April 12, 2026
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December 2013

knack wasabi waiter

How Playing Games Can Discover True Talent

Ivan Kuo12 mins

Recruiting games are some of the most exciting applications for gamification today. We’ve seen it applied everywhere from the Air Force to big data analytics startups and now a new company has emerged to create games for talent discovery.

Knack is a startup that deeply believes in the mantra “you are how you play” and makes casual games to unveil player traits, soft skills, and behavioral qualities.

Essentially — the games by Knack serve as a medium for behavior observation and will pair you with appropriate recruiters and companies based off your revealed traits.

We invited Knack founder Guy Halfteck to join our Gamification Revolution show to explain the company’s vision and what Knack is capable of. Watch the video below for the full interview.



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If you’re interested in trying out these games, check out Knack.it to request an invite.

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chess praxis

Why Praxis and Play Matter for Practical Learning

Eugene Sheely39 mins

Aristotle believed there was two types of intelligence. One is translated as “theoretical wisdom”, which refers to book smarts, and the other is “practical wisdom”, which refers to the ability to apply theoretical wisdom into action. Aristotle gives an example of a student learning geometry: this student will come out of school with theoretical wisdom, but must also learn to apply it into the real world. An example would be to carry out a work of architecture with the geometry he learned in school. We need both of these intelligences to be functional; Praxis gives you this.

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Using Augmented Reality and Games for Bank Engagement

Kevin Shane83 mins

Gamification has come a long way in categories such as education and health, but Jonathon Camhi explains in 2014 Forecast: Gamification and the Year Ahead in Banking that in the banking world, gamification lags far behind. When reviewing banking gamification on a global scale, an in-depth survey by Infosys reveals that some banks in South Korea and Singapore have adopted gamification applications.

This research study included 160 lending institutions worldwide, but less than 10% have instituted any form of gamification. However, “35%” of those banks have plans to unveil gamification applications in the future, specifically in the next two years.

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gsummit global webinar

Using Gamification to Attract Wide Audiences – GSummit Global Webinar

Ivan Kuo31 mins

Every marketer wants to know: how can I get my audience to do “X” ? In our third GSummit Global Webinar we brought in Karl Dunn (TBWA), Adam Penenberg (PandoDaily) and Jeff Hawley (Yamaha) to discuss their respective observations on audience engagement in this one hour session.

Moderated by yours truly, the following webinar is our third and final webinar of our GSummit Global Webinar series. Webinars for Employee Engagement and Consumer Engagement are also available at their respective links. 

If you want more GSummit Global action, our final event on the tour is taking place at Sao Paulo, Brazil on January 15, 2014.

Join us for our last stop until GSummit 2014!  

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gartner hype cycle

Gartner: 80% of Poorly Designed Gamification Initiatives Still on Track to Fail by 2014

Ivan Kuo25 mins

It’s been nearly a year since we’ve first heard Gartner’s prediction on how “80 Percent of Current Gamified Applications Will Fail to Meet Business Objectives Primarily Due to Poor Design” was first uttered and CMSWire recently did a follow up with Gartner’s Brian Burke to see if they’re still sticking with this statement.
Their response? It’s still on track.

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stella grizont

Using Happiness for Engagement with Stella Grizont

Ivan Kuo12 mins

Stella Grizont, Founder of woopaah! has been a Gamification Co regular and prominent GSummit speaker on the topic of positive psychology and happiness.

We were lucky enough to grab her to join our latest webshow to dive further into the science behind happiness and how a positive focus on psychology can have a significant impact on engagement.

She states:

“If you want others to be engaged, how can you embody that? Happiness.”

Watch the full video below for the full interview and be sure to catch our next guest this Thursday with Guy Halfteck,  the CEO and Founder of Knack, a company dedicated to using games in order to discover our full talents.



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As a special offer for all our readers, Stella Has been kind enough to offer a 50% code for her newest course on UDemy on The Science of Happiness: Hacks & Skills to Flourish.

Use code GABE for a discount on her online class!

Remember to check our channel every Thursday at 1PM ET for a new guest on the Gamification Revolution webseries and more great content like this.

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aeroplan star challenge

How Aeroplan’s Star Challenge Improved Loyalty Program Engagement

Aaron Carr16 mins

Whether for a new launch or increasing awareness of existing benefits, educating customers about your product offering is critical. This is no less true amongst loyalty programs that for years have been telling us about their reward offerings and the various ways to earn their points.

At Friendefi, we’ve found that gamification can be an effective tool for not only improving members’ understanding of their frequent flyer program but also improving engagement with partners.

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big history project

The Big History Project Teaches The Story of Humanity with Game Based Learning

Kevin Shane25 mins

What do you get when you cross a maverick historian, a tech legend, and game based learning techniques? You get The Big History Project, a revolutionary online initiative that challenges the way history is traditionally taught.

The online project, formerly only available to educators, is backed by Microsoft and championed by Bill Gates himself, is in its third year and is being used in over 100 schools across eight countries.

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employee engagement webinar

How the Experts Use Gamification for Employee Engagement – GSummit Global Webinar

Ivan Kuo11 mins

A few weeks ago, we had a live webinar for GSummit Global that focused on achieving customer engagement with gamification. Today, we’re going to shift gears and take look at how prominent experts Phaedra Boinodiris (IBM), Ryan Mizusaki (Delta), and Ross Smith (Microsoft) have approached gamification as a means of motivating and training their staff.

Moderated by Gabe Zichermann, the following webinar is part 2 of 3 of our GSummit Global Webinar series, so stay tuned for our final webinar early next week.

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social learning and feedback

How Social Learning and Feedback Ensures Successful Employee Training

Danielle Arad37 mins

Nowadays, a growing number of companies encounter the serious challenge of designing the best training program that will lead to employee engagement and improve the bottom line. Businesses also search for fresh and innovative ways to motivate their employees to learn and master crucial skills. Thus, companies are beginning to take a good look at how they run their business and deal with customers. The application of new technologies also serve as a practical way to enhance and ensure quality results in their employee training process.

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Scott Hughes of PunchTab

PunchTab Weighs in Gamification’s Place in the Loyalty Industry

Ivan Kuo31 mins

Loyalty has always been about games and points since their inception so why has it taken so long for loyalty to embrace gamification as it is now? Scott Hughes, VP of Sales at PunchTab join our Gamification Revolution webshow to give us his input.

Watch his full interview below to get an idea of where gamification fits in with loyalty and what’s in store for the future.

Be sure to watch our next show on December 12 at 1:00 PM ET, featuring Stella Grizont of WOOPAAH!



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pretty ugly

Pretty Ugly Wants to Subvert Your Ideas of Beauty with a Game

Natalija Knaidele13 mins

Pretty Ugly is a satirical game about modeling-related reality TV shows and the pervasive “beautymania” that is constantly affecting young teenagers in developed countries. The game sets players up to match cards to create their idea of a socially acceptable beauty ideal…except the rules are always changing what the standard of beauty is in order to challenge the players’ perception of beauty.

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