A question that I ask on a very regular basis, once I have explained what gamification is, is “What does a gamification consultant actually do?”
Well, this short video should help you get the idea!
Oh and my Gamification Journey Worksheet is still only £10 – going up to 15 soon 🙂
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Often when people talk about gamification, they speak about adding fun to everyday work related tasks. The whole Mary Poppins “A Spoonful of Sugar” analogy pops up regularly. Anyone who has stuck with this blog for a while will know exactly how I feel about her…
The trouble with fun is how you define it. The Oxford dictionary (thanks Google), goes with
Enjoyment, amusement, or light-hearted pleasure: the children were having fun in the play area
Now, I’ve said this before, but it is worth saying again – fun is subjective. What you find fun, I may not. Consider the following event.
Curiosity is something that always interests me. I have written about it in the past, but was drawn to looking at it again recently. There are several theories about what curiosity is and how it works; Curiosity Drive Theory, Optimal Arousal Theory, Incongruity Theory and probably more. They all deal with different aspects of what curiosity is.
Drive Theory considers that curiosity is part of a human need to reduce the discomfort felt when we are uncertain about somemthing.
Incongruity Theory suggests that we seek to resolve incongruity (differences) between something that happens and our existing understanding. So if something happens that doesn’t match our preconceived ideas of what should happen, we become curious and want to understand it.
Hi all, busy week last week, but did get time to throw out some words of “wisdom” via memes. I thought I would put them here for easy reference and explain on of them a little better!
I think this first one is pretty self-explanatory. Engagement is about people wanting to do things. They find value in the activity. If they feel that they are forced to do it and that outweighs the value, they will never be fully engaged.
A brief set of definitions. There is more to be found on this in my Serious Games vs Gamification / Game Thinking page
Ok, this has been bugging me for years. In Gamification, there are many things you hear again and again. It’s not about games, points are bad, intrinsic motivation is king. There are more, but the one I have an issue is a quote from that most famous of nannies (and most irresponsible in my mind) , Mary Poppins:
In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. You find the fun and ‘snap’, the job’s a game.
This is where I cry “Bullshit!”
At the point she is singing this, she is trying to convince the miserable children she is looking after to do some tidying. Rather than creating a game of the chore, she uses magic to make stuff fly around and put themselves away.
