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Backstory: I joined ask Ubuntu end of April and installed Ubuntu for the 1st time start of May so I am pretty new. I have been using Ubuntu as my secondary OS for a while now. As I ran into a lot of issues during installation, I have a pretty good knowledge of how to deal with those.

What I want to know is, am I the only one that feels like Ask Ubuntu is a one huge Multiplayer Game where there is no competition whatsoever, but, nevertheless it is still fun and addictive. OK, that probably sounded super weird. I'll explain.

For me,

  • Reputation is how you go up the leaderboard but it doesn't matter much where you are in it.
  • You unlock new abilities as you go up the leaderboard though, in the form of privileges.
  • Badges are symbols of your achievements that you can display on your profile.
  • The goal of this game, unlike most others, is to progress higher not on your own but pulling as many as you can with you. In other words, how you get better is by helping others. So it is never a one-man show.
  • You and others learn from each other's experience and develop each others' skills, so there is no secrecy or cheats only co-operation.
  • It is not competitive but there is always a need burning inside the user to do his/her best and show what he can do.
  • The best thing is you are not forced to play to the rules of others and play in your weak areas. Instead, you are allowed to chose your strong points and develop on them while learning how to improve your weak points at your leisure.
  • This may not be true to all but for me, it is pretty addictive considering that I don't use Ubuntu much and I am new to the use of it. I personally spend over 2 hours daily in Ask Ubuntu either answering questions about things I know, asking questions, commenting on posts, missing replies to them as most new users don't use @username when commenting (see Add a reply option for comments), voting and reviewing.

I don't know whether I am the only one who feels this way. It is not a bad thing but I think that this is an interesting angle to look at it. If you like this idea or feel the same way, upvote and drop a comment/answer😊. If you feel otherwise, please comment/answer on why😉. I mean this is one way to look at this and this is a discussion so I would like to feel how people feel about this ideology or is Ask Ubuntu supposed to feel this way?!

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    "If you like this idea or feel the same way, upvote and drop a comment/answer. If you feel otherwise, please comment/answer on why." Why not leave a downvote if you don't like? Poor downvotes never get any love :P Jokes aside, yes Ask Ubuntu is one big game, it is designed that way to incentivise participation. There is a term for this kind of design: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamification
    – Mark Kirby
    Commented Jun 18, 2020 at 9:30
  • @MarkKirby Who wants downvotes. That's part of the game. You caught me there. 😂
    – VidathD
    Commented Jun 18, 2020 at 9:31
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    The up- and down-vote buttons have somewhat misleading labels on meta sites. They are used to indicate rejection or support of the idea presented, independent of the quality of the item, and don't affect one's personal score in the "game".
    – Ray Butterworth
    Commented Jun 18, 2020 at 12:49
  • @RayButterworth Thanks for pointing that out. As I stated I am new and still learning. Thanks again.
    – VidathD
    Commented Jun 19, 2020 at 1:13

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It's a Stack Exchange network thing. The Gamification was written by Stack Overflow co-founder Jeff Atwood. My humble opinion is that Stack Overflow is a more mature site than Ask Ubuntu both in number of users and number of high reputation users, and I feel that the gamification on Stack Overflow is more intense than the gamification on Ask Ubuntu. This opinion is based on personal experience which will vary from user to user, but the rules of the game are designed to be the same for all users.

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