2013 Blog Round Up

2013 was all about gamification and loyalty for me. It saw some massive highlights as well, with trips to Portugal and Madrid to do talks as well as meeting a few great people (and a hero or two!).

It was also the year that gave birth to my Gamification User Types, the work I am most proud of so far!

So here is a round up of everything I wrote this year!

Thin Layer vs Deep Level Gamification

Posted on December 23, 2013Fba8a190 2203 48f0 8dd6 7e085a9dbeb3 2013 Blog Round UpWith it nearly being Christmas, I thought I would put out one more blog post before the traditional years round up! This time I want to look at a concept I have been talking about for a while, but have never really explained properly. Thin Layer and Deep Level gamification. Thin Layer Gamification This covers… More…Posted in Gamification

Why I use Thin Layer Gamification on my Blog

Posted on December 17, 20133371b9e0 4b8d 418a 9e84 30d390e4393e 2013 Blog Round UpOne of the things I have been asked on occasion is why I have included the Captain Up gamification platform on my blog. In my own words, I would describe it as “Short Term, Thin Layer” gamification (something I will elaborate on in a future blog). A layer of veneer that has little or no…More…Posted in GamificationOpinionRants

Using the Gamification User Types in the Real World

Posted on December 9, 20137e5e197b 736c 46a2 84db 24674734b0db 2013 Blog Round UpOne of the main questions I get about my User Types, is how do you actually make use of them? What I have provided is a simple framework to look at basic motivations of users who are using your system. However, if it was just an analytical tool, it would not be all that much… More…Posted in Gamification

Collection of gamification thoughts from the last few weeks

Posted on December 2, 2013Eb74a677 d81b 4263 aae3 5350cae4a0ad 2013 Blog Round UpHi all. Not a real blog as such today, just a collection of things I have been doing and saying for the past week or so! A Video First off, the video of my Gamification of a Career talk at Gamification World Congress has now gone up on YouTube 🙂 A Picture I was asked… More…Posted in GamificationLoyalty

Gamification: Quests, Objectives, Goals and more

Posted on November 27, 2013F595e403 cf6f 4309 be17 8a76f7483fb7 2013 Blog Round UpOne of the great things about games is how they handle objectives. Very rarely will you play a game these days that sets out one huge objective and just leaves you to it, they all break the main objective into sub-objectives.  You tend to have an overall story line or a quest. This is then… More…Posted in Gamification

Gamification User Types 2.0

Posted on November 18, 20136f8952b5 413f 4c87 af23 8aee40217f9f 2013 Blog Round UpI mentioned that I was trying to simplify and improve my gamification user types. Version 2 is just that and a little more. After more research and the results of mine and others surveys on the matter, I have realised a few things. The four basic types; Achiever, Socialiser, Philanthropist and Free Spirit are all… More…Posted in Gamification

Designing a simple “Thin Layer” gamified system.

Posted on November 11, 2013A261981b ec08 4839 afcb a8f2d1cbb610 2013 Blog Round UpI thought this week, after 2 years of avoiding it, I would write a short starter for actually creating a gamified system.  This will cover the basics of what I call a Thin Layer system – also known as PBL (Points, Badges and Leaderboards) system. Now, before you all shout at me for explaining how… More…Posted in Gamification

User Types Test: Stats and conclusions

Posted on November 4, 2013Cbab7d44 6f16 4796 9f76 6e3b139fb62d 2013 Blog Round UpSince I first launched my User Types nearly a year ago, I have had lots of great feedback, interesting criticism and a few changes of heart here and there. I have tried to evolve the types and add detail to them, in an attempt to help other people make use of them. The goal was… More…Posted in Gamification

Personal Brand. What is it and why should I care?

Posted on October 29, 201333cdd9fd 5767 4eea a0ee d80542d32d0b 2013 Blog Round UpPersonal brand, like gamification, it one of those terms that seems to come up more and more these days. In a nutshell, personal brand is the image of yourself that others see. By this, I don’t mean the clothes you wear or you haircut (though this can be part of it), I mean something deeper… More…Posted in Social Media

Game Thinking – Breaking it Down

Posted on October 21, 20138df551ce f316 44e2 b4f2 1ac7b9b17f67 2013 Blog Round UpEver since I first started considering Game Thinking, I have been trying to come up with a way to break down all of the parts that make it up. The first attempt was my article about the differences between serious games and gamification. This gave me a basic outline of the 4 areas I considered to…More…Posted in GamificationGaming

