June 17, 2026
Headlines

May 2013

3 Mobile Apps for the Gamification of Energy Conservation

Kevin Shane06 mins

It’s important to recycle and reduce consumption and turn off the water while brushing teeth, but who wants to sort trash? Who wants to go around the house making sure all the light bulbs are off? If you make it a game, you create a situation where people actually want to use less power, and some cases, you could even generate more power. There are a number of mobile apps for iOS and Android that aims to make the whole act of conserving energy a little easier. Here are three applications aimed at encouraging eco-friendly behavior.

Read More

SAP Database Tech Has Been Mashed With CRYENGINE3

Mario Herger02 mins

The German consulting company IDS Scheer won 2nd place in the finals of the recent SAP HANA Partner Race, a contest showcasing applications based on SAP’s in-memory technology HANA. What was especially compelling with the IDS Scheer demo was the usage of the well-known German game-studio’s CryTek game engine CRYENGINE3. CryTek, know for their blockbuster games from the Crysis-Series, provides a game engine that game-developers can use and built their own game.

Read More

Why Gamification Design Should be Individual-Focused

Kevin Shane34 mins

While there are many benefits to gamification and many businesses are using this practice to make their website more engaging, the methods used by practicing businesses could often be more effective. Many businesses who integrate game dynamics within their company are often too focused on a corporate level, rather than the gamification of individuals. Because people play games for their own enjoyment, gamification that is too general is often ineffective due to its irrelevance to customers or employees.

Read More

Gabe Zichermann on Autism, Engagement and Memecube

Ivan Kuo11 mins

The Gamification Revolution is the only live gamification webcast featuring Gabe Zichermann and fellow gamification experts every week. Join us and have all of your gamification questions answered by these experts.

This past week, Gabe discusses how the rise of autism will make engagement even more important in his closing keynote at GSummit. He then gets into Memecube’s success as the world’s first gamified conference Twitter app, debuting at GSummit. Get the full story by watching the video below:

Be sure to catch us for tomorrow’s episode featuring Ross Smith, Director of Test at Microsoft and creator of the Language QA game for Windows!

Join us every Thursday at 1PM EST for the Gamification Revolution and have all your engagement questions answered!

Read More

How Gaming Prepares Us for Success with Failure

Sudarshan Gopaladesikan16 mins

The Grand Theft Auto Franchise (GTA), notoriously known for promoting aggressive behavior, can also be seen as a virtual driver’s ed teacher, and possibly even a better deal; one game purchase gets you infinite lessons.

First thought that comes to mind when I hear ‘Grand Theft Auto’ is badass. Although the game typically encourages the player to break the rules, a recent Kotaku article has shown the game’s more positive side. The post explains how GTA has taught someone to drive, and I believe this is a result of two things: the ability to fail without fear and the depth of game design.

Read More

Call for Gamification Startups to Attend GameFounders Gaming Accelerator

Taavi Lindmaa05 mins

GameFounders is Europe’s first gaming startup accelerator and is seeking startups for an intensive 3 month development program in Tallinn, Estonia starting in September. Applications are open to both gaming and gamification startups until June 20th. You can apply here: gamefounders.com/#/apply.

GameFounders is the only gaming accelerator in the world that invests up to 15,000 EUR seed capital for a 9% share in the accelerated companies. They are also the first gaming accelerator in Europe. They have had two selection cycles featuring 14 top contenders from Argentina, Lithuania, Italy, Germany, Macedonia, Hungary, India, Holland and Estonia. In total they have received applications from 47 countries globally.

Read More

Soccket: The Soccer Ball That Generates Electricity

Alex Landa14 mins

If you’re able to read this, then you have ample electricity for everyday means. However, there are places in the world that have little-to-no available electricity for simple purposes like lightning their homes at night. Some folks have made a soccer ball that’s able to produce electricity by simply being kicked around in order to provide assistance to those who need it.

Over at Uncharted Play, the creators have invented an energy generating soccer ball called Soccket. The ball produces electricity from the kinetic energy made when kicked around and it only takes 30-minutes of play to power an LED light for 3 hours

Read More

Are Brain Waves the Next Step for The Quantified Self?

