April 2, 2026
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February 2014

unicef tap project

UNICEF’s Tap Project Will Donate Water for Smartphone Abstinence

Bianca Gelli17 mins

This year, the campaign for UNICEF’s Tap Project is challenging us to set our phones aside for a few minutes in exchange for a clean water donation. Just to give you an idea of the challenge: spending a mere 10 minutes away from your phone provides a full day of clean water to a child in need. The longer you go, the more water is donated.

“Some of us can’t go for more than a few minutes without checking our cell phones. Imagine what it’s like to go days—or longer—without safe drinking water” says Caryl Stern, President and CEO of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF.

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sascha goto

Guiding Gamification Through Management with Sascha Goto

Ivan Kuo02 mins

Sometimes when you want to gamify in a large organization, the hoops and hurdles you need to surpass may seem daunting. Sascha Goto is an Senior IT Manager at McKinsey who was able to successfully implement his own low-tech gamified system and was able to share some wisdom for us all on how we might approach doing the same thing.

He joined us on our weekly Gamification Revolution webshow with Gabe Zichermann and talked about:

  • Implementing gamification for IT management
  • Getting employees to participate with gamification systems on their own time
  • Demonstrating success with products
  • How to get approval for gamification
  • The effect of competition in an organization
  • Using low-tech proofs of concept

Watch the full interview below and catch this week’s special double-guest episode on gamifying loyalty with Maritz’ Barry Kirk and Bill Hennessey this Thursday at 1 PM ET.



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Case Study: Game Based Learning for Civil Engineering

Kevin Shane04 mins

There has been a lot of buzz going on as more schools and universities adopt methods of game based learning. It’s gaining so much ground that studies are emerging to test if game based learning is truly effective. From what the studies have learned thus far , the answer is a resounding “Yes, it is.”

In late 2002, the iVISiCE (interactive Visualization in Civil Engineering) project was founded to assist students of Civil Engineering in their studies. The project was to test if learning by ways of animations and visualizations was more effective than traditional textbook methods.

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The Winner Effect: How Success Affects Brain Chemistry

Eugene Sheely115 mins

There’s a very interesting phenomena in biology I’ve been wanting to link to gamification called “the winner effect.” When any animal, from fish to humans, wins a contest, they have a large release of testosterone and dopamine in the brain. Over time this changes their brains structure and chemical makeup, making them more confident, smarter, and able to take on larger challenges than before.

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victor manrique

Victor Manrique on Teaching the World Gamification Design

Ivan Kuo01 mins

Victor Manrique is a prominent gamification community member, author of EpicWinBlog, and professor of Iversity’s Gamification Design MOOC (also free!) who joined our weekly Gamification Revolution webshow to talk about teaching gamification design to the masses. He is joined by Gabe Zichermann to talk about his experiences teaching and discussed:

  • Differences between game design and gamification
  • Philosophies behind teaching a gamification Design MOOC
  • Learning other disciplines to strengthen gamification
  • Balancing game design

And much more! Watch their full interview below to get all the talking and be sure to join us this Thursday for our next episode featuring Sascha Goto of McKinsey to discuss his work in bringing gamification into IT Management. Click through to get show reminders!

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cicada 3301

Cicada 3301 – The Best Head-Hunting Campaign Ever?

Natalija Knaidele015 mins

I’ve officially caught the bug this winter — infatuated with this fascinating online scavenger hunt, which has been unapproachable from the world of the average lazy human lacking cryptography or coding skills (that is to say, myself).

Cicada 3301, now in its third year, is a codename for both a covert organization and an online puzzle game popping up every January since 2012. This mysterious entity has been drawing hundreds of players into a vortex of exquisitely sophisticated series of clues without an explicit goal or end-time. This year’s first clue arrived on January 6, the Epiphany Day, when Christians celebrate the manifestation of Jesus Christ to the people in a human form. Cicada 3301 must think very highly of themselves, and so far most of us would agree.

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wellness

Case Study: Vitality Squares – A Wellness Game of Chance

Francois Millard05 mins

Vitality is an international, comprehensive and personalized wellness program, which from its origins in the 1990s incorporated basic gaming elements of points, status and awards. As we evolve we continue to ask ourselves: What mechanisms encourage our members to participate and get healthier? And moreover, how do we sustain and increase engagement over time?

To that end, we introduced Vitality Squares early in 2013, as an online health-themed game of chance that can be played by members once a month to earn points.

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monica cornetti

Low to No Tech Gamified Training with Monica Cornetti

Ivan Kuo02 mins

We often like to say that sometimes good design and creativity can trump technology, like in the case of Amy Baskin’s grammar olympics or David Hunter’s zombified geography curriculum. Most people want to use gamification solutions with fancy apps and SaaS solutions but what if you simply don’t have the resources? Monica Cornetti is a gamification expert specializing in using some creative designs for training purposes and we invited her to speak on our weekly Gamification Revolution webshow.

She walks us through her methods for low to no tech gamified training and shares her knowledge on:

  • Using story narratives for engagement
  • Using avatars without technology
  • Getting people excited to use no-tech solutions
  • 5 Step Solution to low-tech training
  • Measuring progress without tech

And much more! Watch her full interview with Gabe Zichermann below and be sure to watch Victor Manrique join on our gamification show this Thursday at 1PM ET:



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cisco social media training

How Cisco Drives Social Media Training with Gamification

Leslie Lau06 mins

At Cisco, we use gamification across a number of key programs. One program where we have extensively incorporated gamification techniques is our Social Media Training Program.

During the past two years, the Global Social Media Team at Cisco has invested in our Social Media Training Program. This program offers a unique opportunity for employees and contractors at Cisco to build their social media skillset. And the opportunity to leverage the skills they learn is manifold.

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conspiracy code

Conspiracy Code Conspires to Teach American History

Kevin Shane03 mins

Conspiracy Code Teaches American History with Virtual Spies When considering the difference between gamified learning and game-based learning, Conspiracy Code is a perfect example of a game-based learning game. Conspiracy Code is a 3rd person action/puzzler game that teaches a high school American History curriculum. Students play the game as two teenagers named Eddie and Libby living…

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brian burke

Gartner’s Latest Gamification Research for 2014 with Brian Burke

Ivan Kuo12 mins

Brian Burke is a Gartner analyst specializing in enterprise architecture and gamification. His research led to the infamous prediction stating “80% of gamification initiatives will fail by 2014 due to bad design” and Gartner thinks that prediction is still on track for 2014.

We wanted to get more information on this topic so we were lucky enough to have Brian Burke himself join our weekly Gamification Revolution webshow to discuss his observations on gamifying organizations, new research, and information on his upcoming book. Watch the following video to learn about

  • Transitioning from using gamification as a tactic into a strategy
  • How organizations can  go beyond just jumping on the gamification bandwagon
  • Using gamification to discover underlying business problems.
  • How have we seen organizations balance between fun mechanics and presentation for maximum work space efficiency?
  • And the evolving pathos around gamification in the enterprise

Check out the full video below and be sure to see our next episode this Thursday at 1PM ET featuring Monica Cornetti, an expert specializing in low-tech training gamification. Sign-up and get show reminders!



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