I recently discovered a really strange phenomenon called Shipping. This is the creation of fantasy relationships between celebrities that may have been in films together or on TV together. For instance there are a group who call themselves Damie Shippers. They have created a fantasy world where Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson. from Fifty Shades of Grey, are really trying to be a couple. This is despite Dornan being happily married to Amelia Warner. They are not the only ones, they just happen to be the ones I have explored!
The Dislike Button – I was wrong
A long time ago, I wrote a short bit on why I wanted to be able to dislike comments on Facebook (and anywhere else for that matter). In my mind (at the time) I was trying to put across the point that we live in a world where we are not allowed to be negative for fear of offending people.
My vision of a dislike button would have lead to a world where the useless or unhelpful crap that filled much of social media could be slowly trained out. By that I mean that trolls and the like would learn that if everything they post can be disliked and hidden, that they would just crawl away and die.
10 Minute Shake Up from NHS and Disney
Over the summer, the NHS lead programme Change4Life, ran a great campaign aimed at getting kids to do a little bit of excercise. It was called “10 Minute Shake Up” and was done in partnership with Disney.
For starters this is a great idea and one that I whole heartedly support. But the idea was just part of it, the execution is why I have decided to write about it. It was a beautifully realised gamified event.
A few weeks before the summer holidays started, an advertising campaign began for the 10 Minute Shake Up. It invited parents to sign up, for free, to get a pack for their child. Each pack was based on one of four Disney franchises: Toy Story, Big Hero Six, Frozen and Monsters Inc.
Are Mario, YouTube & 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!
The Hype is Over – Gamification is Here to Stay
Welcome to my first post holiday blog. Lots going on, not least of which I have now got a draft of my book! You can register your interest in buying it here -> Sign up for notifications about Even Ninja Monkeys Like to Play. I am looking at ways to apply a discount for people who sign up 🙂
Now to business.
Today, two interesting things came to my attention about the state of gamification. The first was Gartner’s Hype Cycle. For those that don’t know, Gartner predict how technology will be adopted over time in a cycle of 5 phases. Below is the description of each taken from their website