Terra
17th December 2015, 07:49
Propaganda Games: Sesame Credit - The True Danger of Gamification - Extra Credits
China has gamified being an obedient citizen with the creation of Sesame Credit. The game links to your social network and gives you a score for doing things that the government approves of, but it also reduces that score for doing things the government disapproves of. Even your friends' scores affect your own, and being friends with people who have a low score will drag your score down as well. This insidious system applies social pressure on people to ostracize their friends with lower scores, either forcing those friends to change their ways or effectively quarantining their rebellious ideas. While many sci-fi visions of a dystopian future have centered around a bleak government that controls through fear, Sesame Credit shows us that a government can use gamification and positive reinforcement to be just as controlling. And it's real. While currently the system is opt-in, the government plans to make it mandatory in 2020. Once mandatory, it may give rewards for good scores or penalties for bad ones. And in the meantime, making it opt-in has already set the tone for the game: people participate willingly, so they find it fun, and they set a very high standard for what the "average" score should be. Already people have begun sharing their scores on social media.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHcTKWiZ8sI
lHcTKWiZ8sI
More info from the BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-34592186
Gamifying civil obedience is just the beginning. What if you were to bring the welfare system and a cashless society into the equation, or perhaps your browsing history?
The Chinese authorities are watching the pilot process very carefully. The government system won't be exactly the same as the private systems, but government officials are certainly taking cues from the algorithms developed under the private projects.
As a sidenote..
They Live! Notice the subtle photo selection for this article by the beeb? You don't even need magic glasses to read this!
http://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/F779/production/_86335336_gettyimages-460081228.jpg
China has gamified being an obedient citizen with the creation of Sesame Credit. The game links to your social network and gives you a score for doing things that the government approves of, but it also reduces that score for doing things the government disapproves of. Even your friends' scores affect your own, and being friends with people who have a low score will drag your score down as well. This insidious system applies social pressure on people to ostracize their friends with lower scores, either forcing those friends to change their ways or effectively quarantining their rebellious ideas. While many sci-fi visions of a dystopian future have centered around a bleak government that controls through fear, Sesame Credit shows us that a government can use gamification and positive reinforcement to be just as controlling. And it's real. While currently the system is opt-in, the government plans to make it mandatory in 2020. Once mandatory, it may give rewards for good scores or penalties for bad ones. And in the meantime, making it opt-in has already set the tone for the game: people participate willingly, so they find it fun, and they set a very high standard for what the "average" score should be. Already people have begun sharing their scores on social media.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHcTKWiZ8sI
lHcTKWiZ8sI
More info from the BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-34592186
Gamifying civil obedience is just the beginning. What if you were to bring the welfare system and a cashless society into the equation, or perhaps your browsing history?
The Chinese authorities are watching the pilot process very carefully. The government system won't be exactly the same as the private systems, but government officials are certainly taking cues from the algorithms developed under the private projects.
As a sidenote..
They Live! Notice the subtle photo selection for this article by the beeb? You don't even need magic glasses to read this!
http://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/F779/production/_86335336_gettyimages-460081228.jpg