Ivan Kuo55 mins

Activity trackers have become very popular among fitness enthusiasts, quantified-selfers, and gadget fans but are they making any sort of difference? I had mixed feelings about the Nike Fuelband when I reviewed it a year ago and Wired thinks it isn’t making you any healthier either. But maybe these glorified bluetooth accelerometers are missing a crucial feature: brainwave monitoring

Read More

Educating with WoW and Minecraft with Lucas Gillispie

Ivan Kuo01 mins

The Gamification Revolution is the only live gamification webcast featuring Gabe Zichermann and fellow gamification experts every week. Join us and have all of your gamification questions answered by these experts.

This past week’s guest was Lucas Gillispie, educator and creator of Edurealms — a site dedicated to providing educational materials that make use of games like World of Warcraft and Minecraft. Check out the full video to learn about Lucas’ insights on using games in the classroom and some of the challenges he faces.

Be sure to catch tomorrow’s episode at 1PM EDT with Gabe for another gamification design QnA on the Gamification Revolution

Read More

What the Xbox One Means for Gamification

Ivan Kuo14 mins

The successor to the Xbox 360 was just announced about an hour ago and we finally have a name for Microsoft’s next generation console: Xbox One

Many features about the Xbox One looked really impressive, especially the new high-fidelity Xbox Kinect sensor and voice commands but the most significant take-away for gamifiers is the presence of a TV tuner and a nifty little feature called “snap-mode.”

Read More

PromiseUP, the Gamification App to Help Keep Promises

Heong Weng Mak25 mins

Remember the promise you made to your mom that you would call every so often? What about the other time you promised your boss that would not be late for work again? Or that promise you made to yourself that you will quit smoking?

Many individuals are capable of keeping to their promises, but there are also many others who are unable to do so. The fallacy of making promises is that there is no one else besides the person who is being made the promise to that will hold the individual accountable for his or her actions. As there is a lack of an immediate feedback loop, it leaves the individual complacent in accomplishing their tasks and making good on their end of the promise. A new IOS app, PromiseUP aims to change that by helping people to fulfill their promises.

Read More

My Gamification Birthday Wish

Gabe Zichermann44 mins

Today is my 39th birthday.

When we started on this crazy gamification journey in 2010, I could not have predicted how large an impact our community would have in just 3 short years. What began as a shot in the dark (“I think there are some people out there who think that game concepts can improve business and the world”), has mushroomed into a real movement. Collectively, you have worked to design change in marketing, human resources, product development, strategy and business process. You’ve brought the best ideas from games, loyalty programs and behavioral economics to health, finance, education, government, loyalty and travel…just to name a few industries.

Read More

3 Ways to Make TV More Engaging Without the Second Screen

Ivan Kuo015 mins

For people who still watch regular broadcast television, it has become very common to actually watch TV while simultaneously using your laptop, phone, or tablet. Savvy networks like USA/NBC have picked up on this and created gamified mobile companion applications to engage with users as they both watch TV and browse on the net. There are compelling case-studies that outline the efficacy of this concept, coined the second screen, but I have not really seen any other kinds of engagement tactics for viewers. However, I found inspiration for new possible ways from the gamer community, and more specifically, the Dota 2 community.

Read More

All Gamification Companies in the Buyer’s Guide Now Have Lead Generation

Ivan Kuo02 mins

The Gamification Co Buyer’s Guide has been steadily growing ever since we first launched it back in November 2012. It’s the only comprehensive selection of gamification vendors with filtering elements to help you find the right partner to help you implement gamification into your organization.

Now that there are 60+ qualified gamification vendors listed in the database, we decided to celebrate this milestone by offering each vendor a free service upgrade to receive lead generation from their company profile.

Read More

New Seeds Startup Brings Gamification to Venture Capital and Microlending

Kevin Shane04 mins

The Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act is on the verge of altering the investment landscape, finally enabling startups to procure capital from investments that follow the model of crowdfunding sites such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo. The crucial difference is that the funds are given out as true risk/reward-bearing propositions.

The world of investment, at all levels, typically carries the nomenclature and ethic of gamification even though it is engaged in the serious business of real money. This means that it is a natural fit for gamification startups. Some are bringing unorthodox approaches to crowd investing that borrow ideas from an extremely fun and popular source – casual online games.

Read More