Gamification: Adding Constraints to Add Fun

Cage 1583515425 Gamification Adding Constraints to Add Fun

It may sound counter-intuitive, but in my experience, adding constraints to activities can make them not only more fun – but can help generate very creative solutions to problems.

When we talk about gamification and especially when we speak about motivations, we often talk about Agency and Autonomy (the A in RAMP). This would lead you to believe that for certain groups to engage, you need to give them total freedom to do whatever they want.

However, it can often be more interesting to allow freedom within a strict set of constraints. You only have £1000 to complete this task, you have 10 minutes, you have 3 lives etc. Read More ...

Some Gamification Videos and a bit of Fun

Evil daddy Some Gamification Videos and a bit of Fun

I’ve been busy making videos of late, here are the last few. Some tutorials, a few rants and a bit of fun 🙂

Player Types and User Types in Gamification

Ethics in Gamification

Failure and Consequences in Gamification

Stop Perpetuating Bad Gamification Design

The Games Invasion: Why It’s a Good Thing

Parenting and Gamification

The Little Cog

Consequences: A missing component in Gamification

Consequences Consequences A missing component in Gamification

On my quest to remind people of all the cool stuff that they are not yet using from games in their gamification, I have come across something very important and something that I had not noticed until a recent project.

Gamification very, very rarely includes consequences…

Allow me to explain.

We say that games allow for experimentation and failure – this is true. In gamification we are seeing more of this. However, in games there are consequences. You lose a life, drop all your possessions, lose health etc. Eventually, you even hit “Game Over” and have to start again. Read More ...