Bunchball Sees Huge Growth in Gamification and Doubles Customer Base in a Year via MarketWire
Bunchball has been in the business of gamification since 2006, but within the past year, its customer base has increased two fold. This may demonstrate the importance of market timing, as well as the growth of interest behind gamification within the past year, but it also shows that Bunchball is a fighter. Stay strong, Bunchball.
Gamification: Hype or Game Changer via The Wall Street Journal
Nicholas Lovell provided a broad perspective on gamification for the Wall Street Journal, taking a look at many different perspectives on the meaning of the movement. The takeaway? Gamification is a hot topic, gamification is difficult, and gamification is not a panacea. These remain true, but not everyone is aiming to gamify core business models. Check out Bunchball above to examine how gamification can be effective in lighter circumstances.
The Secret to Staying Healthy? Make if Fun via MIT Technology Review
MIT Technology Review covered some work done by Rice University engineering students. They have rigged together a system of Wii Balance Boards in order to run diagnostics and testing for child patients with cerebral palsy, spina bifida, or amputations. The benefit of using the Wii include cost as well as familiarity for many of the children. If the tests are more of a game, the children will be more comfortable with them.
‘Farmville’ Project With Real Animals via The Guardain
The My Farm Experiment in Cambridgeshire, UK is effectively crowd-sourcing management of a local farm. “Players” will determine which crops to plant, which animals to buy, and contribute towards overall management of the farm. The National Trust is the UK’s biggest farmer, said Fiona Reynolds, its director-general. “This is all about reconnecting people to where their food comes from. Our TNS poll showed that only 8% of mothers feel confident talking to their children about where their food comes from. That’s really poignant.”
The Future of Enterprise Software will be Fun and Productive via Lithosphere
Michael Wu, Principal Scientist of Analytics at Lithium, address CRM and one of its main challenges: adoption. There are many options in the enterprise software space, but making company-wide changes to CRM often requires steep learning curves and disrupting the habits of many employees. “Much enterprise software experiences poor adoption because fun was never part of the design requirement. However, as we now know, fun can be crucial to productivity, because it’s the key to drive mass adoption, which kicks off the network effect that benefits everyone.” Be sure to check out Michael’s previous articles in his mini-series on gamification.
