English 100 - The Circle: Dystopian Novel and Gamification Analysis

This essay analyzes Dave Eggers' dystopian novel, The Circle, focusing on the character Mae Holland and her experiences within the tech company, 'The Circle.' It examines the concept of gamification implemented by the company, where employees are rated and tracked, and its impact on individual privacy and freedom. The essay explores how the company's integrated web system and technologies like SeeChange cameras and ChildTrack chips, influence the employees' mindset and behavior. It delves into the potential dangers of advanced technology, highlighting the loss of personal autonomy and the consequences of prioritizing transparency over privacy. The essay references the themes of technology, society, and the dark side of gamification, concluding that technological advancements, though innovative, can lead to unforeseen and dangerous consequences. The essay also discusses the book's relevance to the real-world implications of social media and data tracking.

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Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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The CIRCLE by Dave Egger’s, is popularly known as a dystopian novel published in the
year 2013. The story surrounds with the character Mae Holland, who is tech expert, and is
employed in a very powerful company named “The Circle” operated by three experts personnel,
Tom Stenton, an ambitious businessperson, Eamon Bailey, a popular public figure and Ty
Gospodinov, a genius and an inventor (Mondotheque.Be, 2020). She considers herself very
lucky, to be a part of such a gigantic company, although her salary was approximately $62000
and her placement is done in the Customer Experience(CE), which is low, but she was happy as
she got a once in a lifetime opportunity to get her career boosted by working in a renowned
company. The thesis of the study will be dependent on this perception of Mae Holland, and her
adaptation to the concept of “gamification” in the company.
Mae largely owns this job to her best friend and roommate Annie, who is among the
influential person belong in the group named “Gang of 40”, she is among the best 40 of the
companies. Mae was impressed by the infrastructure of the company, because the interiors as
well as operations were combined with topnotch technologies. It was a 400-acre company, and
had all the facilities like dorms, picnic areas, pristine glass and steel offices, party places, day
center and health clinic. The web system of the company is an integrated system, consisting of
social media profiles, payments procedures, passwords; email id’s and accounts, user names and
many more. A quote from the book, “put all of it, all of every user’s needs and tools, into one
pot,” reveals about the gamification level of the company. The company also has aligned their
operations to data tracking and digital innovation, which is considered best tool of Circle. The
specific tools introduced by Circle is SeeChange, Lollipop sized, wireless real time video
cameras, this cameras can be utilized in a globalized way. Circle also introduces a chip, called

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“ChildTrack”, that is capable of planting in the bones of the children. The company has made
their vision to reach utmost credibility through their technology, increase transparency
(Werbach, Kevin, and Dan Hunter). This is the concept of gamification the Circle has, and as
proclaimed by the writer Eggars that this can be a way of darkness, where there is no privacy, as
they believe to include all the information in one pot.
The concept of gamification can increase an employee credibility but does not assure total
development for a person. As Circle, the company implements the concept of gamification, to
alter the mindset and behavioral pattern of an employee, which was observed in Mae Holland’s.
The reason for her being mesmerized with the company, is the high tech technologies and the
facilities they were providing, which made many people think themselves a lucky to be working
there (Furdu, Iulian, Cosmin Tomozei, and Utku Kose). This is considered to be strategy applied
by the company, to keep their employees in track and assure their loyalty towards the company.
The bright side of gamification implemented in a workplace as it brings out the best from the
employees, focusing on their behavioral patterns. Gamification mainly focuses on behavioral
patterns depending on the resulting outcomes; this becomes the major flaw of gamification, as it
differentiates between short-term goals and long-term needs of a business. This is even observed
in case of Mae, as in the very first day of her job, she received ratings from her customer while
handling them, and her work is aligned to a point system of 1-100. The advantage that this rating
system does to the company is that it bring the characteristics of self-regulation among
employees. This does not create the necessity for the authority head, to monitor the work of the
employees, but compels the employees to do. Although, Mae becomes addicted to the work
culture, and therefore could not recognize the darker side of this rating system, which degrades
her to a mere number (Matsumoto, Tae). She gradually changes and spends less time with her

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family, and more in the campus of Circle. In the end, the web system starts to navigate and
monitor her in every activities.
To conclude it can be said that Mae did not refrain or dislike the concept of gamification
as rating system showed her performance and improvement, which in her comparison to her old
job was nonexistent, gradually losing her democracy, privacy and free will. The writer here
presents the consequences of advanced technology and its dark side in the forthcoming days, and
that although technological advantages can sound innovative, sensible and a process to make and
happen things faster, it has is dangerous unknown consequences.

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References
Aziz, Abdul, Ana Mushtaq, and Misbah Anwar. "Usage of gamification in enterprise: A
review." 2017 international conference on communication, computing and digital systems (C-
CODE). IEEE, 2017.
Furdu, Iulian, Cosmin Tomozei, and Utku Kose. "Pros and cons gamification and gaming in
classroom." arXiv preprint arXiv:1708.09337 (2017).
Matsumoto, Tae. "Motivation strategy using gamification." Creative Education 7.10 (2016):
1480.
Mondotheque.Be, 2020,
https://www.mondotheque.be/wiki/images/c/cc/Dave_Eggers_The_Circle.pdf. Accessed 15 Apr
2020.
Werbach, Kevin, and Dan Hunter. The gamification toolkit: dynamics, mechanics, and
components for the win. Wharton School Press, 2015.