When news broke of Osama bin Laden’s death Sunday night, I expected pundits to analyze the story from every which angle Monday morning, but one I didn’t see coming was the use of gamification by terrorist camps to develop more fervent followers.  Nevertheless, an early string I saw developing around bin Laden influences was in the realm of gamification.  The ZDNet article cites examples of gamification tactics being used by organizations such as Al Qaeda, with built-in reputation point systems to promote your social status within an online community.

It brings a serious tone to the very nature of gamification, which is a growing trend for the business sector, mobile gaming and social networking, to name a few.  But sensationalizing gamification takes away from the true mechanisms behind it, losing its significance in charged rhetoric.

“Simply having badges or reputation systems is not ‘gamification,” says Jon Radoff, author of Game On: Energize Your Business with Social Games.  “These features are commonplace in most out-of-the-box forum systems, and I think it’s a real stretch to suggest that terrorists are using game mechanics to attract followers.”

Radolff’s response comes with a hefty dose of reality–social gaming has permeated online communities deeply, lending to new standards around networking infrastructures and virtual replications of incentivized actions.  It’s that same earthy tone Radoff puts to Game On. The chapters are arranged as a “choose your own adventure” story, guiding you through the book’s resources according to your planning or execution process.  The practical approach is a nice demonstration of the concepts Radoff promotes, revealing the very human interactions that take place behind gamification’s new veil of the web.

“Games get people interacting with each other,” Radoff explains.  “They’ll surface in all these environments.”

Just before, he’d given me his take on gamification’s role in mobile, a trend we’ve been following closely at SiliconAngle.  These environments, then, include bulletin boards, social networks, and advancing mobile platforms.  “The tech industry is always in awe of whatever device that wasn’t intended for gaming.  Then all of the sudden they look back and say ‘wow, we didn’t see that coming.”

Radoff likens mobile gamification trends to those we’re seeing in the social networking space.  “The cool thing about mobile devices is the ability to incorporate the social aspect, and tie into locations.  There’s asynchronous game play on social networks, while mobile introduces another parallel; to play wherever.  That’s how games have changed around us.  More people are playing games.”

Where game’s abstractions are applied, however, is also a product of human alacrity, tucking gamification strategies into new org meetings, mobile ad networks and electronic payment platforms.  Terrorism aside, gamification has a large potential to simply make our virtual experiences more fun, and more human.

“There’s things we haven’t taken advantage of yet, across cultures.   I’ve met people around the world and gotten to know them in a setting I wouldn’t have, if it hadn’t been for games.  I look at it optimistically and see it as an opportunity,” Radoff continues.  The man known for founding GamerDNA had paused during our interview to speak of the hopeful promise of a classic system being applied in new settings.  He spoke from the heart, as I recalled that he’d even met his wife in an online role-playing game.

But Radoff does warn of gamification’s enticing rewards for those capitalizing on this new realm.  Breaking gamification into two major camps, Radoff explains that there are is the market that thinks of rewards, and the market that thinks of total experience.  “As gamification continues to grow, and people want to capitalize on it, that former category will likely have spent a lot of money an not gained a lot of results.”

Just as in social networking, gamification begs a layer of genuineness,  centering its interactions around human relationships and consumer needs.  “You’re not really going to promote a long term relationship with the consumer otherwise,” Radoff notes.  “It’s about engagement, why they’re striving for reward systems, and people telling stories with their games.”