Gamification offers us many benefits, but not without important trade-offs. Nguyen (2021) argues that gamification can alter the nature of the gamified activity in ways that may undermine the game-user’s original aims. Another trade-off is the risk of “value capture”: the exchange of rich, subtle, and personalized values for simplified, often quantified, values that often fail to reflect individuals’ unique circumstances (Nguyen, 2024). How can we harness the benefits of gamification while resisting value capture? In this article, I argue that the virtue of perspective, as outlined by Vallor (2016) is particularly apt for resisting value capture in a gamified world. In doing so, I extend Vallor’s account of perspective through exploring the ways in which it fits into the Aristotelian framework of a mean between excess and defect. I then show how the agent who possesses the virtue of perspective not only resists value capture in gamified contexts, but can use gamification to foster practical wisdom.
