Undoubtedly, I believe that the process of gamification is a deception, it’s about pushing people to do something without letting them think what they are actually doing. If people will start to have responsible behaviours because of gamification doesn’t mean they became more responsible. But at the same time, people are mislead by years of marketing techniques, dictated by capitalist multinationals, which brought the society to be what it is right now. I do not believe that the capitalistic system can be reverted and indeed, my purpose is not to fight it, but just to use its same weapon (deception) in order to induce people to save rather than consume.

This conception of the “Design is to deceive”, was asserted by the philosopher Vilèm Flusser, who in his book About the Word Design (1993) asserts:

“The word occurs in contexts associated with cunning and deceit. A designer is a cunning plotter laying his traps. Falling into the same category are other very significant words: in particular, mechanics and machine. The Greek mechos means a device designed to deceive—i.e. a trap—and the Trojan Horse is one example of this. Ulysses is called polymechanikos, which schoolchildren translate as “the crafty one.” The word mechos itself derives from the ancientMAGH, which we recognize in the German Macht and mögen, the English “might” and “may.” Consequently, a machine is a device designed to deceive; a lever, for example, cheats gravity, and “mechanics” is the trick of fooling heavy bodies.”

Such conception makes sense the connection between design and marketing. Design is a perfect tool for marketers whose purpose is to deceive their audience and persuade them to buy.

So in conclusion I might say that gamification is a deception as well as design in general.