I was recently asked to write an article on the ethics of gamification for the ACM’s student publication XRDS. Here it is! It should download a PDF. I would love to hear your thoughts 🙂
Andrzej Marczewski XRDS: Crossroads, The ACM Magazine for Students, 2017 frames are not supportedIf the ethics of gamification are of interest to you, why not sign up to the Open Gamification Code of Ethics?Gamification
Contextual Relevance in Gamification
People often say that “Content is King”. I have always maintained that whilst that is true, “Context is Queen”, and we all know who really wears the pants in a relationship!
When you create gamified solutions there is often a risk and even a desire to throw the kitchen sink at the design, deciding on the mechanics you want to include well before you have any idea of what the project will actually require!
Included in this risk is the desire to create things that have no relevance at all to the project, but look pretty! One of the biggest perpetrators of this crime is the “mini game”. Many gamification designers are, at their heart, game designers in some form or another. Our enthusiasm for games can sometimes spill over into the creation of meaningless games that do nothing to address the overall needs of the solution.
4 Tips to Balance Your Gamification
There is nothing worse than playing against people who are miles ahead of you in terms of either ability or equipment. It is very demoralising to lose time and time again when in reality you never have a chance. Take leaderboards as a good example. Very often the people at the top are always the same few names, over and over again. For most companies, this does not seem to get addressed for some reason. It’s a bit like pitting your local Sunday Dad’s league against Chelsea every week. There is no opportunity for the Sunday players to ever be as good as Chelsea, they will get destroyed week after week until they give up playing. It is totally unfair and unbalanced. This is why in organised sports, you have divisions and leagues. You only play against people that you have a fair(ish) chance of beating.
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
What Does a Gamification Consultant Do??
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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