Recently I made a post about having lost all my previous content. I have since found backups of some content. This post is one such piece. I originally published this in 2021 for an assignment in my studies of digital media and gamification.
You may have noticed that I’ve been talking a little bit about the concept of Gamification quite a bit in recent times. From using gamification as a tool to increase your Twitter following, to using gamification to motivate you to write (or study, or whatever other productive thing it is you need to be motivated to do). What can I say? I love gamification! (Okay, fine, I’m also studying it and I’m required to discuss it online, but it is something I’ve genuinely become very interested in.)
Well today I’m going to talk about another gamification experience I had some time in the mid-2000s, which yes, I’m aware means I’m starting to show my age here, but we’re going to ignore that, okay?
We’ll start with fond thoughts:
I always forget the camp NaNo events, but a great gamification element to NaNoWriMo (for me) is the social aspect if you get involved with your local community (like #melbnano) then the competition/encouragement grows with things like word wars!
— Millicent Nankivell (@millienankivell) April 29, 2021
The fond thought here is that NaNoWriMo, or for the uninitiated ‘National Novel Writing Month‘, is a whole lot of fun. If you haven’t tried it before, I highly recommend you do. It’s madness, but it’s 100% worth it.
Further to that, if you’ve participated, but never been involved with your local community, you need to fix that. The MelbNaNo crew, for example, are awesome!
The first time I did NaNoWriMo was 2006. At the time things were pretty bleak for me, and it caused a lot of problems in my life, but it gave me the basis for one of my favourite stories I’m still yet to write to completion and share with the world (but it’s coming! As soon as I’m finished my Anastasia Avignon series!) and it got me hooked on the event!
It wasn’t until 2007 that I joined the community and met some of the best individuals I’ve ever been blessed to meet in the writing community. But it also led to a dark time.
A very dark time.
Contemplating other gamification tools while in class that are relevant to other interests of mine … 😈#ALM201 pic.twitter.com/0diN6RAbnh
— Millicent Nankivell (@millienankivell) April 14, 2021
I hadn’t looked up Write or Die in years, and only just learned tonight that you now have to pay for the privilege of using it (although you can try an older version for free here).
When I used it back in the day, its appearance was much simpler. You simply wrote into a text box, and if you took too long to keep things moving, it would start deleting your words. This made for many interesting and stressful word wars, especially for someone like me who is both highly competitive, and slow at typing!
Word wars alone are enough without the added stress of losing words, and believe me when I tell you I lost many. It didn’t take me long to return to good old trusty Word. These days Scrivener. I don’t lose many words that way anymore!
I guess you can call me a dinosaur, but I like to see the fruits of my work, even if it means I take my time.
I do have to say though, that while its humble beginnings definitely utilised negative reinforcement, it really did help some of the other writers.
What about you? Have you used Write or Die before? If not, would you consider it?
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