Are you interested in gaming or gaming mechanics yet? If not, you should be because they can seriously help you sell your product or service.

W+K London has a great post about the Three Simple Rules of gaming. You should really read the whole thing, but if you don't have time, I'll sum it up for you:

1) Games and Play are Mainstream Culture now. 

Deal with it. Games are just a medium. Just like telly or film or print. They're not defined by a particular genre, but have a whole bunch of different genres. Shooty games. Racing games. Word games. Stuff like Farmville. They're all games.

2) Gameification.

If a mediocre ad is a mediocre ad, then adding a mediocre game to it just means you've added a mediocre game. It doesn't make what we do anything better than a cargo cult that's slavishly copying what we think works: we need to really understand games, fun and play. Gameification is much more than adding points, badges and prizes.

3) Story.

The point isn't that all games need story - Tetris is the canonical example of a game that does perfectly well without one - but that game with stories can be good. And that good games with stories tell linear stories that are explored in non-linear ways.

Another interesting fact that sufaced:

[T]he BBC did some proper serious research and found that 100% of 6-10 year olds play games, just under 100% for 11-15 year olds, trailing off to about 20% for 51-60 year olds. 

The thing is, that proper serious research the BBC did was back in 2005. So now all the 6-10 year olds have grown up.

As these age groups continue to grow up, the percent of your audience that are gamers continues to grow. Hopefully you're thinking about gaming now so that by the time they're ready to buy your product (or your competitor's product) you'll know how to speak their language.

If you can get past the fact that he has sunglasses on his head, Seth Priebatsch, Chief Ninja of SCVNGR, has some really interesting things to say about gaming mechanics. He declares this next decade will be about building a gaming level on top of life as we know it, not about increasing the use of social media and networks, and he's got some great examples of how this has already happened and how businesses can use this in the future.

As someone who is, for lack of a better term, a gamer, this makes absolute sense to me. But I don't see it being the end of social, I see the two combining into one very powerful, community driving force.

It's simple math really, but Neilsen was nice enough to show its work.

"Despite the almost unlimited nature of what you can do on the web, 40% of U.S. online time is spent on just three activities — social networking, playing games, and e-mailing," said Nielsen analyst Dave Martin, in a statement.

Americans spent 22.7% of their time online using social media sites, 10% of their time playing games and 8.3% of their time reading and sending emails. The other key point, social media use and gaming are on an upward swing while email use continues to head downhill.

What do you think, is email going the way of snail mail?

Branded content, geolocation, gaming mechanics — I promise I'm not just stringing together social media buzzwords. Brightkite announced that they're adding gaming mechanics to their badges. Brighkite states:

Once you get to level 1, you’ll find out how to get to level 2, and so on. The idea is that its fun to be rewarded for what you do, and your friends can quickly see the things that interest you.

The biggest reason to introduce levels to our badges was so stores, bars, restaurants and brands have a way to reward you, their customers. We think a business should reward all their loyal customers, not just one person. Expect to see a range of branded badges that are both fun to earn and also give you real world rewards as you hit different levels.

Mashable reports that Brighkite is already partnering with Starbucks, the CW, Visa, Sharpie, Redbook, McDonald’s and several other brands.

Adding gaming mechanics may be the push that get's Brightkite on par with Foursquare and Gowalla.

Many games have a social element, usually in the form of some social jewelry and sharing capabilities. But now Def Jam has set the bar with Rapstar. They have built a new social community and once you record your performance you can upload it to that community, challenge other artists and promote yourself.

James Waller, project coordinator for Def Jam, highlights the social depth of the game by saying it is less about your actual score and more about how you produced your video, how good you look and how well you promote it. In effect, you could use this to get discovered as the next big hip-hop artist. They truly have set the bar high and I can't wait to see what other games come up with to follow suit. 

Remember NBA Jam? It's the classic basketball video game accompanied by an announcer that would yell catch phrases like, "He's on fire!" and "Boomshakalaka!" upon dunks and shots. The newest version is coming out for the Wii, and the EA team is using Facebook to create buzz.

On the NBA Jam Facebook page, you'll find a "Boomshakalaka" tab where people that Like NBA Jam on Facebook can vote on which new catch phrases will end up in the game. Check out the bracket, where you can hear sound clips and find how well phrases like "Bow to your sensei" and "Oh, that's gonna wake up the baby" are performing.

We'll have to wait till E3 to know for sure, but rumor has it Hulu is coming to Xbox Live. There are a couple of interesting implications that come to mind:

• Xbox is a social media machine — already having full integration into Twitter and Facebook — adding a Like button and/or @anywhere tag to the opening and closing credits of episodes should be a no-brainer.
• There's a real possibility to have Hulu parties (much like Xbox's current Netflix party feature). You could watch the season finale of Lost with all of your friends without ever leaving your house.
• Microsoft will probably find out that subscription fees don't work — anyone who can hook up an Xbox to their TV can hook up a computer to their TV and stream Hulu for free. This would mean commercial integration into Hulu shows, which could lead to some really groundbreaking commercials. I'm thinking a game/commercial hybrid. These people already have an Xbox controler in their hands, why not take advantage of that?

Loopt is leveraging game mechanics in an effort to grow and drive its user base. With Loopt Star friends are able to check in, earn points and unlock special discounts. 

Using game mechanics can be a successful way for businesses, particularly in the service and retail industry, to increase awareness. Loopt Star's adoption of a leader-board can draw more friends into the fold — when friends see the posts within their own social networks often times they want to join in the competition.

Loopt has also opened up the use of these gaming mechanics to brand partners like The Gap, Universal Music Group, Starbucks and Stanford University to name a few. Check out UMG's Amplified campaign to see this brand partnering in action.

Rumor has it major Facebook game supplier Zynga will soon leave the Facebook platform. Zynga makes FarmVille, Mafia Wars and pretty much every other popular game on Facebook. The rumored dispute is, of course, over money — specifically, what percent of their profits Zynga should have to give Facebook for building on their platform.

The leak, from someone described as a "reliable anonymous source", states:

"Pincus announced at a 5pm meeting yesterday at Zynga that Zynga was going to launch a social game network called Zynga Live. The Zynga Live initiative was a social gaming network. Facebook and Zynga has been negotiating on Facebook Credits and the talks turned for the worst. In the negotiation process, Facebook shut off Zynga’s feeds and threatened to shut down games. Zynga in the process threatened to completely leave Facebook and prepared to do so in the previous upcoming weeks."

The question is, will devoted FarmVille players follow Zynga off of Facebook to keep their crops alive?

For those that remember the oldest of old school PC games, the text-based "choose your own adventure" (see Zork) should ring a bell. Now they're back on a new platform: Twitter. Check out Jonah Peretti's latest creation and don't get lost!