Career 2.0 Gamification of a Career – GWC Talk

Posted on October 21, 2013012ea4e2 c41f 416b b04e 45edd996322a 2013 Blog Round UpTo start this week off, a written version of my presentation at Gamification World Congress earlier this year. There will be another post later this week on Game Thinking, but I wanted to give you something for your Monday morning gamification fix 🙂 Career 1.0 The general flow of a career has remained unchanged for… More…Posted in Gamification

A Formulaic Approach to Loyalty

Posted on October 14, 2013896f613c 0752 4aca 9d5d 99b6d15dbd1b 2013 Blog Round UpStill looking at loyalty this week, I wanted to see if we can create a more formulaic approach to it. Now, huge caveat – there is no proof or evidence to support this in anyway, but it makes sense to me, so I thought I would share it!! There are three basic states of Engagement… More…Posted in GamificationLoyalty

Loyalty: What is it and how do you cultivate it?

Posted on October 4, 2013B3d699e9 8d19 4917 99b4 124b5abc3ccf 2013 Blog Round UpI have been meaning to write about this for a while, but it wasn’t until I answered a question for someone yesterday that I had some words that actually made sense to me! Old School Loyalty When we think of loyalty, especially when we consider it in the context of gamification, we tend to think… More…Posted in GamificationLoyalty

What is a game or Why There is a Time and a Place for Philosophical Debates.

Posted on September 30, 201360829f95 ab87 470b 8ed2 67f4e1545ca6 2013 Blog Round UpAfter my last item about serious games (Too Broad a Term to be Meaningful), one topic of debate came up. How can we determine if the term Serious Games is too broad, if we don’t really understand what games are? I have looked into this question before and it has to be said, at an… More…Posted in GamificationGamingOpinionRants

Serious Games: Too Broad a Term to be Meaningful

Posted on September 24, 20136e97cf78 856a 48ce a02a 2ac0d8f1cf9d 2013 Blog Round UpA while back, I wrote a piece on the difference between serious games, games and gamification. It was simple, but covered the important areas of what makes them different from each other.  Since then, I have had more involvement with serious games (recently helped as one of the judges for the Serious Play Awards for… More…Posted in GamificationGamingOpinion

Disruptors: My Negative User Type

Posted on September 16, 20137e7874b1 38a9 4cd7 aa42 0c01bf658214 2013 Blog Round UpOne of the questions I get asked about when people see my User Types, “What about Killers?” Now I have spoken about the Bartle Killer type and why I don’t really account for them in the types. In a nutshell, Killers want to destroy and humiliate other players in MMO’s. This is not a behaviour…More…Posted in Gamification

Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation

Posted on September 9, 201396ed485e 092c 4824 8637 8561d4359ae7 2013 Blog Round UpOne of the most tedious arguments in gamification is that of Intrinsic Motivation vs. Extrinsic Motivation . Not only is it tedious, it is also one of the most written about topics on the web relating to gamification and is one of the main reasons people cite when they tell you why they think gamification… More…Posted in Gamification

Machinations Model of a Basic Points and Badges System

Posted on September 3, 20138f8a8f61 c8ca 4554 b7ca 2c8d6f6b56f0 2013 Blog Round UpMachinations of Gamification Machinations is a fantastic game mechanics modeling tool by Joris Dorman – http://www.jorisdormans.nl/machinations/ It allows you to build an interactive model of the basic structure of many types of game and recently has been getting some attention in the world of gamification. I decided to have a quick play and just build… More…Posted in GamificationGaming

Gamification 2 Years On: what is it now, why is it still important?

Posted on September 2, 2013Af04ec9a 161a 4d2b bf63 fddf1230e972 2013 Blog Round UpA Long, Long Time Ago Just over 2 years ago, I posted an article called “What is Gamification and Why is it Important?” I rediscovered it the other day and it seemed like an appropriate time to reassess my words there. Things have moved on since 2011 in the world of gamification, as has my… More…Posted in Gamification

An Interview with Karl Kapp

Posted on August 26, 2013Ff30e7d9 f574 4784 8018 a68a70d1a964 2013 Blog Round UpTo continue the interview theme for another week, I present my interview with Karl Kapp. Karl is an eLearning expert, author, researcher and all round fountain of information and understanding! Can you sum up what you do in a single sentence? I teach, study, research, write, and educate others about the convergence of learning, technology and pedagogy…More…Posted in GamificationGamingOpinionTechnology

An Interview with Kaye Elling lecturer in Computer Games at the University of Bradford

Posted on August 20, 20132013 Blog Round Up year summary gamification Today I am really happy to have an interview with Kaye Elling. Kaye is a  currently a lecturer in Computer Games at the University of Bradford. Kaye has over 12 years industry experience in game design, with titles such as GTA2, Premier Manager and Bratz on portfolio. Recently she shot to fame after releasing the 51 things… More…Posted in GamificationGaming

