As Mario said, “big data” is similarly or even vaguer and more diffusive as a term for such a broad topic. Just as gamification it connects to various areas like analytics and comprehends various concepts which can be applied in a multitude of ways.

I guess that after the hype (and the trend of superficial gamification news and articles) slows down we will (hopefully) see more people talking about the connection to the areas and benefits/risks where gamification can be applied (enterprise collaboration [tools], social business, employee/customer engagement, employee integration,…) rather than shallow media reporting. The term gamification as a practice to create more engaging processes/applications/… will remain. But I could imagine that it could be referred to be a subsection within broader and more widely understood areas like ‘engagement concepts or design’.

That’s a pity and we have to overcome this in order to lead Gamification to the next level in its market recognition. To say that Gamification is a loyalty program just because sometimes they share elements like PBLs (points, badges, leaderboards) is like you would say that a soapbox is a car because they share elements like tires or a wheel.

So, I believe that the term will stay but there is a lot of work to do in the longterm to help it to achieve its acknowledgement that it deserves. Otherwise, it will be used by marketeers and people that just want to jump on the bandwagon for short-term selling as a simple PBL machine. And that wont work. Or would you use a bottle Mouton-Rothschild just for cooking a sauce? Sure your could, but…;-)

Anyways, here is a writeup of why the term will stay: http://enterprise-gamification.com/index.php/en/blog/4-blog/143-the-term-gamification-why-i-hate-it-and-why-i-love-it