This week on the Gamification Roundup: Nicholas Kristof creates a casual game that will benefit refugee camps and schools, HealthTap receives $11.5 from Eric Schmidt and the Mayfield Fund, gamification incentivizes college students to do extra work, education credentials are possibly being replaced by digital badges and the Tate Museum creates a fun art history…
Editors note: Today, we’re introducing a new regular feature at Gamification.co: our news roundup. With the amazingly increased level of gamification-related announcements and insights, it’s getting harder to keep tabs on everything that’s going on. So, to make it easier, we’ll be curating the most interesting items and delivering them to you in digest form. You…
Ever wondered what plant rooted itself in your garden, or what strange bug somehow survived the bitter cold outside to call your house its home? Or maybe on vacation to warmer reaches, you came across a disturbingly large insect? Some might run the other way, but if you are like me, you’re asking “what the…
A serious game with some gamification elements, Battle for the Bay sets out to educate San Franciscans on the ongoing threats to the bay. Produced by Save the Bay, the game takes players through the tumultuous history of protecting the wetlands, rivers, and watersheds that benefit a healthy marine ecosystem. There are some typical contest rewards (an…
While I’m accustomed to speaking before large groups, I must admit to being a bit more nervous than usual as it came time for me to give a little talk as a panel member at the Gamification Summit. Still, I guess that was only natural, since most of the people in the audience were about…
Kevin Richardson of MTV began his talk with a look at Volkswagen’s Fun Theory Contest. After seeing an add featuring “the deepest trash can in the world,” (a garbage can outfitted with a sensor that triggers when trash is deposited and echos the sound of something falling very far and clanging to the bottom.) Richardson…
This Wednesday, the BMW Guggenheim Lab opened to the public. Located in New York City, just north of Houston Street and the Sarah D. Roosevelt Park, the aim of the project is serve as a platform for positive interactions in city planning and to examine the spaces that we all share. The traveling lab includes…
Today, gamification and engagement platform, IActionable made the announcement that they are opening their service to to educational companies and institutions for free. They are offering their platform with fully enabled feature functions and free basic consulting at no cost to educational institutions and at discount to non-profits. The goal is simple. Education should be a priority, and…
The concept of serious games has been around since long before gamification, but gamification has arguably taken the first major steps into going mainstream whereas serious games have largely been mired in small form pilot projects. In an article in Develop, investment consultant and games industry expert, Rick Gibson, explains that the crucial difference is that…
With the daily hacking successes, breaches in security, and unethical behavior by corporations, it has never been more important to read through the “Terms of Service” and “Privacy Policy” before entrusting personal information and potentially sensitive data to companies. Zynga has made the process a little easier on the eyes (and on the scrolling finger)…
Throughout Earth Month in April, Recyclebank hosted an online game, the Green Your Home Challenge. Visitors interacted with virtual rooms to learn how to be more environmentally conscious and implement new “green” changes in home and lifestyle. Players were also given rewards, challenges, and leaderboards as well as bonuses for referring new players. Recyclebank teamed up with ROI…
Gamification is a tricky subject to quantify. As a conceptual region within the modern mind-map its just about brand new, yet games and play have probably been around since the dawn of man. Even a simple question at the heart of gamification–how long have people been using play mechanics to make things fun?–is more difficult…
Gamification was a hot topic at this years Games For Change. Former Vice President Al Gore kicked off the 8th Annual Games for Change Festival in NYC with a presentation about global warming that included a little bit of game talk. There is no doubt that he knows what “gamification” is—he said the word 3…
For the past five years, dorms across the University of Chicago have taken part in “The Battle of the Bulbs” to compete on who could get the largest decline in energy usage. From a baseline and year-by-year measurements, the school challenged itself to see who could save the most energy and “do it in the dark” for…
Ford is undergoing a transformation. Coming out of the financial crisis and the collapse of the US market as the only major American car company to not receive a bail out, Ford has taken it upon itself to reinvent an industry that in the past has been represented by gas guzzling SUVs and American muscle cars. At…
