Make It A Game

I’ve been seeing an increasing amount of media attention on how gamification can help encourage sustainable behavior (for example, see recent articles in Grist, Sustainable Brands, and Mashable). This is not a new concept to me as I was first introduced to gamification when I was about eight years old. It was my mother’s attempt at getting me to make my bed by making it fun. Fast forward to present day – my bed remains disheveled, but the idea has stuck.
Back then, I failed at the drawing board. The game I created, alternating the visible side of my red and blue comforter based on the day of the week, wasn’t actually a game or fun by any stretch of the imagination. Maybe if my game would have been as entertaining as some of the games on www.thefuntheory.com (an initiative of Volkswagen), I would have made my bed this morning.
The underlying concept of The Fun Theory is that something simple and fun is the easiest way to change behavior for the better. Here is one of my favorite videos on the site, the Bottle Bank Arcade Machine that encourages recycling, and a link to game that is a personal favorite of mine, the ConnectFourBeerCrate.
Anybody have a good game for making beds? Or reducing our environmental impact?