Like many of you, I’m a huge fan of the Ted conferences and am in awe of the success they’ve had in spreading awesome ideas. So when earlier this year I was invited to give a talk at TedX Kids in Brussels, I rearranged my hectic schedule and set to work on a new talk….
Late last week, the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA, it’s like DARPA for spies) announced a new contract of $10.5 million to develop “serious games” that include training for US intelligence officers. Along side projects designing the future of silicon chips and predicting the future by analyzing public information, the new program, dubbed the…
In the past, I have been surprised to come across a number of people working on gamification that have never designed games and don’t play them regularly. Luckily, there are also people like Tony Ventrice who works at Badgeville and is a veteran game designer. In the past, he has made games with Playdom and…
The recognition of gamification is growing, and growing quickly. The question is, is it growing too fast? According to Gartner, the movement is somewhere near the top of the hype cycle, which means that there still needs to be some disillusionment before gamification enters its productive phase. MIT’s Technology Review today released an interview with Yahoo researcher,…
This past week has seen the release of a flurry of articles around the web that highlight the business side of gamification. Following an updated announcement by Gartner that 70% of the Global 2000 organizations will have at least one gamified app by 2014, authors have raced to demonstrate how it has already taken hold in many different…
The two-day boutique Future of Web Design conference concluded yesterday in New York’s Midtown, with speakers focusing heavily on innovation in engagement science. The conference is hosted annually by UK based Carsonified, a design company with a refreshing set of core values.
Part II: Technology’s Role in a Gamified Classroom. This is the second part of an ongoing series on the role of gamification in modern education by Andrew Proto. For the first part, visit “Part I: the Unique Obstacles Teachers Face“ In every classroom across the country, the technology that we are teaching our students with…
Last week, Samsung was among the first to announce integration of Badgeville’s new behavior platform in Samsung Nation. Samsung has put their weight behind the rollout. Rather than gamify one marketing campaign or a single product site, the company brought gamification into the forefront and integrated the new features throughout the US corporate site. Leaderboards, badges,…
GSummit San Francisco and New York City were huge hits, selling out and bringing together folks from around the world and from every corner of the gamification and engagement industries. Clearly however, not everyone can come to GSummit – and for many of those who attended, the two intense days of lectures, panels and workshops…
Social validation may sound like a lonely high-schooler’s dream, but in terms of gamification, it is a powerful social mechanic that can expand the user base and keep users honest. Social image is important in the People’s Republic, where “keeping face” is a traditional value, and Kwestr, a new startup out of China, hopes to expand…
Earlier this year, Mashable rolled out gamification elements for their tailored news experience, Mashable Follow. Last week, Mashable wrote about the new features, and asked “what makes gamification successful?” The answers they provide give a cursory case study of how gamification can motivate engagement in an already active community.
In the world of gamification for television, it can sometimes be difficult to tie couch potatoes to an interactive experience, but a few projects have done it well. Pug Pharm, a Canadian leader in gamification and social engagement, teamed up with Switch Design to create a social gameplay platform to the History Channel’s Ice Pilots…
Gamification is the use of game thinking and game mechanics to engage audiences and solve problems. This emerging discipline – at the intersection of loyalty, behavioral economics and game design – is growing dramatically, with Gartner Group projecting that 70% of the world’s biggest companies will be actively using gamification by 2015. With extraordinary early…
Over the past year and a half, gamification has been behind big changes at the White House and government agencies. Previously, government contracts have been determined by bidding between large firms that have a history with federal projects (imagine Boeing and Northrop Grumman bidding on contracts for a new jet fighter). But based off of successful…
There is a conversation held over and over between parents and children that is as old as the first Motorola flip-phones: the conversation on purchasing your teenager a cell phone. Kids always have the best arguments, “I’ll only use it to stay in touch with you,” “I promise to check in every hour on the…
