Why Netflix Patches Was a Hard No from Me as Parent and Gamification Expert

Face palm Why Netflix Patches Was a Hard No from Me as Parent and Gamification Expert

Recently an article in Variety brought a lot of unwanted attention to gamification. The article was titled “Netflix Is Testing Patches to Gamify Bingeing for Kids

Reading this, my heart sank, a feeling that just got worse as I read the article. To summarise, Netflix was trialing a system that would award children patches or badges for watching TV shows. Completed “A Series of Unfortunate Events”? have a badge…

Netflix told Variety

“We are testing a new feature on select kids titles that introduces collectible items for a more interactive experience, adding an element of fun and providing kids something to talk about and share around the titles they love. We learn by testing and this feature may or may not become part of the Netflix experience.” Read More ...

Bits ‘n’ Bobs

Gmeme Bits 8216 n 8217 Bobs

A few side projects and stuff for you to enjoy.

Gamification Memes: A compilation of my memes over the last few years

Other “Wisdom” Memes…

Some music I’ve been recording for fun (updated often).

Videos with my kids (Challenges mostly)

And finally…. A game made in Construct2 (which doesn’t YET work on mobile…)

Really Simple Gamification – Randomness

IMG 0377 Really Simple Gamification 8211 Randomness

Recently my daughter decided to start her YouTube videos again. Previously she had been doing “opening” videos, where she opened toys nod spoke about them. However, now she wanted to do some more fun spots, with challenges. Her first idea was “The Hot Sauce Challenge”. Basically, eat a spoon of really hot sauce and record the funny reaction. The trouble with that though, it’s not much fun.

One of my favourite definitions of games revolves around deliberately putting obstacles n the way of tasks. The basic idea of eating hot sauce is very simple. However, if you add an obstacle, say an element of randomness, you start to form a game. Read More ...

Are Mario, YouTube & My Little Pony killing my Daughters Imagination?

Imagination 1440664813 Are Mario YouTube 038 My Little Pony killing my Daughters Imagination

I am a huge advocate of the benefit of games. They are amazing and I would quite happily argue with anyone shouting about games and violence, or games being bad for kids. I am also not against T.V. My youngest has amazing shape recognition, counting and even spelling and maths abilities – at three – thanks in large part to Team UmiZoomi!

However, I have started to notice a slightly concerning issue with my eldest daughter. She seems to have no imagination any more, or at least a very reduced functionality one! Read More ...

2013 Blog Round Up

2013 round up 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, 2013With 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 Read More ...