May 31, 2026
Headlines

2013

Recent Retail Gamification Campaigns: Was it Worth it?

Sudarshan Gopaladesikan08 mins

Gartner has kept busy in the past few months with analyzing gamification’s current status and potential. A list of all of their research can be found here, but a recently published report by them states that by 2015, 40% of Global 1000 companies will use gamification as a primary tool to drive primary business goals. For these companies who wish to engage in increasing loyalty, virality, and engagement, they often host promotional offers through the popular social media platform Facebook. While most marketing campaigns are based around standard giveaways, three companies have been able to successfully implement some form of game elements and behavioral science to drive results. Taking a look at these retail gamification implementations from Rue La La, Dunkin Donuts, and Best Buy, the spirit of giving is mixed with the flair of games to promote cheer through the past holiday season.

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Deloitte Leadership Academy Leads with the Gamification of Training

Heong Weng Mak57 mins

Getting employees involved with training can be a challenging task for many firms. Even when the training program is simple to use and easily available, training would be the last thing employees would like to do when they are away from the work place. As James Sanders, Manager of Innovation at Deloitte Consulting puts it, “Let’s face it, for most people, on a typical Sunday morning, if given the choice between ‘Am I gonna watch ESPN, or am I gonna do some training?’ training will not win out.” While it may seem that the odds are stacked against enterprises, Deloitte is keeping itself ahead of the pack with their training program, Deloitte Leadership Academy (DLA).

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Top Articles for Education Gamification in 2012

Ivan Kuo06 mins

Behold! Gamification Co’s Best of 2012 series will conclude with the best of Education from last year. The education community showed intense engagement with these articles for here and I hope that these resources may inspire countless classrooms to change into engagement powerhouses for students. Read on about how some of Blizzard’s most popular games are education High School and College classes, an iPad app to train Autistic children, a classroom gamifying musical compositions, an interview with Kevin Werbach, Coursera Gamification Professor, and finally – a full six part series by an expert educator discusses gamification’s current role in modern education. Get schooled after the jump

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Windows Phone Live Tiles Could’ve Been So Much More

Ivan Kuo711 mins

I’ve recently acquired a Nokia Lumia 920 review unit and as an Android enthusiast, I would have never made this switch but there’s no way I’d turn down the opportunity to play with some new toys.

While I can make a full comprehensive-review of the hardware and operating system, I’ll mainly be looking at Windows Phone 8 (Not Windows Mobile, mind you) and its implication for gamification design.

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GSummit SF 2013 Speaker List Now Available – Early Bird Discount Ending Tomorrow

Ivan Kuo04 mins

Last month, the legendary Jesse Schell was added to the GSummit speaker roster and as of today, the full GSummit speaker list is now available for viewing. The full list may be available now but there are some more surprises and secrets that will be revealed in the next three months as we count down to GSummit SF this April 16 – 18.

This GSummit speaker list is proving to be very strong and features thought leaders from newly-attending companies such as Autodesk, Mckinsey, and Gametize to talk about how gamification is changing loyalty, consulting, and in other regions of the world.

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millitary training

Military Simulation Game Training Improves Gaming Skills, Not Soldier Capabilities

Kevin Shane15 mins

It’s not very surprising that the military has been using video games as a form of training. This form of gamification is very serious, enough so that in 2008 the U.S. Army invested “$50 million over five years on games and gaming systems designed to prepare soldiers for combat.” This investment is so big, it has its own title: the Project Executive Office – Simulation Training and Instrumentation, or PEO – STI, and the Air Force, Navy, Marines, Coast Guard, and Homeland Defense are involved as well. These games are basically complex simulations, which have been in use since possibly the 1920’s.

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Bridging the Gap: Can Gamification Increase Fan Loyalty in the Music Industry?