Video Tutorial 3 – User Types

Posted on August 12, 20132013 Blog Round Up year summary gamification Hi all. I have finally managed to get into gear and record the third of my video tutorials. It is not great quality, I have a new webcam and put it on the wrong settings – live and learn! This time, I talk about my favorite subject – User Types in gamification. Hope you enjoy… More…Posted in Gamification

The Effect of Time on Decision Making

Posted on August 5, 20132013 Blog Round Up year summary gamification This is a long post for me, with a quick summary at the bottom for those of us who are time poor! For a while now I have been fascinated with why people make certain decisions. There are loads of great papers out there, some of which I actually understand! What has really caught my… More…Posted in Gamification

Gamification in the WIld: Examples and Case Studies

Posted on July 29, 20132013 Blog Round Up year summary gamification Firstly and apology. This is just a copy of a chapter in my book (Gamification a Simple Introduction). I had meant to post this some time ago, but have been saving it for a day such as today. At the moment I am research a little for my next proper article as well as trying… More…Posted in Gamification

Carification – Looking Back

Posted on July 22, 20132013 Blog Round Up year summary gamification Hi, I’m Andrzej. I am a blogger and speaker on Carification. Now, I’m sure most of you know what this is all about, but I thought I would start with a little look at what carification is and a short history lesson on it. So, first off, what is Carification? There are many variations on… More…Posted in GamificationOpinion

Gamification Spreads its Wings to India

Posted on July 18, 2013India’s first Gamification conference is happening Oct 4 in Bangalore. The speaker list is up and the line-up is pretty impressive. Speakers include Mario Herger, Yu-kai Chou, Fergie Miller, Shahnawaz Khan and more. The chance to get face-to-face with leading deployers from the world of gamification, to learn the power of engaging design, how to…More…Posted in Gamification

Achievement, Not Just for Achievers! 

Posted on July 16, 20132013 Blog Round Up year summary gamification Achievement is a word that, in gamification especially, has several potential meanings and can cause significant confusion. In gamification, it is often associated with things like points and badges. The same can be said for video games these days (think Xbox achievements and Playstation trophies). To confuse things more, people can be categorised in gamification… More…Posted in Gamification

Extrinsically and Intrinsically Motivated User Types

Posted on July 8, 20132013 Blog Round Up year summary gamification Yep, it’s User Types again. However, what I want to write about now is a simpler view of the full 8 types, why there are 8 and how they are related.  There is some confusion over this as originally I published 5 types, then spoke only about 4 of them and then released 8 –… More…Posted in Gamification

Purpose – A little bit can go a long way

Posted on July 1, 20132013 Blog Round Up year summary gamification Recently I have been thinking about purpose or meaning a lot. It’s one of the four motivators from RAMP that seems to be the hard to explain and achieve. When I first started looking into gamification, people used to talk about Epic Meaning when speaking of game mechanics (incorrectly, but that is another story).  This… More…Posted in Gamification

Bartle’s Killers . A misunderstood group of people.

Posted on June 24, 20132013 Blog Round Up year summary gamification Last week I had the opportunity to present at the fabulous Gamification World Congress 2013. Among other things, it was the first and probably only times I would see my face on a 10 foot screen on the front of a building! Another highlight in a day of highlights, was getting the opportunity to spend… More…Posted in GamificationGaming

Supporting Gamification User Types

Posted on June 17, 20132013 Blog Round Up year summary gamification Continuing down the road of User Types for gamification, I wanted to go into a little more details about how you support the different types of user in your system. Looking at last weeks post about user types and the 4Keys2Fun, there were a few usable ideas, now I shall add a few more.  I… More…Posted in Gamification

Money, Motivation and Common Sense

Posted on June 13, 20132013 Blog Round Up year summary gamification Here I am again, considering extrinsic rewards and their effect on motivation. Recently I was told that it is obvious that if a person is given more money to do their job, that they will do it better and probably enjoy it more. I stopped myself quoting Deci or Pink, I smiled, politely disagreed and… More…Posted in Gamification

Gamification User Types and the 4 Keys 2 Fun

Posted on June 5, 20132013 Blog Round Up year summary gamification I am pretty excited about this one. Gamification User Types When I created my gamification User Types definitions, it was with a mind to help people consider who is going to be in their gamified systems and what may motivate them. I started with the intrinsic motivation RAMP I keep talking about, Relatedness, Autonomy, Mastery… More…Posted in GamificationGaming

Gamification Tutorial Series – Episode 1 and 2

Posted on June 2, 20132013 Blog Round Up year summary gamification The beginning of June sees not only sunshine, but also a new series of short tutorial / information videos that a few people have asked me to do. The first video is just a very short introduction to gamification. In it I talk a little about what it is and what it isn’t. The second… More…Posted in Gamification

Teams and Competitive play.

