Gamification and the Internet: Experts Expect Game Layers to Expand in the Future, with Positive and Negative Results

Objective: This analysis of the opinions of 1,021 Internet stakeholders was aimed at gauging current opinions about the potential future of game mechanics online. Subjects and Methods: Nearly 5,000 people who are engaged in some way in Internet-related leadership or interests were invited to read a pair of opposing 2020 gamification scenarios and offer their written views on the likely future of gamification online by 2020. The result is not projectable to any population other than these respondents. Results and Conclusions: A slight majority of 53 percent agreed with a proposed scenario that game mechanics will become a part of everyday life for most Internet users by 2020; a great majority of respondents said game elements will play a vital role in specific realms such as health and education by then. Some respondents said people will be resistant if game layers are built into too many aspects of people's daily lives. Some shared concerns that game-design approaches can be used to manipulate people without their knowledge.