Sudarshan Gopaladesikan19 mins

We hear a lot about gamification success stories, but there really aren’t too many regarding music. Most success stories involve increasing engagement and motivation to have users and/or consumers interact with brands and institutions in favorable ways to both parties. Nike+ allows users to obtain more feedback on their running routines while providing Nike with a way to get people more accustomed to having Nike in their everyday life. The Buffalo Wild Wings Scvngr app allows people to have an engaging experience while eating their favorite wings, providing the restaurant chain with ways to increase customer loyalty. However, in the case of the music industry, there isn’t that definitive success story that provides ample evidence that gamification largely benefits music. Therefore, it begs the question: does gamification have a place in music?

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Top Articles for Enterprise Gamification in 2012

Ivan Kuo15 mins

2012 was a great year for gamification in the enterprise as we saw many more companies begin to adopt gamification into the workspace. In today’s Best of 2012 feature, we look at some of the top stories in workspace engagement, strategy, and loyalty for businesses. There’s some really top-notch information in here, including gamification withdrawal effects, analysis of gamification’s current position in the Gartner hype-cycle, cultural differences for gamification, the evolution of loyalty, and even more after the jump.

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Total Gamified Car Experiences Coming Soon? Ford Opens up AppLink to Developers

Ivan Kuo14 mins

According to the folks at CultOfMac, CES 2013 is underway and Ford has announced something exciting and potentially very big for the gamification community

This morning, Ford has announced that their formerly closed AppLink service has been opened for all iOS and Android developers to create apps that will be able to speak to a number of the car’s services.

Ford is calling this new initiative the Ford Developer Program and it will be available for free.

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Global Gamification Market Study Shows Driving Need to Engage Consumers

Kevin Shane14 mins

TechNavio, a research wing of Infinity Research, released a 40-page marketing report in November 2012. The study examines the expected role of Gamification in the North American, European and Pacific Rim areas. The purpose of the research was “to aid decision makers’ understanding of the present and future landscape of the market.”

And the landscape’s terrain is populated by social media and networking.

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How to Use Badges for Positive Growth

Sudarshan Gopaladesikan011 mins

It isn’t uncommon to hear the gamification sphere talk about the dangers of using badges. People claim they are typically used as an extrinsic reward, which leads to consumers quickly losing interest in gamified applications and services. Couple this danger of using badges with Gartner’s prediction that 80% of gamified solutions will fail by 2014 due to poor design, companies and designers looking to adopt gamification as a strategy to meet business objectives need to be aware of useful implementations.

That said about being meticulous on design, badges can still be used effectively as a positive growth tool. This past spring and summer, Global Kids—a premier non-profit organization dedicated to developing youth leaders that come from underrepresented demographics—conducted a beta-tested study on “Six Ways to Look at Badging Systems Designed for Learning”.

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Top Career Opportunities and Jobs in Gamification

Gabe Zichermann610 mins

One of the questions I’m asked most frequently is how to build a career in or with gamification. The industry is growing rapidly, with companies on track to spend over $2.5Bn directly on gamification products and services by 2016, with at least 5,000 jobs created as a result. But because gamification cuts across industries and functions, it’s not always immediately obvious what job title best suits a “gamifier” and what kinds of companies need your skills.

So I’ve pulled together my thoughts on the top job opportunities with gamification, based on different underlying skills/interests.We do know that demand for gamification skills is up 293%, so the opportunities are certainly there.  In some cases these are new job types entirely — in others they are the roles where you should have a significant “bump” in marketability with gamification experience. Regardless of which path you choose, consider earning your certification in gamified design at GSummit in April — it will doubtlessly help bolster your marketability.

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Top Articles in Health Gamification for 2012

Ivan Kuo34 mins

Just a few more left in our Best of 2012 series! This week we’re looking at some of the top articles for Health Gamification in 2012. We’re looking at a number of awesome little devices and programs to educate, assist, and protect the ill as well as those practicing medicine. Remember that the gamification health need not only apply to the sick; it is just as helpful for medical practitioners as well. It would seem that a number of the most popular articles were related to pediatric gamification, or simply, gamification targeted at children’s health. Read the full list after the jump.

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