I like your point of viewing Steem from a perspective of gamification. I do think it makes a lot of sense from that perspective. At one time, a game in China was so hot that people put real money in to buy 'supplies' in the game and the game 'coins' can be exchanged to money in the real world. Later, the Chinese government banned that since they don't want the game coin, which is controlled by one company, to challenge real world money. However, I think the Chinese government is now more curious (compare to the game coin) on a decentralized coin.