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5 essential Ps of gamification

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Ppppp 5 essential Ps of gamification

I always like to try and simplify concepts to help me explain them to people, hence I keep creating acronym based frameworks!! (RAMP, EEEE, GAME etc.).

Well, my latest is five essential Ps that gamification projects have to have to stand a chance of any success. The scary thing is, that in many projects I have seen, at least one is always missing!

  • Purpose: This covers three things in gamification. The first is many implementations lack a clear purpose. They are often the product of a conversation that starts with “I’ve heard about gamification, lets get in on that and gamify something.” The Second is the kind of purpose I speak of in my RAMP framework. A sense that what the user is involved in is worth something more than just earning points. Finally there is the fact that often many users have no idea what the system is for or why it exists!
  • Progress: Without progress, there is no way of knowing that you are heading in the right direction and at the right pace. Progress involves feedback, acquisition of skills, development of skills and more.
  • Proficiency: Linked strongly with progress, there needs to be some level of improvement and development in skills to keep people engaged. If the system does nothing more than ask the user to click “like” for points, it won’t take very long for them to master it!
  • Pride: People need to feel proud of their achievements. If a system gives them no way to feel that, then they will quickly lose interest. Pride is not a bad thing, it is key to our self-esteem.
  • People: Your potential users are people, first and foremost. Never treat them like commodities or cattle. You have to understand their wants and needs as much (if not more) than those of the system or the management who commissioned it.

If you build a system with any of these missing, you are in danger of create very shallow layers of gamification that will not hold interest for any length of time. You can also end up alienating and even angering potential users – especially if the purpose part is not completely understood by all! Read More ...

Self Preservation – Advice I give my daughters

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Many years ago I was looking at starting up a self defence class (I was teaching JuJitsu at the time). This document was based on conversations with people who had been attacked and reading up on the topic at the time. I never did anything with it, but now that I have daughters, it is central to how I talk to them about self defence – or more accurately – self preservation. After years of tweaking and a few days of conversation on facebook recently, I felt I could publish it. My hope is that the advice here, the advice I give my own daughters, can be of help to others should they need it. Read More ...

Indirect Incentives: Good or Bad in Gamification?

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First things first, what do you think of the new blog theme? Playing with the Hueman theme to see how it goes. I have also removed a large number of poppy uppy things!

Recently I heard an interesting idea on how to indirectly incentivise employees to do a particular voluntary task. The plan was that every x percent of people who did the task would translate into a charitable donation from the company to a charity voted on by the employees.

My first thought was “great, they finally get that you should stop trying to incentive everything with competitions or gift vouchers!” However, after I thought some more, I began to feel that this was still a bad idea… Read More ...

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