Businesses As Games: Letting Everyone "Play"

So what do Linux, Wikipedia , Skype , Linked In and Second Life have in common?  (waits a few beats)

Truth is, I'm not quite sure -- little too early for that, but I'm going to float some ideas to see what sticks.

All these companies function as games.  This statement alone will probably get me in hot water.  The definition of "game" that I'm using is a "recreational activity where players abide by a common set of rules to pursue a goal".  This definition is a merging of a bunch of the top definitions of "game" and captures most of the meanings.

So here are the general rules for these "businesses-as-games"
1.  In order to start playing, I must contribute something to the whole
2.  My position in the game is proportional to my contribution

Business Week Article on "The Power of Us"   

Comments

[Jon Husband]

I have long believed that a fertile field for the major game developers (EA, radical, etc.) would be to create (probably in partnership with the SAP's and Oracles of this world) the means of turning more and more information-based work into sociality-and-contribution-and-results enhancing games.

I didn't say that quite right .. but I suspect that game theory has a lot to offer organizations in terms of the design of work in the future .. moving away from sequential, task-based lists to complete towards predictive scenarios, bid pricing according to perceived added value, role-playing, etc. How well workers play the games could be tracked and used as an element of compensation ... for both softer, more altruistic measures like cooperation, effective collaboration, etc. and for harder more quantitative measures ///// etc.