Game theory applied to human civilization.
Johan Huizinga, a Dutch historian who lived between the 19th and 20th centuries, was the first to argue in his 1939 essay “Homo Ludens” that human civilization arises and develops in and as a game. By asserting that the main human activities, such as language, myth, worship, and justice, are intertwined with play, he divided the types of play into two major families: competition for something and representation of something.
Since the birth of the first civilizations and for thousands of years, humans have created and practiced activities called “games”, which have evolved in parallel with the progress of humanity and have filled the enormous psychic power of ludic entertainment.
Play has always represented a codified process of collective participation in the development of knowledge and technological progress, and since the mind is involved in play, even though it has no moral function, it becomes a free act within a temporary sphere but with serious and demanding rules.
Play is always collective and for this reason, it triggers a profound interaction between individuals, also assuming a formative value in proposing situations to be constantly faced and resolved.
The game today: gamification.
This introductory parenthesis on “play” is necessary to approach more correctly the analysis of a phenomenon that today, AD 2021, begins to have a decisive imprint on the life of each of us, from business to civic conduct, from social life to technological innovation.
This phenomenon is called “gamification“, and it seems destined to increasingly fuel our need for involvement, as individuals and as a community, in all those activities that would otherwise remain unstimulating and unengaging. Gamification has proven to be a method rooted in the broader cyclical psychological concept of stimulus-response present in every living creature.
Individuals are biologically predisposed to relate to an environmental structure based on the logic of intrinsic reward: the struggle for success, for the achievement of goals, and for self-affirmation pass through rewards that cyclically feed a constant loop of redefining one’s personal goals.
These rewards are not only physical and material but also psychological; even psych-chemical, as demonstrated by the huge release of dopamine in our brains during ludic activities.
Gamification represents the natural extension of this universal concept within global real contexts such as business, education or, in summary, society in general. Through the creation of multiple segmented and delineated activities thanks to Game Thinking logics, combined with tangible and intangible reward systems, it is possible to use gamification as a powerful tool for motivating individuals taken as reference. (Sambo, 2014)
Gamification means trying to capture emotional and participatory continuity in system users: their involvement, exponential increase in being captured and engaged, and their satisfaction in completing tasks and assuming responsibilities.
Many companies today resort to the use of such methods to stimulate the motivational dynamics of customer segments and to raise levels of engagement and problem-solving within internal processes and systems.
The G-Generation: a Golden Resource Today.
If we had to identify the moment and the turning point that determined a decisive shift in the “game” as a “social” experiential conduct, encoded, structured, systematic and repeated that stimulates collaborative learning and triggers fluid intelligence, we can only position it with the birth of what is defined as the G GENERATION, or all those born after 1996 who have only known the digital world, global and interactive communication, shared and participated information, and who, having had access to the internet from an early age, have developed a natural critical sense, determination and responsibility as children of a global crisis, economic and values.
In the midst of the technological revolution, the G GEN, where “G” stands for gamers, takes a beautiful revenge on the Pharisaic and too moralistic judgments of the past.
Today, those young people represent the golden resource on which to build a sustainable, fluid and antifragile future, because they have learned and developed naturally to accept challenges, to react quickly, to make decisions and solve problems. A constant brain training in which one must be dynamic and fluid to use logic and not fall behind.
Above all, they have learned that collaborative work and shared value are the only way to achieve results. They have developed an unmatched capacity for analysis, interaction and awareness in history, and for this reason they are the early adopters of disruptive technologies that are changing the world.
Blockchain: Circular Contribution Economy and Gamification.
In brief, blockchain is a digital network that enables participants to securely and transparently exchange value without the need for trust between parties or an intermediary to guarantee for all. It goes without saying that, when it comes to digital networks and value exchange, the G GEN (Generation Gamification) has been quick to adopt and implement blockchain since it is a well-established practice within gaming communities. Since Bitcoin was created in 2009, they have been among the first to recognize its social value and its impact on our lives.
Today, with third-generation blockchains, which have triggered the third era of the Internet – that of value – the G GEN is playing a fundamental role in the progress of humanity. For example, it represents the target audience for companies in their marketing campaigns or product testing; on many other occasions, it is identified as the “customer target” for public administrations in increasingly constant moments of dialogue with civil society.
How? Think of mobile apps and the frantic encouragement to use them to access various services, think of “click days”, the lottery of receipts, or the cashback method. Think again of the levels of challenge to reach and surpass with friends on wearable devices like Fitbit, the challenges on social media like Tik Tok, or the race to collect “miles” in airline programs or “points” for shopping.
All of these gamification forms have clear principles and objectives, namely involvement, awareness, and contribution. Therefore, they contribute to realizing the design of a future proactive society. Using the logic of the game, the G GEN tends to solve problems and, for this reason, to obtain rewards. The mindset is, therefore, to perform correct and positive actions and obtain rewards, and with this cerebral mechanism, the world of value to which everyone participates with absolute ease and freedom and through which it is possible to reach, collect, and exchange assets becomes the engine of society.
This new paradigm is called the “circular contribution economy,” and it is the principle according to which the value generated by a producing subject through a positive social activity or correct behavior is made available to the community or to the social system of reference which, in turn, will assign a value reward to the producing subject. Blockchain gives us the possibility of making the “value” fluid because it creates digital representations of goods and services with immutable characteristics of exchangeability, scarcity, and security.
This specific declination is called “Tokenization” and allows creating small economic systems to incentivize specific behaviors in a community, more or less extensive, using tokens (digital assets that represent value) to create a circular micro-economy that is self-sufficient and that satisfies the purpose of use through its utility. The tokenized world that gamers know well is a world where digital technology has created invisible networks and connections through which it is possible to exchange value in all possible forms.
Networks allow humans to cooperate and distribute the products of cooperation. Physical, digital, and neural roads connect us constantly. Younger generations have long since acquired the awareness that they can determine their own future and destiny by having fun, since interacting with society, respecting rules, means having fun and being rewarded.
Networks allow humans to cooperate and distribute the products of cooperation. Physical, digital, and neural roads constantly connect us. Younger generations have long acquired the awareness that they can determine their own future and destiny by having fun, as interacting with society and following the rules means having fun and being rewarded.
Therefore, we should not be frightened by the idea that educational methods, economic policies, and levels of participation in social and civic life have been “hacked” by Gen Z, as we finally see a definitive awareness on the part of the new generations to determine goals and scale results. The clear suggestion to governments around the world, from the circular contribution economy, gamification, and tokenization of value, is that technology can be used to push people to cooperate to achieve common goals – such as environmental sustainability or the transition to a circular economy – and be rewarded for it.
The tokenized world will be one in which each of us can assert the weight of the value of virtuous social behavior, giving it to the community – which will treasure it. It will be a world in which we will “play” in an increasingly immersive and entertaining way, pushing individual and collective behavior to achieve civic and technological growth goals.
To those who therefore indicate gold as a refuge asset – as it becomes increasingly rare and scarce – we prioritize human value. Because today, through and thanks to technology, the value of participation, contribution, and virtuous behavior can be made available to the community, becoming a commodity and an asset exchangeable with equal value.
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