Smartphone applications have made it easy to keep score in our lives, as if we’re inhabiting a massive video game. Foursquare gives points and badges for checking in to stores and restaurants. Using Nike+, runners can set running goals and track stats from past workouts. From Chore Wars (an app that rewards household tasks) to SuperBetter (a game that aids in recovery from illness), gamification is seeping into every corner of our lives.

This is part inside story and part full disclosure, and while I’m at it, I should say that in 20 years of journalism, I have never looked to personally benefit from a story.

“It just isn’t worthwhile to go duck hunting these days — having to get up early in the morning or sit out in hard weather for a shot or two all day. I wouldn’t want my son to pursue a sport that I love so well that has sunk to such a low level after the way I have known it.”