Ivan Kuo

Brenda Romero on Teaching Controversial History with Gamification

When Brenda Brathwaite Romero’s 7-year old daughter came home talking about the Middle Passage, she clearly didn’t understand its significance to American and black history. Instead, she thought of those slaves as going on a cruise. Romero needed her to understand the truth.

As a long-time game designer, Romero (then Brathwaite) gathered together some game pieces and 3 x 5 cards and on the spot created a prototype for a game she called The New World. By the time she and her daughter were done playing the game, they were both crying. The historical events impacted them in a new way. Not only did they understand the facts, they began to gain a deeper respect and empathy for those players of history.

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barry kirk bill hennessey

Evolving Loyalty Using Persuasive Design with Barry Kirk and Bill Hennessey

Last week we featured two loyalty gamification pros from Maritz Motivations: Barry Kirk and Bill Hennessey, to talk to us about the proper way to gamify loyalty and how strongly immersed the gamification is in this long standing industry.

Want to increase your knowledge on persuasive design? Be sure to sign up for Barry & Bill’s full-day Workshop at GSummit SF 2014 (June 10 in San Francisco)–Persuasive Design Workshop for Next-Gen Loyalty Marketing.

Watch the full interview below to learn about:

  • How loyalty can’t get past a P.B.L. design philosophy
  • The conservative nature of loyalty practionioners
  • Keeping loyalty members past the onboarding stage
  • “Grinding” vs “Rituals” for influence habits
  • Using randomized prize distribution
  • Using emotions for True loyalty and Cult loyalty

And much more! Check out the full 3-man special on gamified loyalty below. Be sure to also catch our next episode of the Gamification Revolution this Thursday at 1 PM ET. Also, learn more about Barry & Bill’s Persuasive Design Workshop for Next-Gen Loyalty Marketing at GSummit this June 10th.



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sascha goto

Guiding Gamification Through Management with Sascha Goto

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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victor manrique

Victor Manrique on Teaching the World Gamification Design

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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monica cornetti

Low to No Tech Gamified Training with Monica Cornetti

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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brian burke

Gartner’s Latest Gamification Research for 2014 with Brian Burke

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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gabe zichermann

Gabe’s Gamification Office Hours Review

After a long hiatus going on a massive trip around the world for GSummit Global, Gabe Zichermann returns to our weekly Gamification Revolution show to give readers some updates on our online gamification certification courses and to answer some questions from the audience.

Learn more about:

  • How to find gamification-related jobs
  • Gamifying work “offline”
  • The potential danger of “over-gamifying” and desensitizing users
  • The danger of making systems too fun and distracting
  • Approaching CRM gamification

Check out the full video below and be sure to watch the Gamification Revolution every Thursday at 1 PM ET. Catch Gartner Analyst Brian Burke this week to discuss his finding and research on gamification future and ask him questions.

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nir eyal

The Ethics and Tenants of Habit-Forming Design with Nir Eyal

Speaker, author, entrepreneur, and GSummit Alumnus Nir Eyal joined us last week on the Gamification Revolution weekly webshow and discussed some of the ideas he presents in his Hooked Model on creating habit-forming designs. We review Nir’s thoughts on the ethics of creating these designs, the emotive effect of engaging experiences, and how the evolution of technology evolved user-experiences. Watch the full interview below:



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If you’re interested in learning about Nir’s work, you can visit his blog at NirAndFar.com

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Top Gamification Co Staff Articles in 2013

As one of the main writers for Gamification Co, I speak for all of us when I say it is paramount for us to provide the most unique and interesting content as it pertains to the world of gamification. We want to find the most unique, entertaining, and educational content out there and these five stories were your top favorites. Read on for stories about gamified masturbation, Foursquare’s removal of gamification, fashionable raptors, Tel-Aviv’s #1 taxi drivers, and job opportunities in gamification.

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gamification op-ed

Top Gamification Op-Eds for 2013

Some of our best content has come from guest writers within the gamification community. When it comes to great content, nothing beats real field experience and industry passion to really start and fuel the conversation at large. Read on through to read expert pieces on design and deep industry analysis from experts around the world, including pieces on gamification’s future, a guide for gamifying goals, and the real effect of making badly design gamification systems.

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amy baskin

Low-Tech Gamification for Students with Amy Baskin

Educators are some of the hardest working people out there with some of the lowest budgets to do their jobs right. It takes ingenuity, creativity, and passion to achieve real engagement with students, which is why Amy Baskin’s Grammar Olympics and other game concepts for grammar really demonstrate the power of fun for teaching.

We invited Amy to come on our weekly webshow to tell us more about what she’s been up to and she shares some of her secrets and successes from her gamified endeavors. Check out the full video below for the interview



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Be sure to join us this Thursday at 1 PM ET as Nir Eyal comes on to talk to us about designing habit-forming products. RSVP and sign-in to chat and join the conversation!

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best of education

The Best of Education Gamification in 2013

When it comes to gamification, no community can match the level of excitement, engagement, and dedication to the concept as much as our education readers do.

To wrap up our first week of the best gamification stories of 2013, we’d like to present 5 stories ranging from the emergence of World of Warcraft, Minecraft, and zombies in schools to increased US government spending on educational game initiatives. It’s a good (read: fun) time to be an educator for 2014.

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top health

The Best of Health Gamification in 2013

In our next collection from the best gamification stories of 2013, we have a cornucopia of healthy gamified applications for everyone to check out. Gamification Co readers were most interested in seeing new health apps in 2013 and we have about 20 of the top health apps for you to check out here.

Here’s to seeing even more at 2014! (Especially with all that new stuff at CES)

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best of enterprise gamification 2013

The Best of Enterprise Gamification in 2013

Happy new year!

2013 was a fantastic year for gamification and the Gamification Co team. To start off the new year right, we would like to show you some of our top posts from the last year. Check back daily for our top posts in enterprise, education, health, op-eds, and staff pieces.

Starting off the new year, we’d like to share some of the top articles for gamification in enterprise.

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knack wasabi waiter

How Playing Games Can Discover True Talent

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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