Andrzej Marczewski

Gamification Expert, author, consultant and designer. I love to write about it, talk about it and bore people to death with it! If you really want to get to know me, check out the About page.

Narrative Atoms, Story and History

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History banner Narrative Atoms Story and History

A revisit to an old set of thoughts I had on what Narrative is. My general thought is that narrative is real-time telling of a first person experience as it happens. A story is all of the narratives put together from the first “Narrative Atom” of the story until the last! History is the collection of all of the stories and all of the narratives up until now. Beyond that, you are looking at the future.

When I started to look at this concept again, I decided that it was easier to record a little video about it than it was to write! However, the basic idea is that you can imagine history as a lake. When our lives start it is like a pebble being dropped into the lake. Each ripple is a narrative atom in our story. These ripples move out from the centre, touching the stories of others, creating an interconnect web – a collective history. Anway, watch the video to get more of that. Read More ...

5 Steps to a Happier Life with Gamification

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Gamification for a happier life 5 Steps to a Happier Life with Gamification

Ok, this sounds a little “self helpy”, but it came to me when I was doing a lecture for a group of Masters students at Kings College recently. I ended the talk, rather by accident, with the following advice

“Always be sure you know why you are doing things, understand their purpose. It helps to then work towards small goals.  That way no task, no matter how big – even the crushing student debt you probably have right now – will be manageable”

Anyone who has seen me speak knows that I get quite passionate. What they may not know is that I react to the audience and adapt my talks accordingly. This group were great and it felt right to give them a little ad-hoc advice. it got me thinking, though, what lessons from gamification am I applying in my own life day to day? Read More ...

Really Simple Gamification – Randomness

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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 ...

Correcting the Misconceptions Around the Philanthropist User Type and Purpose

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Landscape 1485169810 Correcting the Misconceptions Around the Philanthropist User Type and Purpose

One of the things that happens when you create popular frameworks and the like, is that people like to interpret them to fit their needs. This is why I created the User Types Hexad in the first place – so that I no longer had to interpret Bartle’s Player Types to fit my needs in gamification!

However, what can happen is that the interpretations become more popular than the original and if you are not careful the meaning of the original is lost. This is true of one of the types in my Hexad – and I am not innocent in the issue! I have allowed the change to happen, even integrating it into the types and my motivation framework RAMP. The type in question is the Philanthropist and the motivation Purpose. Read More ...

As Promised – Signed Books for Sale

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Even ninja title As Promised 8211 Signed Books for Sale

Hi all.

Just a quick one here, as many of you know who were at GWC16, I was waiting for a shipment of books to sell there. Well – I finally got them at the end of last year. If you would like to purchase one, please fill in the form below and I will get back to you with payment and delivery details.  The books are 15 euros each, with your message – plus delivery.

So if you are interested, there are only 20 and this is a slightly different print to the one on amazon, as it has an updated Game Thinking chapter to include some changes I made around simulations! Once they are gone, they are gone – I will keep a count here as well Read More ...