This week on the Gamification Roundup, we got news filled with possibilities. NextJump provides an leisurely gameplay platform akin to Draw Something, GDC Online is making a gamification summit in Austin, Bunchball writes an article about the work ethic of millenials, International scientists create an epidemic game to research disease outbreak models, and Bluewolf and Bunchball partner up to teach Fortune 500 companies how to successfully use social media. Read the full roundup after the jump.
NextPeer Adds Social Competition to Games a la Draw Something – TechCrunch, April 5
Israeli startup NextPeer is offering a development SDK that adds asynchronous gameplay similar to that found in Words with Friends and Draw Something. The ability to pick up and play a game at your own leisure seems to be a common feature in these wildly successful social games. Since it’s inception, NextPeer has over 20 member apps and a collective total of 5 million app downloads and was acquired for $104M last year.
10th Annual GDC in Austin is Open for Submissions – MarketWatch, April 5
The 10th annual Games Developer Conference Online will be taking place at October 9-11, 2012 at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, TX. GDC Online will be focusing on the development of games that feature social interplay. The announcement also states that there will be an open call for submissions for their two new summits, one of which being the GDC Gamification Summit and the other being the New Game-dev Startup Summit.
5 Facts on the Work Ethic of Millenials – Bunchball, April 5
Bunchball wrote an interesting article about how millenials work hard but require different facets of motivation to do so. Through a number of interesting statistics, the article cites a number of things millenials deem important to them, including greater social interaction and specific performance metrics.
Scientists Create Epidemic Game to Research Outbreaks – MedicalNewsToday, April 5
A group of international scientists have created a game to help them study the distribution of disease in an event of an outbreak. The game involves one scientist handing out a piece of “infectious” paper to a participant, through which that person receives random instructions to give that disease to others.The passing on of the “infection” in this manner generates a dataset that is very similar to the spread of actual viruses, like HIV for example. The scientists will be using these model simulations to bolster their efforts to combat future outbreaks.
BlueWolf and Bunchball Partnering to Teach Social Media – EnterpriseAppsToday, April 4
These two prominent names have partnered up to create #GoingSocial, a service aimed at teaching Fortune 500 companies on how to effectively use social media for enterprise collaboration and engaging customers. #GoingSocial will be using elements from Bunchball’s new Nitro platform and will measure social media influence, its management, and even provide implementation tools for new technology.
Image (C) – WillowGardeners
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