Subversive Gamification

Since the beginning of this decade, Gamification has become a buzzword for marketing, advertising and behavioural management, but also an accurate description of a fundamental shift in modern society: “Gamification is the permeation of society with methods, metaphors and attributes of games” (Fuchs 2012). Graphic game design elements, rule structures and ludic interfaces are exceedingly used by corporations to create and manage brand loyalty and to increase profits. This chapter aims at stirring up common sense notions of gamification as a marketing tool and will discuss alternative artistic concepts, activist tactics and subcultural strategies aiming at a subversive ludification of society.