Andrzej Marczewski: Gamification Thought Leader

Combat School, retro games, imagination and broken bones.

May 1, 2013July 11, 2011 by Andrzej Marczewski

I suppose I could call this the “Realification of Games”, but I won’t!

A slightly related more recent article I wrote can be found here Don’t See what’s there, see what’s not there.

“When I were a lad, games were better”.
That is often an opening gambit of any retro game lover. Of course it is not precisely true for all retro games. It would be more accurate to say; “when I were a lad, I loved the games we had available to us”.

That is not to say some were not better, but try convincing a modern gamer that any C64 game was better and they will laugh at you – before trying it. You see the sad fact is, they all look crap compared to the current photo realistic games we have. Read More ...

Online Gaming. A positive and enjoyable past time.

April 12, 2013July 2, 2011 by Andrzej Marczewski

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away… oh wait wrong story.

A few years ago, in a town somewhere in Cardiff, before I was a father or even married (I was at University), I got my first taste of online gaming. More specifically, clan gaming.

The game in question was Starship Troopers on the AOL network. It was a fairly simple Birdseye view space shooter, set in the Starship Troopers universe. What made it stand out was the fact that you needed to use real teamwork to get anywhere in it. Until then, most games I had played just needed you to run around shooting each other (Duke Nukem, Doom, Quake). None of them needed or promoted teamwork. Read More ...

He who shouts loudest isn’t always the most knowledgeable.

June 30, 2011 by Andrzej Marczewski

ATTENT03 He who shouts loudest isn 8217 t always the most knowledgeable

Rant alert!

The more blogs, articles, and tweets I read, the more I am seeing people described as experts. Often this is self-proclaimed, but not always.

The Oxford Dictionary describes an expert as:
“a person who is very knowledgeable about or skilful in a particular area”

Some of these people are legitimately experts. They know huge amounts about their field and can be very informative and interesting. Sadly, this is not always the case.

I am finding more and more that the people who make the most noise are being classed as experts (again, often by themselves). The travesty is that others listen, because as is the rule of the playground – He who shouts loudest will be listened to. Read More ...

Gamification: what is it, why is it important?

August 3, 2011June 24, 2011 by Andrzej Marczewski

Just as a thought, as a tag line – Gamification: why you have been doing it since you were a small child.

Gamification is another one of those words that seems to be getting a lot of use at the moment, a little bit like Cloud. If you look at the Internet for a description (in my case Wikipedia) you get;

“Gamification is the use of game play mechanics for non-game applications (also known as “funware”), particularly consumer-oriented web and mobile sites, in order to encourage people to adopt the applications. It also strives to encourage users to engage in desired behaviors in connection with the applications. Gamification works by making technology more engaging, and by encouraging desired behaviors, taking advantage of humans’ psychological predisposition to engage in gaming. The technique can encourage people to perform chores that they ordinarily consider boring, such as completing surveys, shopping, or reading web sites.” Read More ...