Gamification Roundup – February 13, 2012

Happy Social Media Week! This week on the gamification news roundup, we explore the power of gaming in a social and enterprising context. The office could be changed forever if Gartner is right about the need for gamification in BPM implementation and if the Microsoft Kinect ends up in everyone’s office. And in light of Social Media Week, we look at the lessons learned from MMO’s, national security research, and scavenger hunts at Fashion Week.

According to a report by Gartner, organizational politics will prevent ⅓ of BPM efforts through 2016. 4-Traders writes that successful implementation of BPM necessitates a change in workplace culture and attitudes but is often met by resistance from employees and even senior individuals. Other issues with BPM implementation is the difficulty with scaling up BPM projects from a departmental level to a cross-departmental level. Gartner believes that gamification will play a key role in making sure BPM initiatives are further adopted, estimating 25% of all redesigned processes will feature some form of gamification.

Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOs) are becoming more apparent as powerful tools rather than just huge social games. Michael Hugos of CIO looks at popular MMO, EVE Online, as a model for achieving the business collaborative dream. In a game that features a realistic and self-sustaining world with actual economic forces, there are various features to facilitate collaboration among players. Hugos takes a close look at these mechanics and discusses their potential use in the real world.

Microsoft is getting ready to introduce motion-control sensor Kinect as a workplace device in March. According to ReadWriteWeb, Microsoft will be rolling out the accurate gesture-reading device for use across multiple industries. It may seem strange to incorporate an actual video game device into the work place but the Kinect spokespeople claim there are a variety of potential uses. One possibility could be in food service, where employees wearing gloves could simply use gestures to control a computer instead of removing and replacing gloves each time. In terms of gamification, the Kinect has already sold over 10M devices and could serve as a new platform for companies to engage with consumers.

In an effort to test the extent of social information sharing in times of international danger, the game Tag Challenge has been created. Publicyte reports that Tag Challenge will feature five jewel thieves in five major cities that users will have to identify and take pictures of. Contestants will have to use open-social networks for clues and could win $5000 if declared a winner. The basis of the research lies in the analytics generated by the social media interaction. Sponsored by multiple branches of the U.S. government, the game’s research will “…determine whether and how social media can be used to accomplish a realistic, time-sensitive, international law enforcement goal”.

In a press release distributed to Gamastura, game designers SlingShot have been commissioned to create a scavenger hunt game for Bourjois, a French cosmetic brand. Slingshot has come up with “Spot the Belle”, a Facebook game in which players must track down a GPS-tracked model in order to win some free prizes. While the game and the event are only temporary, it is this exact temporal nature of these games that manages to  generate huge buzz and event following. SlingShot’s previous public-engagement game, “2.8 Hours later”, had 4,000 players in London and over 13,000 followers on Facebook.