Finding inspiration at the most inconvenient times

I have a habit of flicking through old tweets or previously saved web pages before I go to bed. 9 times out of ten the content will be trivial and most likely involve a cat doing some hilarious antics as is the way of internet procrastination. However i seem to have struck oil tonight in discovering ArmchairRevolutionary, a site which encourages participants to do realworld good while feeling like you are playing a virtual game while at the same time being rewarded with ‘Kreds’ - an equivalent virtual currency to real world donations.

While I am always sceptical about converting my cash into pixels, I do love hearing about a system where offline consequences are derived from online action which draws its inspiration from videogames. The blog at Good.is explains what i mean really well:

The idea of Armchair is to translate something that games do well—reward incremental actions—into something tangible.

…[G]ames are excellent at spurring small individual actions into large collective efforts. By rewarding each small behavior with “Kredz,” everyone has a chance to chip away at a larger problem.

The system is still beta but I think this collectively conscientious gameplay is certainly one to take note of. It will definitely be interesting to see what the future outcomes are.