Starlite MMO Game Set to Educate Gamers in Beta Release Before 2013 In the wee hours of Monday, August 6, 2012, science geeks from across the globe waited with bated breath while NASA’s immense, expensive, and undeniably awesome Mars Curiosity Rover walked the gauntlet known in space circles as “Seven Minutes of Terror.” Engineers at Mission Control…
This Post Originated from Jon Guerrera’s Blog, Living for Improvement. Those of you who saw me speak on goals and gamification in June know that I’m a big fan of using gamification for projects requiring large bursts of motivation that one might’ve had trouble finding otherwise. Since that talk back in June, I’ve been refining this gamification system…
Game mechanics can be great compliments to boost the effectiveness of a gamified system. However, it can be also detrimental when the mechanics are diverting user’s attention away from the core engagement loop. The recent suspension of Memrise’s leaderboard system has provided an opportunity to understand the need for constant retaliation against exploitative users. Launched…
Endless poets have uttered something along the lines of “love is like a game.” So, instead of playing the game by hanging around bars and arguing about who did the dishes last night, PearHaven decided to gamify the entire process of dating. PearHaven is a social media infused website that incorporates a point system and dating…
“From zero to peak experience in thirty seconds flat – no wonder video games caught on. Never before in human history could this kind of optimal, emotional activation be accessed so cheaply, so reliably, so quickly.” This passage is taken from Jane McGonigal’s Reality is Broken: Why Games Make us Better and How they Can…
Gamification opponents are often quick to point out the flaws in gamification, calling poorly designed experiences as “pointsification” with uninspired and non-additive game design elements in place. These are fair criticisms when the gamified experiences in question are indeed uninspired and non-additive. Such is the case when I noticed a sponsored Facebook ad by Target…
CAPTCHA is the bane of all user experiences on the internet. They’re somewhat effective at stopping spam-bots but they’re seemingly merciless at preventing humans from being able to read its cryptic text, even if they often do create hilarious unintended meanings. Nevertheless, a solution for this ancient security system is being developed by a new…
I personally haven’t seen any real compelling uses for augmented reality outside of laggy “monocoles” to find restaurants and pretending to see a 3D shape on a checkered pattern. However an internal startup at Google called Niantic Labs, led by former Google director John Hanke, has come up with an augmented reality game called Ingress…
Imagine yourself managing your very own virtual farm and being able to obtain fresh, organic produce, delivered right to your door step. This description seems more befitting to the popular Facebook game Farmville but it is not entirely based on virtual fiction. This concept is brought to reality by a farming cooperative in Kyrgyzstan which…
In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, many people on the Eastern Seaboard have realized the value of a candle, canned food, and a functioning elevator. Most people were ill-prepared for Sandy’s wrath. However had most people known about The Red Cross’ First Aid application for iOS and Android, they might have prepared a little better. The…
When facing an engagement crisis, companies can turn to gamification to help invigorate user interest and participation. As the top cheerleader for the use of gamification, we’ve encouraged this phenomenon and have tried to lead companies to answers for their engagement needs through our articles and GSummit events, but always with one essential caveat: applying…
Today, Venturebeat reports on a new startup called Top That out of the Cayman Islands. The company, which just launched, bills itself as a platform for any kind of social competition. The design appears to be mostly quite straightforward – it’s a Hot or Not style ranking game. You are given two possible choices and are…
FreshBiz is a game that appears like any other. There are dice, cards, colored spaces, little pieces to move, money, and a square game board. Sounds like Monopoly right? In my experience with the game, I immediately thought of a strategy that would earn me the most money, get me to the end the fastest, and…
Klash Gamifies Your Friends’ Awkward Bar Bets In the spirit of the weekend and our gamification of wine selection, Klash is a new startup that aims to facilitate the process of getting your friends to do the awkward dares you think of after a few glasses of said wine. The premise is simple: first, select whether you…
This is a guest article by Jon Guerrera, marketing nerd and GSummit 2012 Speaker. When it comes to wine, points matter. In a revealing article published in the Wall Street Journal, Leonard Mlodinow – author of The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives – points out: “According to a 2001 study of Bordeaux wines, a one-point bump in Robert Parker’s wine…
