Weekly Recap: gamification around the web

This week’s recap has a collection of gamification stories form around the web. If you watch one video on gamification, let it be from the Chief Scientist at Salesforce.com, JP Rangaswami. He has an excellent perspective on gamification of the enterprise. Other articles include a clarification of gamification terms, a further look into the pitfalls of gamification, and New York’s upcoming Come Out & Play Festival. Be sure to read the full coverage below.

Salesforce.com’s Chief Scientist on Why Gamification is the Future of Work

If you are going to watch one video on gamification this week, it should be the talk by JP Rangaswami, Chief Scientist at Salesforce.com, from ReadWriteWeb’s 2Way Summit held June 13-14 at Columbia University. He describes the coming wave of productive gamification that is not focused on shallow implementation, but taps into the more significant shift from the hierarchical model of work and labor to a networked, self-selecting system. There are many great quotes from the 40-minute video, but the most descriptive is the conclusion at the end,

I want to put it to you that gamification of the enterprise is not a fad, not about providing extrinsic rewards for crap work. If work is crap, let’s fix the problem and not put any lipstick on it. It is not superficial. [Gamification] is actually tools that are going to allow for a significant paradigm shift from hierarchical, linear, top-down decision making work to non-linear, networked, personally selected teams, tasks, and outcomes. We are nearly there, but this change is going to require us to learn a lot of new things, and what games can teach us is a smarter way of being able to extract those learnings and bring them to the enterprise.

The video is available on Livestream, and ReadWriteWeb has a short writeup of the talk.

Gamification. Advergaming. Transmedia. The Gamesbrief Guide to Marketing and Games.

Following the conceptual muddiness of Saatchi & Saatchi’s study on gamification, Nicholas Lovell, founder of the Gamesbrief blog, has written up an overview of different terms around gamification. Gamification, advergaming, transmedia, and the classic games are all described and delineated. Any company hoping to get into the field should take a quick look at the overview.

Don’t Play With Me: The Promises and Pitfalls of Gameful Design

Sebastian Deterding, academica and researcher, has a new look at the pitfalls of gamification. Looking into the philosophy and thought behind gamification, Deterding again gives excellent insight into some of the issues. Warning: there is philosophy in the presentation.

Who Cares About Gamification?

Joey Strawn, President of Empty Jar Marketing, asks, “Who Cares About Gamification?” and finds that he really does care about it. He ties gamification to Harvard Business School researchers James Gilmore and B. Joseph Pine and the concept of the experience economy. “Gamification is all about creating experience for your customers.” I would expand upon the concept and tie it to Jane McGonigal’s concept of the engagement economy.

Come Out and Play Festival

Starting tomorrow, Come Out & Play is an annual festival of street games that turns New York City into a giant playground. This year Come Out & Play brings the action to Lower Manhattan with a series of games from June to July, culminating in one-day field day in mid-July on Governors Island. Interesting project in gamification include the Commons, a game for urban communities to improve their city through citizen stewardship, and many different games to get people more active.