Well, perhaps not traditional video games, such as Pac Man or Space Invaders– I’m talking about how every website is now incorporating game dynamics. But if you consider how Facebook, LinkedIn, FourSquare, MerchantCircle, Twitter, Farmville, or other sites operate, according to these game dynamics you’d be hard pressed to tell me they’re not video games:

• Points: Earn points for not just killing monsters, but fully completing your online profile and spamming your friends to join (LinkedIn and Plaxo).   You do want to be at 100% completion, don’t you?  Even Google is getting in the social media game with the 100 point scale for Google Local Business Center, as well as the “Favorite Places” program.
• Levels: And with more points, you unlock the next level. It’s amazing how hard people will work to get to the next level– for example, in Farmville, even though you’re not getting any financial benefit.  You can’t sell things, like you can with Diablo 2 items, World of Warcraft, or Second Life, where there are currency exchange markets.  The combination of earnings points to achieve levels is no different than the power of frequent flyer programs and MLM schemes. Name any forum and show how it’s not a video game to achieve ego.
• Collection: In Boy Scouts, you had badges to collect. Online, you have the same thing, whether you’re checking in to FourSquare, collecting more friends on your Facebook Fan Page, or trying to win that twitter contest for free Italian food.  You can be hooked on these games or Hooked on Phonics– the viral power is the same. Imagine how the US education system could be revamped with the viral nature of points, levels, and collection!
• Randomization: What do Las Vegas and Christmas have in common?  When you pull that slot handle or tear open that gift wrap, you get that moment of anticipation not knowing what you’re going to get. Email is the ultimate game of unwrapping Christmas presents– it’s Christmas every day.  Are you one of those who refreshes email every 90 seconds or checks twitter?  Then you’re hooked on that intermittent stimulation. The move to real-time search increases this ADD, such that every website creates this type of anticipation. 
• Community: You get rewarded to sell out your friends. But it doesn’t have to be doing so for promoting tupperware, unregulated health products, or virtual gifts in your favorite Facebook application. It can be used for recruiting local advertising resellers or even home schooling your kids.  Games are only interesting when your other friends are there playing it.  How much fun would Facebook be if you had no friends?  And your “score” is only valuable in context to those of your friends. How much advantage is your laser hair removal if all your friends already have it?

Now consider any website or business from the viewpoint of video games– points, leveling, collection, randomization, community– and see how it’s not any different than a big big real-world video game.  In the world of local online advertising, it’s not enough to create business listings, multiply out local PPC campaigns, or have a solid platform in general.  It’s got to be social.  

And in 2010, with the merging of local, social, and mobile– you’ll see game dynamics come together in ways that will astound you.  Unlike the desktop computer, the phone has a GPS to tell you where you are, a camera to read bar codes, and perhaps a gyroscope so you can shake, fake light saber battles– or do things that are actually useful for your business!

The world of online and offline is rapidly becoming one big video game– and portals such as Facebook, which have all your relationship information (in a good way) are going to make us all children playing for points.  They have the social graph necessary to make the game possible, such that we can all keep score– and pay, of course.

How about making a resolution to not make any more resolutions? Seriously, when you example instances of when people fail versus succeed, a few key traits stand out. I’ll explain at the end of the article– but first… I read a study where patients were told by their doctors that if they didn’t stop smoking or change their diets that they had months to live. The doctors explain what their patients would experience with heart disease, lung cancer, and other complications over the remaining months if they didn’t drastically change. You know what happened?

In the majority of cases, people didn’t change. You would think that would be a wake-up call, if any. But a factual recitation about how smoking causes lung cancer is something we, as intelligent human beings, all know. Yet folks smoke anyway. Or they overeat at meals, overspend their credit line, choose bad boyfriends, and make a host of irrational decisions. Why do they fail here, even when literally threatened with a life and death situation?

They make a public commitment, they involve friends in achieving their goals, they have specific goals in different timeframes, they connect emotionally with their goals, and they have a feedback loop. Incidentally, aren’t those the same characteristics that make videos games highly addictive? Aren’t those the same dynamics that cause folks to spend hours on Facebook or (insert your favorite social media site here), coming back day after day? Imagine if you could harness that same level of dedication and enthusiasm in your job, your diet, or any other goal you want to achieve?

How about for the low, low price of $1,995? No, how about just $599 if you act in the next 30 minutes? Operators are standing by now. How about actually for free with no strings and no free set of Ginzu knives? The answer is sparkpeople.com. Sparkpeople.com is a community for folks who want to achieve their fitness and life balance goals. And with great fitness comes success in all other aspects of your life. This site hits upon all the game dynamics mentioned above. Chris Downie, who founded sparkpeople.com originally as a weight loss site, had the community of enthusiasts to prove it.

Instead of the traditional monthly attrition rate of 35% that you see in most programs, he’s less than 1/10th that rate. I had the pleasure of meeting Chris several times, as he explained these motivation principles to me– and it’s amazing how many people he’s been able to help because of this. Look out Tony Robbins, here comes Chris Downie! And what a humble fellow he is. He walk the talk with his own lifestyle. It reminds me of the obese CEO of a famous athletic shoe company or the CEO of a major search engine that didn’t even have a computer their first year. If you want to spark your lifestyle into success into the new year, tap into SparkPeople.com to make losing weight and getting fit as fun and addictive as Facebook.