August 14, 2026
Headlines

Gabe Zichermann

Washing Your Hands Has Never Been (This) Fun

Gabe Zichermann03 mins

The New York Times recently wrote an interesting piece about the importance of hand-washing in hospitals. It turns out that only 30% of medical professionals wash their hands appropriately, leading to billions of dollars in downstream costs from readmissions, malpractice and secondary infections. While the exact reasons for poor adherence are the subject of speculation, a number of companies have jumped into the fray to try and solve the problem. Their solutions often rest heavily on gamification.

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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.

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Foursquare and the Fun Gap: What Foursquare Should Have Been

Gabe Zichermann410 mins

Today Foursquare announced a new round of debt-based financing amounting to $41M in loans and convertible notes. It has been controversial, because debt-based financing suggests the company has a significant performance problem (Jason Gelman has a good wrap-up of the spirited discussion). Foursquare’s problem has become increasingly clear to Gamification folks over the past two years – it’s just not fun anymore. In the transition from a (great) game to a (good) loyalty program to a (mediocre) recommendations engine, they lost the plot, alienated customers and wasted a ton of resources and time.

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Bitcoin: The First Universal Loyalty Program Currency

Gabe Zichermann68 mins

Bitcoin — the buzzy virtual currency that’s focused on privacy — continues to gain major traction. For some time you’ve been able to pay for games (or a hitman), invest your earnings and speculate on Bitcoins. In recent days, it’s become possible to use the world’s first Bitcoin ATM and pay your employees in Bitcoins. In short, Bitcoin is angling to be the first broadly accepted virtual currency not issued by a nation-state.

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The Gamification Revolution Starts Today with Gabe Zichermann’s Newest Book

Gabe Zichermann46 mins

When my first book, Game-Based Marketing was being picked up by its publisher in 2009, I tried to convince them that the right concept was a business strategy title. The original idea was called The Serious Business of Games, and was meant to look at a wide range of ways that games intersected with industry. As a result of the global financial crisis and the unproven nature of the discussion, they wanted something more focused. Of course, this was before the term gamification had come into common use and before the rise of Foursquare or Zynga. In short, the idea that combining game design with business could be a strategy was a little ahead of its time.

That time has come.

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PricewaterhouseCoopers joins GSummit as a Sponsor

Gabe Zichermann23 mins

As the market for gamification matures, there are a number of significant changes in store for our nascent industry. Chief among those is the increased attention from bellwether companies that signal broadening support for our view of increased engagement through great design.

One of the most sought-after categories is consultancies, particularly the large management/strategy agencies. Their participation in our community is an essential step in getting major enterprises (e.g. Fortune 1000s), governments and large NGOs to see gamification and engagement science as a core part of their strategy.

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GSummit Announces Hosts for 2013!

Gabe Zichermann52 mins

This year’s GSummit is bigger and better than ever before, with 80 speakers and dozens of sessions covering key engagement science topics across marketing, loyalty, HR/enterprise, product design, UI/UX, learning/education and health. After the hands-on workshops the first day (which are selling out), the rest of the event is jam-packed with meaningful, highly curated talks from some of the best and brightest speakers in the world. To make sure the days flow smoothly, and everyone is getting the maximum insight from their time, we bring in top community experts to act as hosts throughout the conference.

Last year, Jessica Rogers and Ashok Kamal brought their unique insights to the floor to marshall an amazing event.

This year, we’re pleased to invite three of the most influential and vocal members of the global gamification community to be our hosts for GSummit 2013:

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Announcing 12 New GSummit Speakers for SF 2013

Gabe Zichermann16 mins

The GSummit speakers roster for this year’s event(SF, April 16-18, 2013) just keeps getting better and better. To support 2013’s themes of strategy, loyalty and engagement, we’ve just announced over a dozen new speakers. This brings our roster to 80 world-class engagement experts in multiple categories, making this the biggest and best GSummit ever. Here are some of the highlights from our latest group of amazing speakers. Be sure to check out their talks: they’re controversial, entertaining, informative and game-changing. We’ve got major content tracks for marketing, HR/Enterprise, Learning/Training, community, design and more.

Be sure to register now to reserve your conference/workshop space. Spots are going quickly, and if your job involves designing engagement you’ll definitely want to learn, network and earn your certification this year at GSummit.

Be sure to see the newly announced speakers and sessions – and some of my notes after the jump:

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LinkedIn’s Leaderboard of Missed Engagement Opportunities

Gabe Zichermann66 mins

Last week, Linkedin sent out emails congratulating users for being in the top X% of “most viewed” profiles, ostensibly to celebrate their 200 millionth profile. The emails generated a fair amount of social media buzz, with even reticent users posting about their “accomplishments”, often with a #humblebrag attached.

What struck me about the campaign was how it managed to take both the best and the worst of gamified leaderboard and achievement design in one fell swoop.

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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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Behind the Scenes Notes from gsummitX Tel Aviv

Gabe Zichermann01 mins

We had a great gsummitX in Tel Aviv on Christmas Day, with a standing room-only crowd and great speakers. We’ll soon share some of the videos from the event, but in the meantime you might enjoy reading my notes. I took these from listening to the varied speakers and then did an impromptu presentation where I responded to their assertions and highlighted their most interesting comments. My handwriting isn’t the best, but the topics are fascinating.

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Gamification Myths Part 2: Game Mechanics are Being Misused

Gabe Zichermann010 mins

One of the more vexing questions within game design is “what is a game mechanic” and its corollary — what isn’t. Along with some of the other major disagreements in game design, the mechanics question is both existential and crucial for understanding the interplay between games and gamification. Very long and interesting articles, papers, speeches and presentations (n.b. there are obviously thousands more) have been given on the topic of what is a game mechanic, how it works, what conflicts are, etc – most of them interesting, if academic.

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Challenging Games for Change’s Designers and Gabe’s Gamification History

Gabe Zichermann12 mins

I see some issues that require immediate attention with the Games for Change world. Principally a rapidly emerging gap between the promise and the track record of socially-oriented gamified interventions. Why, with all the good intentions, is success so fleeting? And what can the high-minded practitioners in the industry do about making it better?

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