By Tonia Allen Gould
X POST:
What if I’ve been gamified?
Not in the “earn points” kind of way.
More like: TAG—you’re it.
Tracked. Mapped. Scored.
I didn’t sign up for the beta test.
This isn’t Pokémon Go—it’s Pokémon No.
But some of us are paying attention.
You should too
#gamification #TAG #youreit #situationalawareness #digitaltracking #truthseeker
I’ve been tracking something. And something may be tracking me.
My name is Tonia Allen Gould, and for years people have called me “TAG.” When people leave me messages, they sometimes say, “TAG You are it!” My name has become synonymous with my personal and corporate brand at TAGSOURCE, LLC.
I’m throwing everything up in the air to see how it lands—to see what sticks—to figure out WHY this is happening to me. It is in fact easy to suspect everyone and everything after you have been repeatedly victimized.
That does not make me paranoid. Not in the clinical sense.
It’s a protection mechanism.
It means I am advocating for myself.
The way my brain works—equal parts creative and analytical—may have its advantages. Right now, I’m allowing my creative brain to consider everything to put an end to the criminal activity that has found me.
Throw it up in the air.
See where it lands.
See what sticks.
So here’s a time I’m allowing my creative brain to speak out and advocate for myself, before my analytical brain shoots it down.
What if I Have been Gamified?
TONIA ALLEN GOULD. Many people call me TAG. Friends, colleagues, strangers—shortly after meeting me.
What if my nickname has taken on a darker meaning—because I’ve come to suspect I’ve been tagged in ways I never agreed to. Tracked. Mapped. Maybe even scored.
This isn’t drama. It’s observation. It’s data. It’s noticing how strange things happen in patterns. Like apps glitching the moment someone pulls up outside. Like three honks followed by a delivery. Like a vehicle alarm going off when no one’s around, then silence, then two key fobs with batteries that die on the same day and the truck can’t start without them.
When you’ve been targeted, everything becomes something to assess. So I do what I’ve always done—I analyze. I ask questions. I pay attention. I track the patterns.
Today, I’ve given my Creative Brain voice.
ID, meet ego. Ego. Meet ID.
My Analytical Brain now wants to explore it.
Gamification: A System Hiding in Plain Sight
Gamification—once a buzzword for making work and wellness “fun”—has quietly become a mechanism for shaping behavior. It rewards compliance, incentivizes movement, and tracks you in the name of progress. The line between play and surveillance has all but vanished.
Let’s look at a few real-world examples:
Amazon’s Warehouses: Workers are ranked in real time. Pick faster, win the game. Fall behind, get flagged.
Fitness & Location Apps: Tools like Strava and Pokémon Go turn your life into a dashboard of data. Every step, every turn—recorded.
Government Behavior Scoring: China’s Social Credit System scores citizens on everything from bill payments to friendships.
Cybersecurity Simulations: Corporations use game-style phishing tests to train employees, rewarding the “best” responders.
Behind the badges and leaderboards, data is harvested. Behavior is recorded. Movement is monetized.
So what happens when that same model is used not for engagement—but for control?
When You Become the Game.
What I’m describing isn’t theoretical. It’s based on lived experience—an ever-growing list of strange events and real-world triggers that appear to respond to my digital actions. They are close. They are frequent. And they are coordinated. My family has witnessed trespassers on our small, hillside farm. A younger demographic.
But what if the players too, are being played, too?
When the Game Isn’t Just a Game
But what if the players are being played too?
Imagine this: kids signing up for an online game of TAG, powered by mommy and daddy’s credit card, thinking it’s all fun and harmless. The game involves tracking real people—unwitting targets—using geolocation tools masked as entertainment.
Every move, every ping, every post becomes a data point.
And behind the scenes? The real players—the ones pulling the strings—get a live feed of the targeted victim’s whereabouts in real time. That’s the real score.
And mommy and daddy’s credit card gets data mined for future fraud.
This kind of game isn’t just about points. It’s about control.
In this gamified system, I’m not a player.
I’m the objective.
Whether it’s for surveillance, manipulation, intimidation, or some other agenda, I don’t know yet. But I do know this: I’m not imagining it. I’m documenting it. And others need to start asking these questions too.
The Bigger Picture
If technology can reward us for our steps, rank us on our work, and map us down to the footstep—what makes us think it can’t be used to track, score, or target people in ways we never consented to?
Who’s behind it? What’s the goal? Where is the line?
I don’t have all the answers. But I do know the questions are worth asking—and I won’t stop asking them.
Because if I’ve been tagged, you could be next.
TAG, You Are It.
#gamification #digitaltracking #TAG #truthseeker #dataethics #youreit
Tonia Allen Gould 