What do destructive driving games and social checkin applications have in common? THEY’RE EVIL! .

I’m speaking from experience here. Many years ago I worked far away from home and sometimes would wind down the work day playing some Carmageddon – the *original* version. With red blood, not green blood. And human targets, not robots or zombies. The goal of game is to rack up points destroying people, property and other cars. After one prolonged session I tidied up my office and got into my car for the long drive home, except this time something was different. As I began to pull out of my parking spot, I began to notice my driving goals were different this time. I viewed fences, street signs, medians and other cars as targets for destruction and had to slow down and concentrate on driving normally. It was truly scary but I made it home safely, after which I instituted a personal rule to have a 30 minute cooldown period after playing before I would attempt to drive home.

Fast forward to the present. With the gamification of social applications, checkin apps like Foursquare encourage you to record your visits to local places like shops, churches and other sites. You earn badges as a result of your “checkins” to these places, even when returning at a later time. Any red-blooded gamer would realize that what better way to score a lot of points and earn badges than to drive around with Foursquare running on your mobile phone and clicking on each location as you drive by. Would you believe this makes you a really sucky driver? I guess I didn’t see that one coming. Even worse than Carmageddon since there’s no cooldown period. Had to put that one down for good.

At least I can find comfort in the fact that a new Carmageddon game is underway and this time I’m prepared!