I think you&#x27;re thinking of a very specific meaning of &quot;game design.&quot; Game design is the design (and the craft) of systems of incentives, and you can really [dis-]incentivize pretty much anything you can imagine. The government has some game designers (though they didn&#x27;t hire them under that job title) responsible for figuring out new tax credits to incentivize certain patterns of purchasing, spending, home-ownership, family-starting, whatever.<p>In this case, consider LoL&#x27;s honor system[1]: an incentive system designed explicitly to reward good sportsmanship, which apparently works quite well.<p>You own company could make a game out of, for example, technical debt: imagine the equivalent of &quot;carbon credits&quot; handed out for good work, that team-members must then buy from their peers (not necessarily with money) to be able to commit technical-debt-creating code.<p>[1] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.themarysue.com&#x2F;so-far-so-good-league-of-legends-takes-an-honorable-approach-to-improving-player-behavior&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.themarysue.com&#x2F;so-far-so-good-league-of-legends-t...</a><p>---<p>And, on a tangent, here&#x27;s a bit of a rant: game designers are really wasted on the current trend of &quot;casual game&quot; slot machines. Game design isn&#x27;t about &quot;how to make people addicted to a game&quot; any more than industrial design is about &quot;how to make people keep pressing the buttons on your radio.&quot; Inspiring addiction is what CEOs want, but it&#x27;s not what game designers are trained in. Companies like Zynga could have done much better hiring people with experience in designing the layouts for casinos and theme parks.