Gamification

Gamification: A thought for those who don’t want it.

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Stamp 895383 960 720 Gamification A thought for those who don 8217 t want it

One of the blockers for gamification is often staff feeling insulted in some way by it. Whether it is because they feel the money could have been better spent, that the concept is beneath them or just that they are resistant to any change at all.

It is true that gamification is often used in enterprise when someone feels there is a need to increase productivity in some way. That may be by using metrics delivered from a gamified environment to map pain points, or areas where there could be productivity increases. It could be by improving the training materials, or making them more palatable. The point is, these are all things that employees have to buy into for them to work. Read More ...

New Site Covering Global Serious Games Industry News Launched

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Sgi New Site Covering Global Serious Games Industry News Launched

I don’t often post press releases on this site, but I thought this one was worth doing!

The serious games industry has a new global news site, the first international medium authored by journalists dedicated to covering serious games — www.seriousgamesindustry.com.Updated daily, the site covers worldwide news, interviews and case studies of companies using serious games for training and education and has started a directory of products as well as a calendar of upcoming conferences.  Sign up for a free weekly digest of industry news at the site.Launched at the end of 2015, the site is edited by journalist, Ronnie Dungan, who brings more than 25 years’ B2B editorial and publishing experience to the venture, including positions with MCV, a leading international media publication covering video games, and its predecessor, CTW.“Our aim is to make our site the news and information hub for everything to do with serious games and the use of gamification elements in learning and training. Research is proving that the application of games is growing rapidly with a huge potential,” Dungan said.Seriousgamesindustry.com is looking for content – product and company news, case histories and contributed articles.“The site is very much in its infancy so we need content, engagement and dialogue from professionals in the industry,” Dungan said.  “Our goal is to create something valuable to both providers and clients.”

Excel Template to Calculate Activity Value

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Score calc Excel Template to Calculate Activity Value

A while back I wrote an article about how you have to balance the reward value of activities against the value to the client, user and effort.

The basic idea was that if a user has to work hard to get a reward, it had better be worth something. At the same time, if the value of the activity is high to the client, the reward should also be worth having.

At the time I wrote that, I developed a simple spreadsheet to help me calculate reward values for activities for a client I was working with. I thought I would share that with you to help you with your projects as well. Read More ...

Fair Play: More Important than Rules

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Crying baby 1458216972 Fair Play More Important than Rules

In gamification, we often talk about rules. They split games from play, fair from foul. However, just because you have rules, does not mean that everyone will feel that the game is fair!

This came to mind when I watched my youngest daughter’s reaction to being told she could not take a teddy bear to the nursery. The reasons / rules were explained, but that was not of consequence. Up until this point she had always brought toys in and more importantly – so had her friends. “It’s not fair” was about all we could understand through the distraught crying! Read More ...

Even Ninja Monkeys Like to Play: Errata

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Even ninja title Even Ninja Monkeys Like to Play Errata

I would like to thank Alisa Odincova for pointing out an error in the references for Even Ninja Monkeys Like to Play.

“[…] a word like “game” points to a somewhat diffuse “system” of prototype frames, among which some frame-shifts are easy, but others involve more strain”
Ludwig Wittgenstein

Marczewski, Andrzej (2015-10-12). Even Ninja Monkeys Like to Play: Gamification, Game Thinking & Motivational Design (Kindle Locations 357-359).
Gamified UK. Kindle Edition.

I referenced this as Wittgenstein, L. Philosophical Investigations. GEM Anscombe, (1953). Read More ...