A New Book Developing and a Not New Book!

Even Ninja Monkeys Like to Play 1 A New Book Developing and a Not New Book

Hey all. Just a quick one this post, to tell you about t

I have finally started on a new book, preovisionally called Even Ninja Monkeys Have Bad Days, which will be more about how I use gamificaiton in day to day life than it is for business and degin.

Next, I have rereleased Even Ninja Monkeys Like to Play: Unicorn Edition as The Gamification Design Handbook. This is a tactical thing rather than a rewrite – so there is no new content, just a new cover. Like when Harry Potter was released with kids covers and adult covers! Read More ...

Books, Music, Advice, Return to Quality Content and Stuff

Cover banner Books Music Advice Return to Quality Content and Stuff

Hi all.

So, I wanted to give a bit of a life update as the site has been lacking in what I would consider “quality content”. I have had to take a bit of a step back recently for various reasons. I have been writing here about gamification for since 2011 on an almost weekly basis. At some stage, you run out of ideas! I also have just finished the new book, so needed to distract myself away from gamification a little.

As such, I have been doing more music-related content on YouTube.  Every year I try to challenge myself with something new. This year it was to start doing more around guitar, a passion of mine for the past 25 years. This saw me starting up the YouTube channel and just this week releasing some music on Spotify, iTunes and Google Play.

Now here is the advice bit… Just like I always tell you in gamification design, I set realistically achievable challenges that matched my skill levels along the way. I don’t set expectations, I set goals. First was to get YouTube going, next was Instagram and now releasing music officially.

Whilst I was doing this, I also (as you know) published the latest version of Even Ninja Monkeys Like to Play. Amazon messed up how this was released sadly, so it has been a bit hard to find on their store. As such I have extended the lower price (12.99 vs 15.99) for another week – get it now!

With all of this said, I shall return to more gamification related content from next week. In the meantime, I would ask something of all of you.

  • First, please, if you have bought the book, review it on Amazon and rate it. I know it is a pain, but it really helps the positioning of the book. In the UK I only had 2 reviews on the book in 3 years despite very healthy sales.
  • Second, if you have a moment, please do check my music out on YouTube or Spotify (as they are free). If you are feeling it, then, of course, you can buy it on iTunes and Google Play. Only 3 songs at the moment, but I plan to release more over time.
  • Finally, if you are into guitar, please subscribe to my YouTube channel!
  • Read More ...

    New Book: Even Ninja Monkeys Like to Play Unicorn Edition (Special Price)

    Even Ninja Monkeys Like to Play Title New Book Even Ninja Monkeys Like to Play Unicorn Edition Special Price

    So, after much time wasted for various reasons my new Gamification book, Even Ninja Monkeys Like to Play: Unicorn Edition is finally available on Amazon as a paperback. The eBook will be available on Monday!

    This is a much bigger book, with around 100 extra pages since the last version. Also, the majority of chapters have had some sort of update. There are some that have remained untouched, but not many!

    For 1 week it will be available for the price of £12.99 (or equivalent local price), but will rise to around £15.99 after that – so if you want a copy, now is the time to grab it. The eBook will be £9.99 or £2.99 if you buy the paperback version.  Below is the main index, so you can see what has changed. Here is a free chapter to check out as well – “How to Use Narrative to Create
    Deeper Experiencesr

    Get the book here if you are in the UK

    PaperbackeBook

    Buy the Paperback

    Buy the eBook

    This is the hugely updated second edition of Even Ninja Monkeys Like To Play. A guide to using gamification and game thinking to create engaging experiences for people. This book takes you on a journey through the theories on which gamification is built, onto practical advice for building gamified solutions.

    “A book that dances in the space where psychology and game design meet, offering practical guidance to gamification – all tied together with Andrzej’s best-in-class categorisation of what works most appropriately for whom.”

    — Dr Richard Bartle, Professor of Game Design at the University of Essex, Author of “Designing Virtual Worlds”

    Andrzej Marczewski’s book “Even Ninja Monkeys Like To Play” gives extraordinary and important knowledge upon the topic of gamification and game thinking strategies. It is a must read for anyone having a beginning interest or even for veterans of the topic. It provides more than a base of information for anyone to pick it up and understand the topic more deeply.

