Gamification: Questions that keep me awake at night!

1389645 14492518 Gamification Questions that keep me awake at night

This week there is no real blog post for you I’m afraid. I am in the middle of trying to produce a talk for next week and enjoying the Coursera Gamification course. Instead, here are some questions that I have spinning in my head that I would love to answer. Can any of you amazing gamification lovers out there give me your opinions? Maybe you have some burning questions to ask as well, add them to the comments.

  • Is gamification more behavioral psychology applied through the lens of a games designer or games design applied through the lens of a behavioral psychologist?
  • Are we spending so much time trying to define what can and can’t be included in gamification, that we are missing out lots of opportunity to just create great experiences using any and all tools we can?
  • Are short marketing campaigns that employ gamification really a bad thing?
  • Can everything be gamified in some way?
  • When will companies wanting to gamify things start employing games designers?
  • If you were to write a job description for a gamification person, what would you write?
  • Will we be talking about gamification in 5 years time?

One final thing, if you have not already filled it in, I would love to get your opinions on the definition of gamification with the public survey I am running! Read More ...

Does fun have a place in Gamification – Video Blog

Gamification Does fun have a place in Gamification 8211 Video Blog

Hi all. Well, this is my first try at a video blog. It took far to many goes and as you can see, the version I had to go with has terrible lighting and a really bad angle. (This is due to a lack of Malteser boxes to balance the iPhone on – true story!). In this 9 minute video, I explore the role of fun in gamification – as I currently see it. Let me know if you like this format and I will see if I can do more of them in the future.

The Script. I kind of stuck to it!

Hi, and welcome to this, my first video blog. Thanks for watching and if you are a regular reader of my blog, thanks again! For the rest, the address is at the bottoms of the screen. Read More ...

The Original Gamified Social Networks – History Teaches us about Gamificaiton

1215912 73521777 The Original Gamified Social Networks 8211 History Teaches us about Gamificaiton

Seeing the news that Badgeville was to gamify social networks got me thinking about the old days. Social networks are nothing new. Back in “the day”, we all used to use forums (and bulletin boards before that) and chat rooms to be social online. Forums tended to focus on specific topics, with chat rooms just a real time free for all. What got me thinking though was realising that a lot of these used to include elements of Gamification, forums especially.

There was this stuff called kudos or Kama. When you said something of interest or that was helpful, users could reward you with these – a bit like when someone likes you on Facebook or +1 ‘s you on Google+. Kama and time served would also very often go towards some sort of rank on the forum. Higher rank and Kama signified a user you could trust and who was useful or interesting on the forums. Read More ...

Playfulness, Seriousness and Gamification

1197684 36768950 Playfulness Seriousness and Gamification

People want gamification to mean certain things to them. They want to take the word and try to bend into whatever they think will sell their next big idea to someone. This tends to lead to people arguing about what it actually is and what constitutes a gamified product. Two such ideas seem to be Playful design and Serious games. Some think that they are gamification, others that they have no place near the word. Personally, I think we should stop trying so hard to define a made up word and just start learning what we can from the people who use it! Read More ...

Gamification The Next Generation: Introduce, Engage, Retain

Gamification Gamification The Next Generation Introduce Engage Retain

The stages of brand engagement

I have been thinking about the stages that a person goes through when becoming “involved” with brands or any system that is being gamified. I may be wrong, there may be more too it. However, as I see it there are three distinct phases. Introduction to the brand (or whatever). Engagement with the brand. Finally retention / loyalty to the brand.

Within gamification, many people talk about the introduction phase, as I see it. Rewards, badges, points and the like. These all help introduce people to the gamified system. For a short period of time, rewards can entertain people and introduce them to certain concepts to do with the brand. We know that this works, but has a short shelf-life if used in solitude. However when trying to nurture brand loyalty, you are not interested in short periods of time. Read More ...