Jarret Brachman and I published a new article in Foreign Policy yesterday on how al Qaeda has gamified the movement. You can read it here: The World of Holy Warcraft.
In the article we conclude that the fervor of online jihadists is actually quite similar to the fervor of any other online group, and this is partly a result of the use of gamification on online
social spaces. In the same way that you can “like” a Facebook post or “retweet” on Twitter, members of an online forum can now “thank” someone for their post or give them a positive reputation power. To further a user’s engagement, the more “rep power” or “thanks” one collects, the quicker they can amass all the rankings, scores, badges, and levels to prove their increase in reputation. Competition is key here.
Anyone who thinks they aren’t affected by gamification - i.e. applying game-like attributes to non-game activities - is wrong. If you've used frequent-flier miles, earned stars with your coffee purchase at Starbucks, or checked in on Foursquare, you've had a gamified experience. Gamification is merely the tool used to increase engagement among individuals that may not otherwise have
been engaged.
What’s interesting is that one of the forums we wrote about has reposted the article (see right), and in the past 20 hours dozens of users have commented on the article - everything from anger to sarcasm to agreement, and even excitement about their newfound fame. To put it in Abu Hurairah’s words: “I love how in 16 minutes we've managed to post a page of posts - 5 of them in the last 2 minutes.”
One user even took advantage of this thread to make a suggestion about repping and thanking in the forum. UmmAbdulMalikStorm said: “PS..i think we should get rid of reps and keep the thanks. There's more benefit in the thanks coz it keeps the repetitive "I agrees" at bay.”
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