A few gamification tips

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20140414 090949 A few gamification tips

Whilst I am away for a few days, I though I would fill the gap with a quick post for you all. A few gamification tips.

  • Define your goal, you can’t expect anything to work if you have no reason to use it.
  • Extrinsic rewards like points and badges are useful for short term engagement only. They do not make a fully gamified system.
  • Intrinsic motivation is what you are aiming for. Consider RAMP (Relatedness, Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose).
  • Find out what the user wants and design around that. Sure, you have goals, but the user won’t buy into it unless if satisfies their needs in some way.
  • You can’t force fun. What you think will be fun, many will find insulting, patronising or down right enraging.
  • Gamification is not a magic bullet. You may see sudden increases in activity, but overall you will get small percentage increases. This is good as it is better than what you had!
  • Measure. If you don’t measure, you can’t report back on ROI and you will not be able to prove it works.
  • Fail, but learn from it. If something doesn’t work, try something else. There is no magic formula for engagement.
  • Ask for help. There is a huge community out there of people who want to help you – ask them.
  • Don’t believe everything you read, even the big analysts can be wrong. However, read everything!
  • Add monkeys or monkey ninjas. Everyone loves monkeys and everyone loves ninjas.
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    Why am I interested in Gamification?

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    This is a question many ask me – including myself!

    The answer is complicated I suppose, but worth mentioning here.

    Many feel that gamification is nothing more than an invention of consultants hell bent on making money from corporations who want to control their employees. In some instances this may even be true!

    The fact is, I got involved because of a love of games that goes back over thirty years. I have always loved games, playing them , creating them and learning from them. One of my earliest memories of gaming was my father creating me a maths games. It was very simple, on an early Spectrum. All it did was ask you maths questions and you had to answer. It would congratulate you and I seem to remember there was some graphic representation of your success. Read More ...

    [Updated] What gamification is to me – My definition

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    Updated September 2015!

    As you know, over the weekend I picked a fight with Gartner over their redefinition of gamification.http://blogs.gartner.com/brian_burke/2014/04/04/gartner-redefines-gamification/ and http://gamified.uk/2014/04/05/a-response-to-gartners-new-definition-of-gamification/

    The conversation turned to a bit of a bun fight, so I have now stepped away a little. However, it got me thinking about my own definition and why I use it and what gamification in general means to me.

    However, I have decided to change it a little, to give it more scope and with luck make the aims clearer. Read More ...

    Competitive Silos or Collaborative Success

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    One of the most popular uses of enterprise gamification is to create competition. I don’t mean in the form of marketing campaigns, I am talking about internal competitions between employees. Sales leader-boards, fitness competitions, who is best at social etc.

    The idea is to drive employees to want to be better than the others. Being at the bottom of the leader-board should motivate me to want to work my way to the top – I should want to win.

    Whilst this is true in certain environments, it can be rather limiting in others. Read More ...

    A response to Gartner’s new definition of gamification

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    On April the 4th, Brian Burke, via his blog announced that Gartner had changed its definition of gamification. It would be;

    “the use of game mechanics and experience design to digitally engage and motivate people to achieve their goals”

    http://blogs.gartner.com/brian_burke/2014/04/04/gartner-redefines-gamification/

    At first I chuckled. This was very similar to the definition I use in my book;

    “the application of gaming metaphors to real life tasks to influence behaviour, improve motivation and enhance engagement.” Read More ...

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