If I were to make an un-authoritative and broad-stroke prediction about what new, pervading “thing” that we might see rise to the mainstream soon I would say its Game Mechanics for Everything. So yea, put me in that camp.

Game mechanics, reward systems, flow theory, all come from our learning about how and why people do “work.” Concepts therein have been bandied around since Karl Marx, and even before, but I think they have never been so well articulated and exploited until now with computer and video games. Being able to achieve and accomplish something in a completely non-tangible, non-permanent way for hours at a time has to mean something about us and how we function – or prefer to function, more specifically. Of course games are designed to change “work” into “fun,” which helps, but it’s almost scary how that “fun” can be essentially the same “fun” again and again. (Not counting for minor derivatives.)

But then consider the web. One of the last big web buzzwords was “user generated content.” I would argue that’s an idea on the verge of a pretty big backlash. It’s getting stale, and has a fatal flaw. Just submitting links to Digg and seeing them rise to the top isn’t gratifying or meaningful anymore. There is an inherent game there, but it hasn’t been exploited. Rather than choose to make a better game, sites like Digg are just struggling to make a buck. This is the flaw, because of course when that happens too much and in the wrong ways it upsets the community, who helped Digg get this far to begin with.

I believe web visitors getting more and more jaded about giving you content without getting a reward or at least a carrot on a stick in return. This reward doesn’t have to be tangible, but it has to be there. “User generated content” should become “user gamed content.” There are sites like Buzzfeed, for example, whether or not they admit it, that behave much more like a game. Buzzfeed is no Digg, of course, at least not yet.

Related: No doubt you’ve seen this checkout terminal at Target….