評論
打印
Is your job a game? Should it be?
干工作就像是玩游戲？應該是這樣嗎？
Imagine if at the office you were made to feel like you were playing 'Candy Crush Saga.' Envision that every one of your professional endeavors was meticulously tracked and measured in points, that there were levels to complete and you were given prizes for excellence. That every workplace action provided a tangible sensation of winning or losing as part of a system engineered to keep you addicted, thrilled to come back every morning.
想象一下，你在辦公室干活時就像是在玩《糖果粉碎傳奇》(Candy Crush Saga)，你的每一項專業努力都會被嚴謹地追蹤，并給出分數，每打一關，都會因為表現卓越獲得獎品。公司的所有行動都讓人有實實在在的輸贏之感，而這正是旨在讓你上癮、激發你每天早上回來上班的系統的一部分。
If your job worked like that, would you become a better employee? Or would you feel just the opposite-crushed by metrics, constantly watched over, infantilized by your boss's attempt to turn you into an automaton?
如果有一份這樣的工作，你會變成更上進的員工嗎？還是恰恰相反──被標準化的要求摧殘，時時刻刻受到監督，因老板想把你變成自動工具而被當成幼兒對待？
I'm asking you as if your opinion here matters. In fact, it does not. All evidence suggests that your work one day will operate like a videogame to be conquered, rather than a craft to be perfected.
我這樣問你，好像你的看法很重要似的，但實際上并不重要。所有證據表明，有一天你的工作會像一個需要通關的視頻游戲，而不是一件有待完善的工藝品。
The high-level name for this trend is 'gamification,' an ugly neologism that has seen terrific hype and terrific backlash in Silicon Valley over the past few years. The term refers to transferring the features that motivate players in videogames-achievement levels, say, or a constantly running score-into nongame settings. Gamification systems are possible because much of what we do in the workplace is conducted through software that can track our productivity, constantly measure our value and apply incentives that prod us to do better.
這種趨勢的專業名詞是“游戲化”，這個晦澀的新詞過去幾年在硅谷被大炒特炒，同時也受到強烈抵制。它指的是把視頻游戲中激勵玩家的那些指標（如過關水平或累計得分）拿到游戲外。實現工作體系的游戲化之所以可能，是因為我們在公司做的許多工作都是通過軟件完成的，這些軟件可追蹤我們的干活效率，頻繁衡量我們的價值，并采取激勵機制來敦促我們更上一層樓。
At the moment, the stats on gamification's effectiveness are murky. There are several startups pushing the idea, and they could offer me only the barest evidence that gamelike systems might significantly improve how people work. But some gamification companies have grown rapidly, especially in systems for workers in sales and customer service.
有關“游戲化”有效性的數據目前還不明朗。現在有幾家力推這個概念的初創企業，而它們幾乎拿不出能證明那些系統可顯著改善人們工作方式的證據。但一些致力于搞游戲化系統的公司發展迅速，特別是在研發針對銷售人員和客戶服務的系統方面。
Their nascent success should be a warning to us all: If you work in the information business; if you sell, market, create, track or are involved in any other endeavor that can be quantified, gamification is coming for you.
它們這種嶄露頭角的成功應該是對所有人的一個提醒：如果你在信息行業內工作，或者從事銷售、市場營銷、發明創造、追蹤或其它任何可被量化的工作，你就會面臨工作的“游戲化”。
I, for one, am dreading it.
我個人對此是誠惶誠恐。
It's no surprise that salespeople will be the first guinea pigs.
毫不奇怪，銷售人員將是第一批接受試驗的“小白鼠”。
'Sales guys tend to be competitive by nature,' says Steve Sims, the vice president of solutions and design at the gamification-software company Badgeville. People in sales are used to thinking of their trade as a game. It's not unusual for them to compete for monthly incentives and to see their performance ranked on a company leaderboard.
“游戲化”軟件研發公司Badgeville負責解決方案和設計的副總裁西姆斯(Steve Sims)說，銷售人員一般有好勝的天性。從事銷售的人習慣于把自己的工作看作是玩游戲，他們為月獎爭得頭破血流，看到自己的業績登上公司排行榜，這不是什么稀罕事。
Badgeville's software, which plugs into sales-management systems such as Salesforce.com's, simply adds sophistication to the old sales-rank whiteboard in the break room.
Badgeville的軟件可被植入一些銷售管理系統（比如Salesforce.com的系統），但不過是讓休息室里以前那塊銷售排行榜的黑板顯得更先進了而已。
Here's one scenario Sims describes. 'Sometimes sales guys tend to not care about the details, they just want to close the deal and get the money,' he says. Managers, meanwhile, might want salespeople to do more: accurately enter their clients' information into a sales tracker, assess the quality of sales leads or track how often they are going to sales meetings. Badgeville's software can give points to salespeople who add in that information, turning what would otherwise be an annoying part of their jobs into a point of competition.
以下是西姆斯描繪的一種情形。他說：有時候銷售人員可能不在乎細節，他們只想達成交易，拿到錢。與此同時，管理者可能希望銷售人員做更多的事：在銷售跟蹤系統中準確地輸入客戶的信息，評價銷售領先產品的質量，或追蹤其參加銷售會議的頻率。Badgeville的軟件能向輸入這類信息的銷售人員獎勵分數，將這項原本令人討厭的工作內容變成一個競爭的熱點。
Getting people to do things they don't really want to do turns out to be a key mission of workplace gamification. Last fall, American Express Co.'s business-travel booking office teamed up with Badgeville on software that gives employees incentives like points and virtual goods when they abide by managers' travel preferences. Badgeville says that in one test deployment, among employees of software company Citrix Systems, the system yielded positive results, if just slightly. In the first month of using the service, Citrix experienced a 4% increase in employee bookings with preferred airlines and a similar shift to bookings made further in advance.
讓人們去做他們不想做的事，事實證明這是職場游戲化的一項重要任務。去年秋天，美國運通(American Express Co.)的商務旅行預訂辦公室與Badgeville就一款軟件進行合作，當員工選擇管理者傾向的旅行方案時，這款軟件會向員工獎勵分數和虛擬商品等。Badgeville說，在對軟件公司思杰系統公司(Citrix Systems)員工進行的一項測試中，該系統取得了積極結果。在使用該服務的第一個月，思杰員工預訂公司首選航空公司的人次就增加了4%，提前預訂的情況也出現了類似改觀。
There are lots of similar scenarios where such systems might subtly influence the choices that employees make. Gamelike techniques are being used to push employees to live healthier lifestyles (your company might give you a wearable health tracker that awards badges for your weekend activity), collaborate with their co-workers (get badges for engaging with the office-based social network) and improve interpersonal skills (customers and co-workers might award you points for smiles).
有很多類似的情形，這類系統可能會微妙地影響員工做出的選擇。游戲式技術被用于推動員工擁有一種更加健康的生活方式（你的公司可能給你一個可穿戴健康跟蹤器，會因你周末的活動而獎勵你徽章），與同事進行合作（參與基于辦公室的社交網絡也可獲得徽章），以及提升人際交往能力（客戶和同事可能因為你的微笑而獎勵你分數）。
Many of these sound benign. But what we can't tell is whether these measures are worth the cost-the psychic cost. What worries me is the potential for stifling creativity and flexibility in the workplace, and the growing sensation of being watched, and measured, in everything we do.
其中有很多聽起來都是有益的。但我們不知道的是這些措施是否值得付出那樣的代價──精神上的代價。讓我感到擔心的是這可能扼殺職場中的創造力和靈活性，而且還日益感覺做任何事時都會被監控、被評價。
I've noticed this happen in my own field. Digital journalism has ushered in the era of quantified journalism, a field in which readership, social-media mentions and my bosses' return-on-investment on my work can be measured. I've been lucky to work at publications that don't overstress metrics. But still, the pressure to make the numbers has to be a part of every journalist's life these days. Every time I write a story that doesn't make the paper's most-popular list, I consider it a tiny failure. If I do that many times in a row, I begin to wonder if I should look for a new line of work.
我注意到在我自己的領域出現著這樣的情況。數字新聞學開啟了量化新聞學時代。在這個領域，讀者人數、社交媒體提及次數和我的老板們在我工作上的投資回報都可以被衡量。我很幸運供職的出版物不過于強調這些數據。但如今實現良好數據的壓力必須是每位記者生活的一部分。每次我寫的文章沒有進入報上最熱門文章之列時，我都會認為是一次小小的失敗。如果連續很多次這樣，我會開始懷疑我是否應該改行干別的。
You might say workers have always felt pressure to measure up to one benchmark or another. And perhaps gamification is better than other ways of altering what workers do, say, if your boss simply orders you to book all your travel two weeks in advance.
你可能會說，工作的人一直會感到壓力，因為要達到這樣或那樣的標準。相比其他改變員工行為的方式，游戲化或許更好，前提是如果你的老板只是命令你提前兩周預訂所有旅行的話。
Gamification, for now, does at least have the veneer of being fun. But as it spreads through the workplace, covering all aspects of your job and life, I wonder how long the fun will last.
目前，游戲化至少表面看起來是有趣的。但隨著它在職場傳播開來，涵蓋你工作和生活的方方面面，我懷疑這種樂趣能夠持續多久。
