February 23, 2026
Headlines

Dennis Crowley

Foursquare and the Fun Gap: What Foursquare Should Have Been

Gabe Zichermann410 mins

Today Foursquare announced a new round of debt-based financing amounting to $41M in loans and convertible notes. It has been controversial, because debt-based financing suggests the company has a significant performance problem (Jason Gelman has a good wrap-up of the spirited discussion). Foursquare’s problem has become increasingly clear to Gamification folks over the past two years – it’s just not fun anymore. In the transition from a (great) game to a (good) loyalty program to a (mediocre) recommendations engine, they lost the plot, alienated customers and wasted a ton of resources and time.

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Foursquare’s Removal of Gamification: Not a Mistake but a Mature Design Decision

Ivan Kuo95 mins

Earlier this week, Twitter was run amuck by Foursquare Co-Founder and CEO, Dennis Crowley, and his statements about Foursquare’s overemphasis on gamification elements.

Crowley was discussing the future direction of Foursquare in an on-stage interview with Anil Dash (Co-Founder of Activate) at SXSW and stated that he was phasing out gamification from Foursquare in an effort to move away from the perception that Foursquare is only about points and badges.

Numerous people on Twitter were quick to take these statements as evidence that gamification itself was a mistake, when in fact Crowley explicitly mentioned that it was the overemphasis on points and badges that has led to Foursquare’s perception problem.

In fact, I would say that Crowley’s decision to ultimately phase out Foursquare’s gamification mechanics is one of the most mature decisions a gamification designer can make.

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