Spending Money Can Be a Game Too

A friend of mine just alerted me to a new, fun way to spend your cash at participating venues. This application also forced me to end my long-term "following" with him on twitter. The application is called Four Square. Four Square is a new mobile application that allows people to “check-in” to restaurants, stores, and other venues while incorporating social networks to show others where that person went. Although nobody likes the idea of telling people where you are at all times, by “checking-in” to places, you gain points (or badges) for where and how many times you went to a given place. This eventually leads to winning discounts and other rewards. This application is going to be huge because people want to win, just like any game. In the same time, this application tweets where someone is "checking-in" at an extremely annoying pace. So be warned, you may lose followers due to excessive "tweetage" as well.

We can apply game-based systems to nearly any business, whether it is in the actual workplace for employees or to draw in the customers like Four Square does. Also, cards that certain coffee shops hand out serve as another example. You get ten hole punches and you win a free cup of coffee. Not a very complicated game, but there are rules, a general time frame, and goals to a simple hole punch coffee card. Promotions and advertising can also utilize a game-based system. The applications are endless. Here is a link to Four Square if you are interested in playing their new "game".

Games with Friends, The New Generation of Smart Competition

Who plays words with friends, hanging with friends, or scramble with friends? I bet most of you who own an iPhone play one of these games. These games are the new generation of learning enhanced games. Out of all you reading this post, who feels smarter after having played any of these games? Especially if they play scramble or words with friends. The capacity to create games and play in a competitive environment against their peers motivates them to succeed. The invention of these games has actually curbed a trend for players of the game to actually boost their vocabulary and increase their spelling at a time where auto correct, spell checker, and Google have began a trend that has show a diminishing ability in younger generations in spelling and vocabulary. These games are battling the slow digression of intelligence in the United States. These games are a gift from the app makers in Silicon Vally, CA to all of us users/gamers. Whether we know it or not, our participation in such games has actually helped us become smarter, and prevent technology from leading to bad habits and lazy minds.

I personally am an avid gamer of all three, and have found my vocabulary and spelling abilities to dramatically improve since I began participating in each of the games with friends. The trend they have started is a very positive one, and should be continued with more games similar to those already existing. I feel other gaming applications that involve playing with friends in an intelligence gauging manner would be very successful and beneficial for the greater good of the world's populations who have iPhones. This could also be a great marketing ploy for Apple if they create enough of these education enhancing competitive games with friends. The providers of iPhones would be in much higher demand if they could provide a service that could be called "Smart Competition" I wish I was an application engineer, but I'm not so I'm not able to implement my ideas, but hopefully somebody else creative with the tools to do so will. Comment your opinions of gaming with friends and your ideas for games!