Posted on May 27, 20132013 Blog Round Up year summary gamification Last week there was no post from me. The reason was that I was working on rebuilding my games review site (www.yetanotherreviewsite.co.uk). Take a look, you may like it!! Anyway, it got me thinking, as I looked over the games we have reviewed over the years. What do people like playing? Obviously the answer is… More…Posted in GamificationGaming

Play, Games, Fun, Imagination and Grown Ups

Posted on May 13, 20132013 Blog Round Up year summary gamification When I was a kid, I was always liked to play – like most children. I used to make up games with my action figures, set up scenarios around the house and garden and then act them out.  I would set little rules up to dictate how the action figures could move and interact with… More…Posted in GamificationGaming

Why does Gamification Fail?

Posted on May 6, 20132013 Blog Round Up year summary gamification A question I get asked a lot is, “Why does gamification fail?”. Gartner said that by 2014, 80% of gamified systems will fail due to poor design. My question is, what is poor design? I had thought that it was really just implementing “thin layer” points, badges and leader boards to a system that was… More…Posted in GamificationGaming

More on Gamification and Careers

Posted on April 29, 20132013 Blog Round Up year summary gamification Extrinsic Rewards and the User Journey A couple of small bits this week whilst I pull together more substantial work (I’m not a machine!!) First a small revisit of my Flow and User Journey work. In various conversations I have had about the use of rewards in a gamified systems the general question is always… More…Posted in GamificationOpinion

Accessibility and Immediacy

Posted on April 22, 20132013 Blog Round Up year summary gamification Whilst I process the amazing presentations, talks and general chats that happened at SocialNow, I wanted to put together a quick post around the ideas of accessibility and immediacy. Imagine the situation.  You are an airport and have thousands of people moving through your building every day. Most have a very predictable path. Land, get… More…Posted in GamificationTechnology

Intrinsic Motivation RAMP, Ethics, a game and an interview!

Posted on April 15, 20132013 Blog Round Up year summary gamification Lots happening this week, the biggest being the fact that I will be presenting at SocialNow.org this week.  As such, it has been mostly prep for that in the last couple of days, so no time for a proper blog I’m afraid.  However, I still have some bits for you. The first.  I started writing… More…Posted in Uncategorized

Motivation, let’s get real for a moment.

Posted on April 6, 20132013 Blog Round Up year summary gamification Dan Pink and Ryan & Deci are quoted a lot when we talk about motivation – I include myself in that and this is good – they have a lot of research to back up everything they say. The basic quote usually revolves around. Money is not a good motivator. Mastery, Purpose, Autonomy and in… More…Posted in Gamification

The gamification of a career

Posted on April 3, 20132013 Blog Round Up year summary gamification A fair few of my recent posts have revolved around how we can use ideas from games / gamification to improve certain aspects of an employee’s “journey” through their career. I thought it may be time to pull it all together in a single coherent (I hope) post! It makes sense to start with an… More…Posted in Gamification

Easter Delays

Posted on April 1, 20132013 Blog Round Up year summary gamification Hello and I hope all of you who celebrate Easter had a good time! Just a quick note to say that this weeks blog will be a little delayed due to holidays and stuff. It will be about using some off my previous career related Gamification posts to create a potential strategy for employers. I… More…Posted in GamificationGaming

Feedback Loops, Gamification and Employee Motivation

Posted on March 25, 20132013 Blog Round Up year summary gamification To anyone involved in game design, feedback loops will be a well known concept. To those in gamification, they are often talked about, but not everyone will know what they actually are and how they can be used. Feedback loops come in two main flavors; positive feedback loops and negative feedback loops. Which ever you… More…Posted in GamificationOpinionRants

Content is King – Even in Gamification

Posted on March 18, 20132013 Blog Round Up year summary gamification [CQPage points=”50″ title=”Hail to the King Baby!” found=”Nice one, you found %title%. Have you found the rest yet?” seen=”You have found %title% already, but there may be more!” register=”-“] We have all heard the saying “Content is King”. Marketers tell us this, SEO experts, PR people, writers and more. They promote quality over quantity as… More…Posted in GamificationSocial Media

