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

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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 ...

6 Tips for Short Term Gamification

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Pblnc2 6 Tips for Short Term Gamification

A question I get asked a great deal is “Are points, badges and leaderboards enough?” The stock answer from me is usually a resounding “No, you must consider motivation and the needs of the user, think RAMP and more…” In fairness, this is good advice and you should consider intrinsic motivation over extrinsic and the like. However, the answer really should be “Sometimes, it depends what your goals are.” You see, if you are looking for a short term or short sharp engagement, PBL may well be fine. Very often in gamification we are trying desperately to get people to consider long-term motivations and engagements. Really, it is likely that it is just a single simple task that people want completing. Read a new policy, complete the training, check out a new product. Read More ...

A Story of Loyalty: Gamification World Congress 2015 Talk

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True loyalty meme A Story of Loyalty Gamification World Congress 2015 Talk

Just thought I would share the video of my talk on loyalty and Christmas turkey from Gamification World Congress 2015

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To give some context for the start – Bart Briers had just described me as The King of Gamification! At the end, I also caught him out as the talk was only 12 minutes long 😉

If you are interested in Gamification World Congress 2016, head over to their new website – you won’t be sorry and there are loads of videos from the last one to watch.

If you want to learn more about loyalty, you could always grab my book from Amazon 🙂 Read More ...

Using Boredom and Curiosity to your Advantage

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Curiosity Using Boredom and Curiosity to your Advantage

Curiosity is something that always interests me. I have written about it in the past, but was drawn to looking at it again recently. There are several theories about what curiosity is and how it works; Curiosity Drive Theory, Optimal Arousal Theory, Incongruity Theory and probably more. They all deal with different aspects of what curiosity is.

Drive Theory considers that curiosity is part of a human need to reduce the discomfort felt when we are uncertain about somemthing.

Incongruity Theory suggests that we seek to resolve incongruity (differences) between something that happens and our existing understanding. So if something happens that doesn’t match our preconceived ideas of what should happen, we become curious and want to understand it. Read More ...

Honesty and Transparency

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Magic trick 1465549955 Honesty and Transparency

Today I have been reminded about the importance of Honesty and Transparency when dealing with people. If I ask a question from someone who is in a service industry, what I hope for is an honest and transparent answer. What you often get is a baffling set of half-truths and utter bullshit.

I have spoken about transparency before and it even forms part of the Code of Ethics that I proposed.

I was trying to help a friend with a hosting issue. The company I dealt with showed me just how bad a lack of transparency can be. They were very nice and polite, but they we unable to provide any help. Instead of just being honest about it, they sent me on a wild goose chase. They gave be a website to look at, then a phone number, then another website with another phone number. The final phone number put me back through to the exact same department (possibly even the same person) I had been dealing with a couple of hours previously. Even then they tried to give me more hoops to jump through. In the end, I had to give up, it just wasn’t worth being given so many half truths – essentially being lied to. Read More ...