Don’t Love Games? Step Away From the Gamification

New dice Don 8217 t Love Games Step Away From the Gamification

Games. I love them. Board games, card games, video games and anything else you can put the word games after. I play them, I write about them, I think about them, I dream about them and from time to time I even try my hand at making them (http://www.fuzzyd.co.uk/robbers). So what does this have to do with such a business orientated subject as Gamification. One needs to be a savy expert to be able to speak on such highbrow topics – not a games loving lout?

Well Mr suit, that’s where I think you are dead wrong. Jesse Schell in his excellent “The Art of Games Design: A Book of Lenses” asks a simple question. “Do I love my Project”. He goes on to state “If the creators of a game do not love it, the game will surely fail”. So I ask you. If you do not love games, dream about them and want to play them all day every day – how can you talk about gamification with any conviction, let alone make decisions about it’s implementation or design? As horrible as the name may be, gamification contains a key word. Gam(e). Whether you like it or not, implementing gamification is implementing at least some elements that come from games. Read More ...

The Death of Gamification

Mario chart The Death of Gamification

Ok, so that may have just been one of those attention-seeking headlines. However, what I want to explore briefly is what will kill gamification if people keep heading the route they are now.

The short answer to this is, misguided over complication. As more people jump on the gamification bandwagon, people’s definitions and ideas seem to be getting ever more complex. They seem to miss the core point about gamification.

Recently at gSummitX, Gabe Zichermann was discussing the key reason games work. Just as I have described games simply as Task and Reward, he added a key final stage. Ahhhhh. Task, Reward, Ahhhhh. As he explained, that Ahhhh is the release of Dopamine – a feel good drug the body creates when you achieve something. In video games this is happening constantly. Within your workday, under normal circumstances, it probably never happens. Read More ...

The Jobification of Games – A Parody of Gamification

Peashooter The Jobification of Games 8211 A Parody of Gamification

A Parody of Gamification

I have written at length about Gamification.  Some people have even begun to take what I say seriously, which is great.  However, time for some fun.  What if we flipped the idea on its head.  If games worked based on the set of rules many businesses have.  How would a jobified game actually play?

A Quest is Born

The day starts with you sitting at your desk.  First you boot up your pc and do the morning kitchen dance, as you get your first cup of coffee for the day. After returning to your desk and going through your RSS feeds and non essential emails, it is time for work.  Top of your inbox you see an email with a red exclamation mark. 

Gamification: you got to play to win

1068892 52827783 Gamification you got to play to win

A lovely chat with some new friends brought about an interesting thought. Can you really write games or gamify things if you don't play games?

I have rambled at length about my views on gamification. I have explained what I think the basics of game theory boil down to. A task with some kind of reward or incentive offered for completion.

Whilst Innovation may not be Dead, where is the Courage in the Games Industry?

8707 arcade cabnets Whilst Innovation may not be Dead where is the Courage in the Games Industry

People often ask where the innovation has gone in the games industry. I have been guilty of it on the past. In fact, this article was going to be titled with that exact question.

However, the more I drafted the piece and the more I thought about it, the more I realised that innovation is still alive and kicking in our industry, albeit sometimes quietly. What is missing now is courage.

When I first really got into games, everything seemed innovative. People were really beginning to understand what games could be. This was back in the Days of the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64. Read More ...