I was thrilled recently to see the editors of the Gamification Wikipedia entry add the Gamification Gurus leaderboard as an example of infinite, out of system gamification.

Certainly the leaderboard has been running for a while – it was launched 3.5 years ago in October 2011 with just 10 players on it. There are now over 300. There is no end date in sight as gurus find it a valuable comparative benchmark (see this mashable example) and a way of charting their progress in becoming an effective online thought leader, evangelist and teacher of this new toolkit.

The gurus board is also an example of ‘out of system’ gamification since it tracks progress at a meta level across multiple systems – scores can be earned on Twitter, Slideshare, Klout, Blogging and other social networks. The result is that even as a standalone leaderboard (it’s primary visualisation) it gathers gamified engagement and attention from the players.

What next for the Gamification Gurus?

Following last month’s considerable discussion, led by Isidro Rodrigo,  there have been plans afoot to extend the scoring platforms (Facebook groups, Pinterest and LinkedIn are primary targets), to improve visualisation (investment in better aesthetics) and to improve the framing (reducing the focus on the #1 to be more inclusive, or at least hero the top 100). These changes will help the community, and the gurus board as a helpful feedback loop, mature.

As the originator of the board, what I’m pleased about is that it retains traction, even after more than 3 years, it is based on standardised platform Rise (so others can copy the model for their own teams and communities)  and is moving towards full player ownership – a key end goal for infinite gamification projects. It is the high degree of player ownership, such as that found in a football league, that allows infinite gamification systems to succeed long term.