Misunderstanding Gamification and Over-Promising

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RANT Misunderstanding Gamification and Over Promising

A quick mini-rant

Gamification is not about making games. It is about using elements of games in other areas to increase motivation, engagement, fun (at times) and to encourage specific behaviours.

This may include games, serious games, mini games etc – but more often than not, it doesn’t have to. It also doesn’t mean that gamification is limited to points and badges. Strategy, narrative, RPG elements, interactions, choice, random events, levels, challenges etc are all there.

If you want all of that, you need to also seriously consider your budget as none of it comes cheap if you want it doing well. No platform, no matter what they say, will provide you with all of that (gamification, educational materials, games, mini games, narratives, themes) for small change. Most won’t even be able to do it at all (even though the may say they can). Read More ...

What’s With the Ninja Monkey?

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Ninja head What 8217 s With the Ninja Monkey

A question I am asked a lot (I get asked all sorts, you may have noticed), is why did you call the book Even Ninja Monkeys Like to Play?

There are actually two answers to this, the “official” one and the “Unofficial” one. The official one is in the book and reads

I went through many iterations of the title. I went on Google+, Facebook, Twitter and more asking for advice. Then my daughter made an amazing comment. “Daddy, when I grow up I want to be a ninja or a unicorn with wings called Princess Unicorn.” Read More ...

Strategy: A missing component in Gamification

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Chess 1488370945 Strategy A missing component in Gamification

One of the more common questions I get about gamification is “what is the difference between games and gamification”. I have spent lots of time writing about that exact issue, the Game Thinking pieces are my most concrete thoughts about the topic. However, just recently I was playing North vs South on the iPhone and was struck by a blindingly obvious part of games that seems to be missing from most if not all gamification.

Strategy.

Gamification is, in general, becoming much better implemented. The use of narrative, onboarding, intrinsic motivation, well thought out rewards and more. That said strategy does seem to be missing. What do I mean by strategy? Well, the need to plan and consider your actions to create the most desired or best possible outcome. On the surface, it doesn’t seem that gamification offers much opportunity to plan or consider what the consequences of certain actions might be. You just do what the system asks of you and get rewarded! Read More ...

Diminishing Effect of Rewards

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Scales 1487607673 Diminishing Effect of Rewards

One of the things you discover when you have kids is just how much you must bribe them to achieve anything. This is especially galling when, like me, you understand the behavioural impacts of using rewards to modify behaviour etc.

One of the things this has shown me is the existence of an effect I’m calling here “the diminishing effects of rewards”.

Basically repeated use of rewards leads to the rewards becoming less and less effective until they become expected payments rather than rewards. This is not quite the same as Over Justification effect as the reward does not become more important than the activity, it just becomes an expected part of the activity and without it, the activity is no longer considered acceptable. Read More ...

Narrative Atoms, Story and History

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History banner Narrative Atoms Story and History

A revisit to an old set of thoughts I had on what Narrative is. My general thought is that narrative is real-time telling of a first person experience as it happens. A story is all of the narratives put together from the first “Narrative Atom” of the story until the last! History is the collection of all of the stories and all of the narratives up until now. Beyond that, you are looking at the future.

When I started to look at this concept again, I decided that it was easier to record a little video about it than it was to write! However, the basic idea is that you can imagine history as a lake. When our lives start it is like a pebble being dropped into the lake. Each ripple is a narrative atom in our story. These ripples move out from the centre, touching the stories of others, creating an interconnect web – a collective history. Anway, watch the video to get more of that. Read More ...