Seriosity Looks Interesting

I found this post on Esther Dyson’s blog fascinating. In the post, Esther discusses a startup called Seriosity, which, Esther says, is “using the kinds of reward systems used in games – its own in-world currency, in a word – to encourage whatever behavior a corporate customer wants to encourage.”

In various forums, Mike Neuenschwander, Lori Rowland, and Bob Blakley have been saying that reciprocity and other social/behavorial systems may well prove at least as important as identity when it comes to creating workable virtual spaces. And in many presentations, I've said that I think virtual gaming environments can teach all of us a thing or two about identity.

It sounds like Seriosity is experimenting with these same principles. Hard to tell how far the company is going from Esther’s post. But here’s another tantalizing quote from that post, in which Esther quotes the founder describing her experience with World of Warcraft: “. . . everything is so transparent; you can know people deeply by their behavior.” Esther says the company is attempting to apply the principles and systems games use to reinforce and encourage behavior to the business world. And, most importantly, Esther adds that “it’s not the game that rewards people; it’s other people.”

This seems right in line with what Mike, Lori, and Bob have been saying. Bottom line, I’d like to know more, and continue to think that these kind of efforts deserve the so-called “identity community’s” attention.