What makes receiving a badge for completing a task so exciting? Why does seeing a progress bar almost full make us itch until we finish it? Gamification—the combination of game-design principles and elements—implements cognitive psychology and decision-making theory as its scientific foundation. If gamification were stuffed shells, science is the shell, and everything else is stuffing.
Some people use gamification to help their business. Some use it to improve medical science. Doctor and Consultant Paula Owen believes gamification can save the environment.
In effort to boost interest in environmental issues, the Science Museum of London has launched a game to enhance engagement and education as a part of Climate Week.
The project is being targeted towards people who have not yet participated in environmental issues because “it had all been a bit guilt-filled and full of doom and gloom.” Dr. Owens explains: “It is the idea of bringing in fun and games into a serious topic in order to try to enhance engagement.” As seen with gamification and education, there have been noticeable results with engagement and interest when the topic is presented as a game.
Every week until GSummit SF 2013, we’ll be unlocking some special content from last year to give you a preview on what to expect this April 16 – 18.
James Gardner talks about what users value in gamification systems and how to appropriately present gamification as an engagement tactic rather than “playing games”:
Learn the latest in gamification by going to GSummit SF 2013. Register now!
Earlier this week, Twitter was run amuck by Foursquare Co-Founder and CEO, Dennis Crowley, and his statements about Foursquare’s overemphasis on gamification elements.
Crowley was discussing the future direction of Foursquare in an on-stage interview with Anil Dash (Co-Founder of Activate) at SXSW and stated that he was phasing out gamification from Foursquare in an effort to move away from the perception that Foursquare is only about points and badges.
Numerous people on Twitter were quick to take these statements as evidence that gamification itself was a mistake, when in fact Crowley explicitly mentioned that it was the overemphasis on points and badges that has led to Foursquare’s perception problem.
In fact, I would say that Crowley’s decision to ultimately phase out Foursquare’s gamification mechanics is one of the most mature decisions a gamification designer can make.
GamificationCo has asked some its editors for their top sessions picks for GSummit SF 2013. Here is Sudarshan Gopaladesikan’s most anticipated session for GSummit:
I love risk-taking. As a junior in college, I have the notion that the workforce won’t allow me to take any risks because safe, but sure investments/ideas are less unpredictable to a company’s profits. Looking through the sessions at GSummit (all of them are great!), Ross Smith–Director of Test at Microsoft–will be speaking on how trust among colleagues can foster individual innovation, productivity, and risk-taking.
Every week until GSummit SF 2013, we’ll be unlocking some special content from last year to give you a preview on what to expect this April 16 – 18.
Listen to the #2 US Monopoly Champ and Math teacher, Tim Vandenberg on his successful experience using Monopoly as a legitimate educational tool. This is one of my favorite sessions of GSummit 2012:
See the latest in gamification by going to GSummit. Register now!
GamificationCo has asked some its editors for their top sessions picks for GSummit SF 2013. Here are Alex Landa’s picks for this year:
Gamification can change anything from a phone app to an entire business model. Here are a few events at GSummit that not only show changing media and businesses, but also show the innovative thought pattern behind these innovations.
The Gamification Revolution is the only live gamification webcast featuring Gabe Zichermann and fellow gamification experts every Thursday at 1 PM EST/10 AM PST/1800 GMT. Join us and have all of your gamification questions answered by these experts.
This past week’s guest was lifehacker and GSummit speaker, Jon Guerrera! Jon has been heavily involved with gamifying his goals to find success and actually gamified his way to a job at Google. Watch the interview to find out:
Be sure to catch this week’s episode featuring game designer Tadhg Kelly and learn about gamification from the game designer’s point of view.
You can now catch the Gamification Revolution every Thursday at 1PM EST/10 AM PST/1800 GMT.
Every week until GSummit SF 2013, we’ll be unlocking some special content from last year to give you a preview on what to expect this April 16 – 18.
Listen to Beth Shiroishi, Vice President, Sustainability & Philanthropy at AT&T, talks about how the AT&T Foundation has been supporting gamified education and social good endeavors:
Every week until GSummit SF 2013, we’ll be unlocking some special content from last year to give you a preview on what to expect this April 16 – 18.
Watch Seth Copper explain how Foldit was able to motivate citizen scientists to play for the greater good:
If creativity is a muscle, then gamification is the bench press. Much of workplace frustration stems from being stuck on day-to-day problems that arise such as optimization of a large workload or maximization of quantified metrics such as sales. Organizational creativity is in great demand for companies, and Blitz—a speed-thinking process that brainstorms innovative solutions—may be the gamified answer to the knot in the creativity muscle.
Dr. Ken Hudson, former marketing director of American Express, created Blitz as a fast, easy way to bring people out of a production rut. The main idea is to create as many as nine ideas in about two minutes. He found that when he gave managers less time to generate novel ideas, not only could they do it, but also they did it in inspired ways. Blitz’s rules and platform combines energy with creativity and production to drive innovation.
The Gamification Revolution is the only live gamification webcast featuring Gabe Zichermann and fellow gamification experts every Thursday at 1 PM EST/10 AM PST/1800 GMT. Join us and have all of your gamification questions answered by these experts.
This past week’s guest is the Chief Scientist at Salesforce, JP Rangaswami! Robert has been working as an education researcher with the Gates Foundation and shares his knowledge on how games are affecting the American Education landscape. You can expect to learn about:
Be sure to catch this week’s episode featuring lifehacker Jon Guerrera and learn to gamify your life and possibly land a job at Google.
You can now catch the Gamification Revolution every Thursday at 1PM EST/10 AM PST/1800 GMT.
Every week until GSummit SF 2013, we’ll be unlocking some special content from last year to give you a preview on what to expect this April 16 – 18.
Watch Sunny Lee discuss the future of credentials and recognition with Mozilla’s Open Badges project:
Every week until GSummit SF 2013, we’ll be unlocking some special content from last year to give you a preview on what to expect this April 16 – 18.
Watch Josh Kramer, Founder of Leapfrog Builders, explain where he thinks the future of loyalty systems are:
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:
