This slide show seems to be more of an effort to distort common and well-accepted applications of motivational psychology as originating from games. Of the five

This slide show seems to be more of an effort to distort common and well-accepted applications of motivational psychology as originating from games. Of the five game mechanics listed, probably only one (points) originated in games: I collect every time I go to the grocery store, receive feedback every time I touch a hot stove, make an exchange (almost) every time I speak, and customize every time I go to a restaurant and ask for chicken instead of turkey. You could probably absorb these lessons as applied to software a lot better by analyzing the reinforcers present in EBay and the other sites mentioned than by thinking of games. There's probably a lot more to learn from what I expected this article to be: An in depth discussion of how game theory applies to web applications.