Game Design, Not Gamification, for Great Products | Andreessen Horowitz
I would advise, as an industry, to pull back from this obsession with user wants and user needs and instead to design for fun. What you want your players to feel, what is the emotional path for them to get there, and how does your software—your business product, if that's what you're building—take them along the path?
Ben Gilbert • Superhuman Part II - Designing Software to Feel like a Game (with Rahul Vohra) | Acquired Podcast
Consider your own product. Is it fun, even without a goal? Does it indulge moments of playful exploration? Does it create moments of pleasant surprise? If so, congratulations because then you have a toy and you're on the way to building a great game.
Rahul Vohra • How to build great products with game design, not gamification
deriving fun and engaging elements found typically in games and thoughtfully applying them to real-world or productive activities.