All in Gamification

Billions of years ago, when the earth was cooling and a few tiny amoebae started their sexy little single-cell dance in a pool of water, Carnegie Mellon University Professor Jesse Schell talked about the future beyond Facebook games. Well, at least two years in Web time seems that long on the evolutionary timeline. Professor Schell is the creative mastermind behind Schell Games, and the guy is an absolute monster when he shares his thoughts on the future of gaming.
There are a slew of things to take into account when adding or creating a game-like environment for your site or its content. I'm going to assume that I don't need to tell you that, before any of you determine your goals, you should do a deep competitive analysis and determine the mindset of your demographic prior to spending any real money in this direction. This topic is a bit more than 101 when it comes to the new-world marketer, as it's making rapid changes and not a lot of it has been truly tested...
Well the wiki says "Gamification is the use of game design techniques[1] and mechanics to solve problems and engage audiences. Typically gamification applies to non-game applications (also known as "funware"),[2] particularly consumer-oriented web and mobile sites, in order to encourage people to adopt the applications. It also strives to encourage users to engage in desired behaviors in connection with the applications.[3] ...
Empire Avenue for social gamers and social media professionals is quickly becoming the rage. Empire Avenue or #EA as it's AKA, is by their definition "The Social Media Exchange - Empire Avenue is the Social Media Exchange, where you can invest in any social media profile by buying their shares, meet new people, unlock Achievement badges, and earn boatloads of virtual cash by being active and social online! Buy shares in your friends, your followers, people with similar interests, brands you love, celebrities – anyone!