    — Dr. Anthony Bean, Ph.D., Video Game Expert and Researcher

    Contents

    • The Theory of Games, Play and Gamification
      • What is Gamification?
      • What Are Games and Play?
      • What Are Game Mechanics?
      • What is Fun?
      • What is Game Thinking?
      • Gamification and Game Thinking in Practice
      • Ethical Considerations of Gamification

      The Science of Gamification

      • What Motivates Us?
      • The Intrinsic Motivation RAMP
      • What is Flow and Why is it Important?
      • User Types in Gamification (The HEXAD)
      • The Neuroscience of Gamification

      Building Gamified Solutions

    • How to Start with The User Journey
    • How to Use Points, Badges and Leaderboards
    • How to Set Clear Goals
    • How to Design Good Feedback and Reward Systems
    • How to Design a Simple Gamified System
    • How to Understand Emotions in Gamification Design
    • How to Use Narrative to Create Deeper Experiences
    • How to Create Playful Experiences
    • How to Handle Cheating
    • How to See it From the User’s Perspective
    • Gamification Mechanics and Elements
    • Read More ...

    Beware of Popularity Contests

    Book thumbs Beware of Popularity Contests

    Voting. A fair and representational way to decide if A is better than B… Isn’t it? A simple mechanic where people are asked to express their opinion by way of simply ticking a box, or clicking a button or whatever.

    However, as we can see time and time again, this is not actually as fair as it seems on the face of it. Instead of being a fair view of what people feel about something, it actually turns into a popularity contest.

    If you set up a competition where the criteria is “he who has the most votes wins”, what do you think is going to happen? Are those invovled going to just sit back and wait for votes to come in, or are they going to campaign? If they campaign, who will they campaign to? Will they be people who can make an informed decision on what is actually the best option, or will it be friends, family and social media followers? Worse still, will it be people who have been encouraged into voting (read bribed)?

    What you get then is people with the biggest networks winning the vote, rather than the best option winning. It also creates some abhorrent behaviour. I have seen simple votes fall into farce when people try to buy votes, or “bend” the rules to create a situation where they just win by the sheer volume of “friendly” voters.

    I’ve seen systems that tried to balance this by only allowing a pool of experts in the field vote. In theory, this is better, as at least it gets those who may know what they are talking about involved. However, again, this is easily gamed when the definition of an expert is not solid. What can happen then is those who are desperate win start to get their friends to appear to be experts to get into the voting system. Again, it falls apart and becomes a popularity contest.

    I am not offering an alternative, though I often feel that expert panels are a better way to go. The point is that if you create a system that heavily relies on a popularity vote, be prepared for unexpected results and a backlash! Make sure that any rules around eligibility are strongly enforced. Be sure that checks and balances are in place to prevent a pure popularity campaign winning. This just sours it for those who entered in good faith. Everyone should have a fair chance of winning, not just those with the most “friends”…

    Oh, the image has nothing to do with the topic – that’s some of the pages from the new second edition of Even Ninja Monkeys Like to Play – the Unicorn Edition! Coming out in the next week or so 😉

    Looking for some feedback

    Uni1 Looking for some feedback

    Hi all. No words of pseudo-wisdom this week, just looking for some feedback!

    Last year I wrote an updated version of Even Ninja Monkeys Like to Play called the Unicorn Edition.

    It contains large updates to the content as well as 50 or so new pages.

    Now, I sent this to a few publishers and have been spending many months working with one to get a proposal together. However, it looks like I will need to completely rewrite the book to fit their audience. No more monkeys or unicorns!

    My question to you all is (and answer here or on twitter http://www.twitter.com/daverage), would you like me to release the Unicorn version on Amazon myself, or would you rather wait for the more “business” friendly version if/when it comes out?

    Also, if you fancy being a beta reader for the current draught, just out of interest, let me know.

    Thanks all!