This was first published on Joey Strawn’s blog. So if you read it there, move to the comments as there is nothing new to see here.

Speaking of Joey, he is the first person who told me I need to pay attention to gaming online. No, not online poker, but gaming that provides a fun and competitive reason for people to come back to your website or blog.

Lisa Gerber and I have both talked about the idea around gaming, but the best way for you to understand it is by watching this TedX video of Seth Preibatsch the chief ninja of SCVNGR (it’s also down at the bottom of the post, if you’d like to watch here).

Seth’s vision is to build a game layer on top of the world. He says the motivations we use to influence behavior will be decided upon by gaming and it’s important for you to understand. (more…)