"That's a typical example of gamification being embedded right into our life, where people are encouraged to do certain activities for which they get points."

In the future, Hamilton predicts, we're going to start seeing games crop up in many more parts of our working lives, whether it's instant performance feedback or a human resources evaluation.

All work and no play makes for a dull workplace

Hamilton says larger companies like his own will perhaps benefit most from "playfulness." He was one of a handful of people at IBM who originally pitched the idea of incorporating gamification into the company's products. The goal was to get the nearly half a million IBM employees, spread across some 170 countries, to work better together.