Deano’s answer to: “When gamification hides market signals, is this necessarily a bad thing?”

This question seems to overcomplicate matters – the best use of gamification in taxation would be to simplify the game ruleset to allow for "more efficient/enjoyable play".

Still, to stick with the question as asked – if the process of doing taxes actually assisted people in learning more about their current and future financial health, that might make the "game" more fun. One possible example of this are online tax prep services like turbotax.com – which provides help with confusing line items, as well as vaguely-useful advice on how to improve one's position in the current and future tax years.

It doesn't get all the way to fun, but I think that's largely due to the overall complexity/length of the process before any positive feedback is given (other than a constantly-changing "amount owed" figure up top, which can certainly help if it's in the 'refund' column).

When gamification hides market signals, is this necessarily a bad thing?