fun

Encourage Play, Don’t Force Fun

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Pool table 1570703002 Encourage Play Don t Force Fun

I’ve said it here many times, you can’t force people to have fun. Putting a pool table in the coffee room, forcing everyone to play an online game and join a leaderboard, team building games during inductions etc. All generally seek to force you to have a fun experience. However, as soon as something becomes mandatory or forced, it is very hard (but not impossible) to find it enjoyable.

Of course, if the experience is well designed, even if you are forced to engage with it, it can be fun. There are times during some of those “ice breaker” games that I hate so much, that despite myself I find I am having fun. But those tend to be the ones that create an environment that encourages play – even if it is a little bit structured. Read More ...

Play Games, Enjoy Games and be a Better Gamification Designer

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Video game 2154473 Play Games Enjoy Games and be a Better Gamification Designer

Over the year my opinion on the need to love games to be a good gamification designer has fluctuated. In the early days, I was more flexible on the idea. It was all about psychology in a nearly pure form, understand behaviour and use that understanding to encourage the behaviours that you want. The “game” aspect was less important as gamification is not making games!

However, as I work on more and more projects it becomes clear that this is rubbish. Anything beyond the most simple of applications of gamification needs a solid understanding of games. It is not necessary to be a games designer as such, but having a good idea of what makes games work is an essential. If I was not a gamer, I would not be able to do my job at this level! I would have no inspiration for a start. After that, I would have no idea what worked and why. Finally, I would not have the love of play that is so desperately needed in good gamification implementations. Read More ...

Forced to have Fun

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Books 493252 960 720 Forced to have Fun

Every office I have worked in has, at some point, tried to do something “fun” with their employees – usually whether the employees want it or not and often with the best of intentions! A great example of this is one previous employer deciding to buy a Wii for the coffee area. The idea was that putting a Wii in the coffee area would encourage people to have a break, go and play and have some fun. There is a running joke in gamification circles about companies buying pool tables and ping pong tables to inject fun into their companies. Read More ...

Bits ‘n’ Bobs

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Gmeme Bits 8216 n 8217 Bobs

A few side projects and stuff for you to enjoy.

Gamification Memes: A compilation of my memes over the last few years

Other “Wisdom” Memes…

Some music I’ve been recording for fun (updated often).

Videos with my kids (Challenges mostly)

And finally…. A game made in Construct2 (which doesn’t YET work on mobile…)

Fun and Gamification?

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Uni1 Fun and Gamification

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. Read More ...