The Gamification of Everything—From Victoria’s Secret to Military Drones

The logic of video games is reshaping the real world. An Australian billionaire is playing a high-stakes game for control of a US retailer, location data from a popular mobile game is being used to train military AI, and even Australia's humble payphones have been turned into a real-world game. Together, these reports point to a single, structural force: the gamification of systems to achieve strategic outcomes, often far from the original intent.

The Corporate Endgame

The most visible example is playing out in a corporate boardroom. Australian billionaire Brett Blundy is waging a campaign to remove the chair of Victoria’s Secret. According to The Guardian, his investment firm, BBRC International, has accumulated a 13% stake in the lingerie brand. This isn't just a passive investment. It's a strategic move to gain leverage, turning a financial position into a platform for a potential hostile takeover. The stock market has always been a competitive arena, but this activist approach treats corporate governance as a game of conquest, where accumulating enough shares is like capturing a strategic point on a map to force a win condition—in this case, board control.

From Pocket Monsters to Military AI

The lines between play and purpose blur further in the technology sector. The Guardian also reports that location data from the augmented reality game Pokémon Go has been used to train artificial intelligence. The objective of this AI is to help military drones recognize and interpret physical spaces in war zones. Millions of people chasing virtual creatures generated a massive, real-world dataset of location scans. This data, a byproduct of global entertainment, now serves a serious military purpose. The 'players' were not willing participants in a defense project; they were simply playing a game. This demonstrates a core principle of the new landscape: the data exhaust from one 'game' can become the primary fuel for another, entirely separate system with life-or-death consequences.

Dialing Up a New Game

Even obsolete technology is being drawn into this trend. In Australia, the ubiquitous orange payphones, now free to use, are experiencing a strange resurgence. The Guardian notes that enthusiasts are 'gamifying' the phone booths, turning a piece of public infrastructure into a source of entertainment, while millions of essential free calls are still being placed each year. This might seem quaint, but it follows the same pattern. A system—in this case, a public utility—is being used in ways its designers never foresaw, with users inventing their own rules and objectives. The system is being played. This pattern indicates a fundamental shift. Whether it's a corporate raider, a defense contractor, or a hobbyist, the most effective operators are those who stop seeing systems as fixed and start seeing them as games to be played, and won, by understanding and exploiting the rules.