Information overload in todays’ always on society, is not unusual. In games this technique is also used to increased the difficulty of a level, where the key skill is to recognise patterns or create a choice. Even casual games like bejewelled offer a range of choices at any given time, resource management games such as farmville or simcity at any given time present choices which will impact the game progression.
In life and business we are presented with choices every day, some will help us forward and some will set us back. The thing is in a game we make choices in a split instant, in life we often mull the options over for longer because of the perceived risk at stake. In any case we will very likely have to make a choice and just like in any game, we can recover from a bad decision. The speed at which we recognise warning signs, is what matters in games in business and in life.
In enterprise gamification we rarely use the information overload technique so as to not add to the already existing stress of employees. However pattern recognition and decision making are still valuable skills to nurture in work, so in the learning environment creating or simulating business like decision making makes for potentially better decisions in real life.
Where have you used information overload and for what purpose?
