productivity

The Original Gamified Social Networks – History Teaches us about Gamificaiton

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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

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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

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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 ...

Gamification Check-lists for Implementation

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Now that you have all read my little eBook (sorry, could resist the plug) or have at least read my previous blogs, you should have an understanding of what Gamification is and why you may want it.

You will also have recently seen my post Gamification Gone Bad, which shows you a few pitfalls. The next step is to actually start to gamify stuff. First, I thought I would make you do some work and ask you a few questions.

First Phase

1. What is the exact task or process you want to gamify?

It’s all well and good saying “I want to gamify X, Y or Z”. The trouble is, what part of it do you want to gamify? If it is a single task, that’s fairly easy. If you are looking at a process as a whole, then it gets a little trickier. Most likely it is just one or two tasks that you wish to gamify to improve the engagement or motivation needed to achieve those tasks. Read More ...

Why use Gamification and not just Incentives?

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It’s not just about money

One thing that is often asked when people talk about gamification is why use that and not just offer incentives.

Well. My first answer is always “but that is gamification”. That is usually followed with “just very basic and possibly expensive!”. Offering incentives is normally a financial concern. If you do X we will pay you Y. It is certainly a good motivator, money always is, but it does not cover other important aspects of good work. A word you often hear in my gamification blogs is engagement. Sure, money is a great motivator, but it does not help you engage with the job in hand. Read More ...

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