Learning about playfulness from Toca Boca

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Photo 06 03 2015 10 27 52 Learning about playfulness from Toca Boca

Continuing my investigations into play, I wanted to talk about a few things my kids have been teaching me about just letting go and giving in to the fantasy and the lack of imaginative boundaries that real play demands. It is not as easy as it would first seem either.

There are lots of views of play out there. I offered some of my thoughts in a recent post, that play is a free form activity that is undertaken almost just because it can be and it brings fun and joy. In this sort of description, play is an activity – it follows a similar line of thought to  that proposed by Johan Huizinga in Homo Ludens. It was also Huizinga who gave us the concept of the Magic Circle – the boundary between reality and play. Read More ...

Fun: It’s a funny thing really

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Photo 01 03 2015 14 58 15 Fun It 8217 s a funny thing really

I am still in the process of researching fun – but it has been really interesting so far. If you have no taken my quick survey – please do, it will really help me!! – Fun Survey

The thing that is abundantly clear is that fun is purely subjective, what one person finds fun – others may think is a waste of time. The Oxford English Dictionary defines fun as

Enjoyment, amusement, or light-hearted pleasure
(http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/fun)

In the study I have done to date, so far I have identified about 21 distinct things that people feel fills this definition for them. Read More ...

Play, games, toys, playfulness and gamification

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Game vs play Play games toys playfulness and gamification

Lately I have been thinking about play a lot. This is probably because of watching my children growing up and seeing how play changes into games as they develop. I have written about play before and it does form part of my general Game Thinking framework, but it is lumped with toys and games – rather lazily.

I wanted to give play and my surrounding thoughts on it its own post.

Play

Play is free form and unlike a game does not need to have a point or a goal to it. It exists within a set of rules created by the person or people playing and is born in the imagination.  Often it is a way of exploring the boundaries and extremes of something, in search for new and novel experiences.  It is undertaken for its own sake often for fun and joy. Read More ...

What if we could never use the word Gamification again…?

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Gamification What if we could never use the word Gamification again 8230

A few days ago on the awesome Facebook group Gamification Hub – I posed the following question.

Andrzej Marczewski

If the word gamification was banned from all usage – what would you replace it with. I’d go with “game thinking” personally.

What followed was a fantastic conversation that I felt deserved to be shared. This is just a small example of the great content this group generates.

Roman Rackwitz

In this case, I would try to get rid off everything that sounds like game (because it will still confuse everyone). Read More ...

Signposting and Gamification

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The Naked Gun I C U P 2 Signposting and Gamification

Sometimes, even the best people need to be pointed in the right direction. Signpost next actions to help smooth early stages of a journey. Use “just in time” cues to help users who are stuck.

Whilst autonomy and agency are vital for deep engagement, sometimes too much freedom can be a bad thing. Whilst gamification should be designed around the user, their needs and their experience, there are still stakeholder and business objectives. Creating an environment where a user can get lost benefits no one. Read More ...