Gamification, Hypocrisy, Snoop Dogg and Words

Posted on March 11, 20132013 Blog Round Up year summary gamification A couple of weeks ago I put out an article that tried to define the differences between serious games, games and gamification. It was received very well, with a few people even asking for permission to use it in PhD course work. The work I did was based on researching the “average” definitions of each… More…Posted in GamificationGaming

Mario as a Metaphor for your Career

Posted on March 4, 20132013 Blog Round Up year summary gamification When you consider your career, unless you are a games developer, I am pretty sure Mario does not enter your thoughts all that much. However, this game (as with almost all other games really) can teach us a lot about how we can plan our careers and how businesses really need to reconsider how they… More…Posted in GamificationGaming

Social Now Event

Posted on March 1, 20132013 Blog Round Up year summary gamification Event management for Social Now – Tools for Workforce Collaboration powered by Eventbrite Normally, I would not post a press release about an event, however… I will be speaking at this one, so have a look!! Of course it will be a great event either way, well worth a look if your organisastion is interested… More…Posted in GamificationSocial Media

What’s the difference between Gamification and Serious Games?

Posted on February 25, 20132013 Blog Round Up year summary gamification Last week, some of you may have seen that I created a new page that tried to summarise the differences between gamification, serious games, real games and gameful design. I posted the following chart to as a quick reference guide. Anyone who has read my blogs will know that I am a little against the… More…Posted in GamificationGaming

Status, motivation and primal instinct

Posted on February 18, 20132013 Blog Round Up year summary gamification Note, when I am talking about user types, I am referring to my classification  user types found here! Status in the realms of gamification is a funny thing. It is something that we all agree is important, but seem divided on its nature. Some talk about it as an intrinsic motivator others extrinsic. In the animal kingdom status is simple,… More…Posted in Gamification

Prompts. Learning from kids toys and LinkedIn

Posted on February 13, 20132013 Blog Round Up year summary gamification Ok, so maybe a serious blog this week. Prompts are important, we use them all the time, but we probably don’t think much about them. Do you set yourself reminders on your phone or in Outlook? Meeting requests, messages on your pin board at home to remind you what to by at the shops, Post… More…Posted in GamificationSocial MediaTechnology

Happy Days and No Blog this Week!

Posted on February 12, 20132013 Blog Round Up year summary gamification Hi all. I’ve been hit by the dreaded lurgie and have had flu for several days now. Makes it hard to come up with a blog post that is worthy of you all spending time on! Instead I will remind you of one of my definitions of Gamification – adding the unusual to the usual… More…Posted in Gamification

User Types in Gamification – Part 2: Players and Balance

Posted on February 4, 20132013 Blog Round Up year summary gamification Last week I started to explore my ideas about the different types of users there are likely to be in a gamified system. I have had loads of feedback, mostly very positive. Thanks for that. One question that keeps coming up is “what about the Player user type”? “There must be more too it!”. The…More…Posted in Gamification

Different Types of Users in Gamification

Posted on January 30, 20132013 Blog Round Up year summary gamification There is rather an important update at the end after Richard Bartle offered me some advice! It had to happen eventually. I had to look at some kind of “player type” theory.  Many people have one, Richard Bartle probably having the most famous and most abused of the player type theories out there. What’s it… More…Posted in Gamification

Gamification a Little on Leaderboards

Posted on January 21, 20132013 Blog Round Up year summary gamification Leaderboards are an effective way to show a user quickly where they currently stand within a gamified system. A fun example is the Gamification Gurus leaderboard from the company Leaderboarded. Each month they release an update that shows  who has been active in the gamification world that month.  It is a great example of a… More…Posted in Gamification

Game Mechanics in Gamification

Posted on January 14, 20132013 Blog Round Up year summary gamification This is a long post for me, so get a cup of tea now! One of the main things that I have found whilst research and writing about Gamification, is that the terms and the language we use don’t always seem to fit what were actually doing. As gamification matures, so to should the language… More…Posted in Gamification

Feedback and Drivers in Gamification

Posted on January 7, 20132013 Blog Round Up year summary gamification I spoke about rewards and reward schedules a couple of weeks ago, now I want to look at feedback.  If I am honest, this will repeat ideas I have mentioned before, but is should give a little more meat and context. Feedback comes in many forms, not all of them as obvious as we may…More…Posted in Gamification

Gamification: Pianists vs Computers

Posted on January 3, 20132013 Blog Round Up year summary gamification A thought that spawned from the back of a great Quora discussion about the role games designers in the world of gamification. You can program a computer to play the most stunning works of classical music. You can create vast orchastras who never miss a not, or simple and flawless solo piano performances. So why… More…Posted in GamificationOpinion

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