Why do we use game related words in gamification?

20140505 144722 Why do we use game related words in gamification

And, is it ok?

The quickest answer is ease and lack of maturity.

It is easy to borrow words from games like quests, missions, achievements, trophies, player and the like. It is easier than finding gamification or more “businessy” alternatives. The reason for this? Gamification has not yet matured enough to have its own set of metaphors to use. Instead we use ones from games.

Is this ok?

It all depends who you ask. Many in gamification, especially the newest members of the movement, don’t like it. It feels as though it cheapens the amazing things that can be achieved with gamification. It makes us all think of the bad times, where points, badges and leaderboards were all that was out there. Read More ...

The EEEE User Journey Framework

Over the past weeks as I have been re-writing chunks of my book and preparing for various talks, I have been trying to consolidate a lot of my ideas. This has so far lead to four basic frameworks.

RAMP, GAME, EEEE and User Types. There is a big infographic at the end of this post that goes over them, but in brief

RAMP: My intrinsic motivation framework that I have spoke about before. Relatedness, Autonomy, Master, Purpose.

GAME: An update of my original development process framework. Gather, Act, Measure, Enrich. I will speak about this in the next blog post. Read More ...

A look at Wikipedia’s definition of Gamification over the years

Just out of curiosity, I had a look through some of the historical pages on Wikipedia’s Gamification entry. It was an interesting time line of the evolution of our definition of gamification, first added in October 2010 it seems. Take a look. It is interesting to see that it puts emphasis on technology based solution in 2010, which is dropped by 2012. Around 2011 the term Funware is added to the definition. This gets dropped by the end of 2012. 2012 also sees the idea of game thinking entering the core definition as well as engagement (which vanishes for a bit then comes back in 2013!). In 2013 we see the first mention of solving problems as part of the core definition. Also, Nick Pelling starts to get some credit for coining of the wold Gamification. The difinition that first comes up early 2013 remains pretty much intact right up until presnt day (April 2014). Read More ...

Making motivation worse with Gamification

When people talk about gamification, it is pretty certain the word “motivation” will pop up. “We want to engage and motivate our people, gamification is definitely going to be the answer for that!”.

The trouble here is that gamification is AN answer, not always THE answer.

People lack motivation in job for a number of reasons, often self perpetuating reasons. Whatever their reason, they are often viewed as poor at their job and an irritant. It is easier to view low motivation as an issue with an individual than with the company or setting. Read More ...

Ark Group KM Conference

Gamification is a hot topic right now. Gartner even has it at the top of its hype cycle right now. But, what is it and has it taken off in the world of Knowledge Management?

Wikipedia defines gamification as;

the use of game thinking and game mechanics in non-game contexts to engage users in solving problems

Gartner has recently caused a bit of a controversy in gamification circles by narrowing the definition to;

the use of game mechanics and experience design to digitally engage and motivate people to achieve their goals Read More ...

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