Proposal:Add game-like features

The status of this proposal is:
Request for Discussion / Sign-Ups

Every proposal should be tied to one of the strategic priorities below.

Edit this page to help identify the priorities related to this proposal!

Achieve continued growth in readership
Focus on quality content
Increase Participation
Stabilize and improve the infrastructure
Encourage Innovation

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Summary

People like to collect things and respond well to collection-based incentives, even for abstract collections like "points" in games. The reward of "gaining points" is all it takes to get many people to enthusiastically apply themselves to tasks that might otherwise seem, well, pointless. Wikipedia should adapt elements of gaming to draw in new users, strategically encourage participation in important areas, and incentivize useful tasks. This would be a cross-project point system, which would also offer a way to introduce users from one project to other projects and give them a chance to learn the ropes when they first join.

Proposal

Add an optional role-playing game style quest system to Wikimedia projects, where editors can earn points for completing specific "quests". Wikimedians would "level-up" after earning enough points.

Quests for new users:

Make an edit
Create a user page
Read the introductory page about wiki-markup, then wikify an article tagged as "wikify" (which could be assigned randomly)
Create an article
Add a free image to an article tagged as needing images
Take a photo and add it to a relevant article that currently lacks photos
Add a citation to support a passage labeled "citation needed"
Read the deletion policy page and then weigh in on a (randomly assigned) deletion discussion.
Read "What is a good article" page and then review a good article candidate
Upload a self-made educational image to Wikimedia Commons
Read and comment on a story on Wikinews
Clean up a Wiktionary entry that has been roughly transwikied from Wikipedia
Add a new definition to Wiktionary
Add alt text to pictures that currently lack descriptions for the visually impaired
Link an orphaned article into the pedia
etc

Many of those new user quests could also be offered to more experienced Wikimedians whenever backlogs build up

Longer term features for more experienced users could include:

Adopting new users
Responding to requests for help
Getting a higher position on the list of Wikimedians by number of edits

Motivation

We offer little guidance to new users, and little recognition for users who deal with important low-profile tasks. Some editors would respond well to the addition of gaming elements to Wikimedia projects.

Key Questions

Has the community sufficiently gotten over its self-perception as a bunch of nerds to go forward with something that might reinforce that perception?

Potential Costs

Development time. Could probably be done well by volunteers.
Gamer-nerd stigma.
- Solution: "Choose your own adventure" style? Even the jocks like those. Worth looking in to.