August 1, 2026
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August 2013

gNats Island Helps Therapists Communicate with Patients through Virtual Exploration

Ivan Kuo04 mins

A well-designed gamification system will often consider the player types of the audience that will be using it and seek to engage people based off what intrinsically and extrinsically motivates them.

While there are various gamified health systems out there, none of them have really looked towards engaging the the explorer-type like gNats Island — a game designed to help therapists communicate with mentally-challenged adolescents by exploring a virtual world alongside with them.

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kiip brian wong

How Kiip is Making Rewards Work

Ivan Kuo01 mins

Entrepreneur prodigy Brian Wong has been sharing Kiip’s great case studies and strategies at GSummit ever since the first one in 2011. Check out his talk from GSummit 2013 to see what Kiip has been up to since then, the great success they’ve been achieving as a mobile rewards platform, and what it really means to “capture the moment”

If you’re interested in seeing Brian’s slides from his presentation, you can download it from the GSummit SF 2013 Slides page and be sure to subscribe to your YouTube channel to get all the latest videos as they come.

 

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J.C. Penny Sale Fail

5 Gamification Lessons From J.C. Penney’s Epic Sales Failure

Heong Weng Mak714 mins

Imagine if retailers decide that it will treat its customers fairly and honestly. There would be no more deceptions, no more tricks. Any item that was made and sold would be priced non-deceptively. Surely a well informed, objective customer would gladly embrace this honest approach to pricing if it makes shopping better for everyone, right? As J.C. Penny (JCP) and recently ousted CEO goes to show, this was unfortunately not meant to be.

In fact, Johnson’s new strategy was a complete and utter disaster.

So, what does the gamification industry have to do with the failed initiative of a retail department’s store? It may seem unintuitive that the gamification industry could learn something from a entirely different field. However, through the gamification lens, we are able to delve into key lessons of the gamification process.

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bbva game

The BBVA Game: A Shining Example of Gamification in Finance

Ivan Kuo01 mins

We initially covered the BBVA Game as one really great case study for an effective use of gamification in consumer finance and this past GSummit, we were actually able to get a representative all the way from Spain to talk about some of the incredible stats the game was able to achieve for the bank. The BBVA game also led them to win the “Best Use of Engagement Techniques in Consumer-Facing Applications” at the 2013 GAwards.

Take a look at Javier Maroto, Innovation Manager at BBVA, to see what well-designed gamification can be capable of.


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mark goldstein

Mark Goldstein Explains the Problem with Modern Loyalty Programs

Ivan Kuo02 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 week’s guest was Mark Goldstein, Chairman of BackOps and loyalty industry veteran.

Be sure to catch our next episode this Thursday, August 1 at 1PM ET/1800 GMT, where we feature Tacy Trowbridge, who is the Head of Education Programs at Adobe. Watch the show to learn about all of Adobe’s gamified education initiatives!

Remember you can participate in the show if you sign-in and RSVP! Signing in will allow you to receive show reminders, ask questions, and even join Gabe and our guest for a live question.

In this week’s episode, Gabe and Mark discuss the problems that exist in modern loyalty, why they’re there, and how to overcome them. One great quote from Mark:

“The problem with most loyalty programs is that people simply don’t level up to get to the fun part”

What does he mean? Watch the episode below to find out:



Download this episode (right click and save)

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trace

Trace is the First Accurate Quantified-Self Device for Action Sports

Ivan Kuo07 mins

The conversation surrounding the quantified-self and measuring all-that-is-measurable has become a very hot tech meme and has even gone so far to successfully fund a Kickstarter for measuring brainwaves. Although brainwave monitoring is a small deviation from what’s popular, everyone has seen no shortage of these devices for measuring physical activity but even then, these devices are mostly limited to running and bicycling at best. What about everyone else?

Trace is a device currently on Kickstarter that wants to bring accurate tracking to surfers, snowboarders, and skaters that goes beyond the simple accelerometers in our smartphones and little wristbands.

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stella grizont

How Playing Can Unlock Your Mind and Inspire You with Stella Grizont

Ivan Kuo32 mins

How would you react if a truck showed up outside your door and you were told to scream inside it for a team-building exercise?

Stella Grizont is the founder of WOOPAH and she believes positive psychology and play are the keys to unlocking our creative sides. She took the stage at GSummit 2013, to tell us about how her studies in psychology led to this revelation and how we might be able to leverage these techniques for ourselves.

