Education in the United States is in dark times. Although we are one of the richest nations in the world, based upon international testing, our 9th graders are 28th in math, 22nd in science, and 18th in reading. Of course standardized testing as a measurement receives its fare share of criticism, but an even more insidious culprit in America’s…
The new Zappos VIP , a tier added to the popular online shoe and apparel store, is definitely all about status. It was first launched back in 2008, touting “Free overnight shipping ’til the cows come home.” and “Bragging Rights! Make everyone else jealous, one order at a time.” VIP members are also privy to…
Gabe Zichermann was recently interviewed for an article in The New York Times by Fiona MacKay. The article discusses how the wide appeal of gamification can be applied to luxury fashion brands. Some companies like Britain’s Dunhill have already taken the initiative. Dunhill, in collaboration with the Japanese media company, Hakuhodo, created a simulated soccer…
OMGPOP is a casual gaming and social networking site. We’ve previously written about meta games and gamified gaming, but OMGPOP deserves a little more atttention. The premise is simple: play games, earn coins. Use those coins to customize your profile, in-game characters and environments, earn coins by reading mailing list, winning games, answering survey questions…
We are kicking off our coverage of the GDC with a bit of EpicWin, a productivity app developed by independent developer, Supermono Studios. EpicWin was the pet project of Tak Fung, an independent game designer that came out of Lionhead Studios, developer Black & White and Fable. Some projects similar to EpicWin include MindBloom, and we previously covered EpicWin in October last year. Since then, the app has entered the top 100 productivity apps on iTunes, and Tak has received a number of requests from schools and businesses that want the app to be implemented. Even smokers are using it to quit, or as Tak says, its “insane because people are just getting addicted” to the game instead.
Gamification is picking up steam in Australia. To provide more opportunities for our antipodean friends to get involved in the movement, we’re pleased to announce some speaking events and Gamification workshops taught by Gabe Zichermann. On March 15 come hear Gabe speak on the future of fun at RMIT’s GEElab event in Melbourne. RSVP now….
Lose It! is a weight loss application available for free online and for the iPhone. As soon as you sign on, you’re prompted to supply basic info such as your current weight, age, height and sex, what weight you want to be and how many pounds you’d like to lose per week. Based on these…
Editor’s Note: There’s been a growing trend of esoteric competitions being the focus of documentaries over the past few years. The passion that the participants have for a prize most of us have never heard about is intriguing. But the spirit of competition is the same no matter what you’re playing for. We’ll be reviewing…
