Some really interesting points here from several different perspectives which is what makes these posts so valuable.

For me, whilst I certainly share the view that gamification is already miss used and miss understood by many and do agree that work is intrinsically 'just another game' - I do support gameful design and believe it is a key element to course design today.

With regard to the badges debate, I feel this is a separate topic and one that exists outside of the gamification debate. Although of course it's an option to tie in badges with a reward system for learning, I feel the concept of the universal badge is much bigger than this and shouldn't be confused with gamification.