, but it's a good motivator, which is the whole point. And yes, getting healthier is the XP and levels but they can safely assume that if you've worked to the point that you have this many points, you're probably healthier than you were before. They're not offering Fallout styles perks or whatever, they're offering a way of measuring your progress that is engaging and entertaining. I'm all for that.

[Zangi]

They should add in XP loss...  like for when you give into the urge and splurge on a gallon of ice cream.

[JoshuaFH]

They should add in XP loss...  like for when you give into the urge and splurge on a gallon of ice cream.

"You've been level drained by Ben and Jerry!"

[scriver]

Yes, apply the devs' concious manipulation of our brain's reward-system to make us addicted to their games to the real world. That'll never end badly.

[Sir Finkus]

Btw, this stuff works for me.  I use a program called Anki to study things.  The way it's set up it kind of feels like a game.  There are even plugins so you can have achievements.  It's rather addictive and effective for me.