[News] RNLI creates Minecraft beach survival game to teach water safety to children

Image News RNLI creates Minecraft beach survival game to teach water safety to children

This Summer, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is launching year two of the charity’s Beach Builder Challenge using the interactive video game, Minecraft, which allows children to create and build virtual worlds.

The Beach Builder Challenge, available to play from 1 August, has been created by the RNLI to teach children about beach and water safety at a time when many young people will be visiting the coast during school summer holidays.

New for this year, the RNLI has expanded the virtual world to include a Beach Island Adventure, which means as well as being able to create epic beaches, this year creative youngsters are also tasked with completing four levels in the Beach Island Adventure. The four levels are based on the charity’s Stay SAFE acronym: Spot the dangers, Take Advice, Stay close to a Friend or family member, Learn what to do in an Emergency. Read More ...

Being Kind When Discussing Gamification

Minecraft Being Kind When Discussing Gamification

I talk to people about gamification quite a lot! The conversation usually starts with a little curiosity, then some scepticism and if I have done well, enthusiasm.

One thing that happens in probably 9 out of 10 conversations is a little section I like to call “No, it’s not about making games”. You all know this one. The person you are talking to suddenly has a moment of revelation as the think they have understood what you are talking about and say “Oh yeah. Minecraft!”. Read More ...

Are Mario, YouTube & My Little Pony killing my Daughters Imagination?

Imagination 1440664813 Are Mario YouTube 038 My Little Pony killing my Daughters Imagination

I am a huge advocate of the benefit of games. They are amazing and I would quite happily argue with anyone shouting about games and violence, or games being bad for kids. I am also not against T.V. My youngest has amazing shape recognition, counting and even spelling and maths abilities – at three – thanks in large part to Team UmiZoomi!

However, I have started to notice a slightly concerning issue with my eldest daughter. She seems to have no imagination any more, or at least a very reduced functionality one! Read More ...

Mechanics and ideas to support your gamified systems

Deck preview Mechanics and ideas to support your gamified systems

A slightly cheating post today. Here are the mechanics and ideas that I have been using when supporting certain user types. I wanted to present them in a non usertype specific way. So instead of Player, here you see “Short term engagement, Activity”. This should help people see a little more clearly how to support different gamified activities.

The smaller / fainter the mechanic or idea, the less impact it has.

Click one of the links to jump straight to the activity.

Education | Innovation, Change | Creativity, Invention | Contribution, Help | Short term engagement, Activity | Collaboration
Read More ...

Rules, magic circles and other ways to avoid misfortune

Magic circle gamification Rules magic circles and other ways to avoid misfortune

A while back I wrote a piece called Rules Rule, but Shouldn’t Rule Everything. The upshot of the article was that you have to have rules for things to work, but you also have to understand the rules to be able to bend and break them when needed.

Rules are really important in gamified systems, they collapse without them.  Some rules are explicit and set by the system. These are the ones that you can’t break without hacking or breaking the system. Others are implicit or implied. These are the ones where trouble can sneak in. Read More ...