Century of Play

18th Century Precursors of Gamification

Abstract

This article traces back a games-related phenomenon that is currently called gamification, but has been known, theoretised about, used, misused and exploited avant la lettre. The notion of gamification is often said to have been coined in 2002 by Pelling and popularized in the 2010s by Deterding, Khaled, Dixon and Nake, McGonigal, Zichermann and others. There are, however, precursors to the idea of our society being permeated by games. This article presents examples for gamification from the second half of the 18th century, before the term gamification even existed, and refers to ideas brought forward by Tersteegen, Kirnberger, Bernoulli, and others.