What I am Learning from Playing Fortnite with my Daughter

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H2x1 NSwitchDS Fortnite image1600w What I am Learning from Playing Fortnite with my Daughter

I have finally caved and given Fortnite some proper time.

It all started when my 12-year-old daughter noticed it was on my PC. I had downloaded when it first came out, but after one go, decided it wasn’t for me. However, it had been quietly updating in the background, just waiting for my return.

Fortnite is something of a gaming phenomenon, in a similar way to Minecraft a few years ago. It has had an enormous impact on society. It has spawned toys, board games and I am sure a film can’t be far away as EPIC tries to milk as much as possible from its latest cash cow. Of course, it is not without its controversies as well. Claims of gaming addiction, copyright infringements and more. Read More ...

Is Gamification Manipulation

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Hypnosis 1562936623 Is Gamification Manipulation

Is gamification a form of manipulation?

This is a question that comes up over and over again in my world.

There is often a concern that gamification is just used to force or trick people into doing things that they would not otherwise want to do. It as is if people have the view that it is like one of those old Saturday night magic shows, where the hypnotist get people to pretend they were chickens.

They view gamification as nothing more than a Skinner Box, operant conditioning for a new generation. People rewarded for actions that serve only the “powers that be” with no regard for the needs of the user. Read More ...

Stop Using Flow as an Objective in Gamification

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Knot 1561626984 Stop Using Flow as an Objective in Gamification

In gamification, we (I) talk about flow all the time. But, as I have explained in previous posts, it isn’t really flow that we are speaking about in its truest for – rather balance. The fine line between challenge and ability, where a player might find themselves stretched but not in a position where the challenge is impossible (or boringly easy).

As a very quick reminder, Flow is a state that Mihály Csíkszentmihályi wrote about in his book “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience [1]”. It is a state in which everything is perfectly balanced, skill, challenge, concentration and more. Time seems to stand still, the world around you evaporates – it is just you and the task. Read More ...

Progress: My Desert Island Gamification Element

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Progress Progress My Desert Island Gamification Element

You want to use gamification as part of a solution you are building, but resources are limited and you can’t take a fully gamified approach. What is the one gamification element that you would insist was included, no matter what?

For me, it would be progress.

Start with Goals

This is not a single element, so this may be a bit of a cheat. Progress is linked to two main concepts. Goals and Feedback, something I spoke about at length in Part 5 of my Introduction to Gamification (which I will return to writing very soon!). So to include progress in a design, I need to be able to create goals for the user. As I mention in the linked article, these can be large goals that are then broken down into smaller goals: Read More ...

The Piano Staircase isn’t Gamification – But That’s Okay!

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Piano stairs The Piano Staircase isn 8217 t Gamification 8211 But That 8217 s Okay

There are many examples that get rolled out again and again when it comes to gamification. Several of them come from an experiment that Volkswagen did a few years ago called The Fun Theory. Two very popular ones where the Speed Camera Lottery and the Piano Staircase.

The idea behind the staircase was to see if people would use the stairs rather than the escalator next to it. And, unsurprisingly, the number of people using the staircase did increase. Sadly, the experiment didn’t’ last very long, so it was not possible to understand if this was just due to novelty. Also, there are no statistics on how many people’s behaviour was changed to the point they continued to take the stairs after the piano was removed. Read More ...