She explains

  • Core principles of positive psychology and its perspective on engagement.
  • What is play? What is a game? And what’s the difference?
  • How to use play to spark transformation

Check out the video below to see how play can help you and be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to get all the latest updates as they come.

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bartle player types 3

A New Perspective on the Bartle Player Types for Gamification

Andrzej Marczewski810 mins

If you have an interest in gamification, the likelihood is that you have heard of something called Bartle’s Player Types. This is a model that Dr. Richard Bartle created to describe the types of people who played Multi User Dungeon (MUD) games, what they wanted, how they acted and how they interacted. Initially 4 types were identified; Killer, Achiever, Socialiser and Explorer.

Later, he would expand on this and create a more detailed model that included 8 types; Griefer, Networker, Politician, Friend, Opportunist, Scientist, Planner and Hacker.

This model is popular in gamification as it gives a nice basis to consider types of user you may come across. It is worth noting a few things though. The first, this is not a taxonomy, it is a dynamic model that not only explains initial types, but their interactions and evolution over time. The other important point is that this model was designed for MUD games (or MMO’s as we now see them). This takes a couple of things for granted – the biggest being that players are there to play!

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tacy trowbridge

How Adobe is Gamifying Learning with Tacy Trowbridge

Ivan Kuo01 mins

Did you know Adobe has been working with gamification for awhile now? I’ve heard of their first venture into gamified learning when they introduced LevelUp to help new Photoshop users learn the ropes.  At GSummit 2013, Tacy Trowbridge took the stage to tell us about all the new gamification initiatives Adobe has been working on to unlock creativity in children.

Check out the video below and be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to get all the latest updates as they come.


Be sure to also catch Tacy as she appears on our weekly Gamification Revolution webseries as our guest speaker on August 15, 1 PM ET. Sign in and RSVP to join the chat and ask questions!

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gamification startups

Gamification Startups Are Finding New Niches and Greater Profits

Kevin Shane25 mins

Gamification startups are still finding innovative methods to stake their places in new niches while producing large profits. Businesses are looking for new techniques and methods to establish their presence as the first authority to consumers. Many businesses are finding that new competition are ramping up the game which is leaving many to say: “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.” These new competitors are banking on the ideas and innovations coming from gamification methods and practices lending to impressive startups and profits.

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gamify the job search

How Can You Gamify The Job Search?

Ivan Kuo21 mins

Jon Guerrra first showed up at GSummit in 2012 when he spoke about a low-tech personal gamification system he created to achieve his goals. One year later, Jon has taken this system and used it to get a job at Google. Watch his talk from GSummit SF 2013 to learn about his journey into Google’s Mountain View campus and the ultimate power of post-its.

We’ll be releasing more talks from GSummit SF 2013 in the weeks to come! Subscribe to our YouTube channel to get each video as they’re released and as always, if there is someone you want to see released next, sound off in the comments below.

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naureen meraj

Naureen Meraj on Motivational Psychology and The Leadership Game

Ivan Kuo12 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 week’s guest was Bob Marsh, CEO of LevelEleven, which is a company that develops gamification apps for Salesforce.

Remember you can participate in the show if you sign-in and RSVP! Signing in will allow you to receive show reminders, ask questions, and even join Gabe and our guest for a live question.

In this week’s episode, Gabe asks Naureen about her work at NTT Data as a behavioral psychologist who led the implementation of a leadership game worldwide. Expect to learn the nuts and bolts that go into such a big implementation, important global design principles, and measuring engagement.



Download this episode (right click and save)
Keep up with NTT Data’s work by following them on Twitter at @NTTDATAAmericas

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gsummit sf 2013 videos

GSummit SF 2013 Videos Are Coming Out to the Public!

Ivan Kuo22 mins

If you joined us for GSummit SF 2013, then you’ve clearly seen how awesome our community is, amidst of sea of brilliant experts, food trucks, and a gamified conference experience. It is our job here at Gamification Co to proliferate the latest and greatest knowledge about the gamification industry, so we’re finally going to begin releasing all of our videos from GSummit SF 2013 over the next few weeks.

We’ll be posting each of the new releases on our blog but if you want to get each of them immediately, be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to get each video as they come.

To kick off the first video we’re releasing, we want to share a story about engaging audiences with a real sense of purpose. Jeremy Heimans, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of…Purpose, shares his story about using narrative storytelling to transform engagement for corporations, non-profits and citizens with integrity and purpose.

Stay tuned as we release more videos every week! Also, if you’re interested in seeing a particular speaker on GSummit, sound off in the comments below!

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