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…
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.
Health care experts warn that child obesity rates are rising to alarming levels. With the increase in obesity-related medical conditions, such as diabetes, it’s no wonder that parents and health professionals alike are looking for ways to keep children healthy. A good diet is one part of the equation. But an equally important part of child health is physical activity. Gamification startup HopeLab developed a technological way to keep kids on the move while tracking this activity at the same time. The company’s gamification software is called Zamzee.
Moderator Christine Lagorio of Inc. Magazine is guiding panelists, Samantha Skey of Recyclebank, Irving Fain of CrowdTwist, Kris Duggan of Badgeville and Brian Wong of Kiip, in a discussion about loyalty programs and the ways in which they have evolved. Principally they are exploring why physical-world rewards (prizes, money, free-products) and other tangible benefits aren’t…
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.
If you’re interested in trying out these games, check out Knack.it to request an invite.
If you have an interest in gamification, the likelihood is that you have heard of something called Bartle’s Player Types. This is a model that Dr. Richard Bartle created to describe the types of people who played Multi User Dungeon (MUD) games, what they wanted, how they acted and how they interacted. Initially 4 types were identified; Killer, Achiever, Socialiser and Explorer.
Later, he would expand on this and create a more detailed model that included 8 types; Griefer, Networker, Politician, Friend, Opportunist, Scientist, Planner and Hacker.
This model is popular in gamification as it gives a nice basis to consider types of user you may come across. It is worth noting a few things though. The first, this is not a taxonomy, it is a dynamic model that not only explains initial types, but their interactions and evolution over time. The other important point is that this model was designed for MUD games (or MMO’s as we now see them). This takes a couple of things for granted – the biggest being that players are there to play!
This week on the Gamification Roundup, we got news filled with possibilities. NextJump provides an leisurely gameplay platform akin to Draw Something, GDC Online is making a gamification summit in Austin, Bunchball writes an article about the work ethic of millenials, International scientists create an epidemic game to research disease outbreak models, and Bluewolf and Bunchball partner up to…
Revolutionizing the Call Center Workplace One Agent at A Time Last week, we featured nGUVU’s VP of product strategy, Pascal Leclerc to talk about how nGUVU’s platform help to create a better workplace environment for contact center agents. Using a combination of game mechanics, social interaction features and behavioral analytics, nGUVU helps motivate agents to achieve their goals…
This week on the Gamification Roundup we are seeing the allure of gamification. BadgeVille makes another strategic partnership with Ant’s Eye View. Two startups and a university use gamification to reach out to prospective employees and students. Even support teams and corporate wellness initiatives are seeing strong reasons to go towards gamification. Read the full…
Spigit, the maker of collaborative innovation management software for enterprises, has recently acquired Crowdcast. Crowdcast provides social business intelligence solutions and raised $6M in Series A funding in 2010. Spigit is aiming to provide market services and solutions that give organizations the ability to gain insight on the collective intelligence of its professional network. Crowdcast will play the…
The Engage Expo is wrapping up here in New York. The conference focuses on engaging kids and youth with digital games, with thematic tracks ranging from “App Strategy” to “Creative, Design, and Development”, and of course our favorite, gamification. Speakers in the gamification track included a panel with Rajat Paharia, Chief Product Officer at Bunchball,…
What do you get when you cross a maverick historian, a tech legend, and game based learning techniques? You get The Big History Project, a revolutionary online initiative that challenges the way history is traditionally taught.
The online project, formerly only available to educators, is backed by Microsoft and championed by Bill Gates himself, is in its third year and is being used in over 100 schools across eight countries.
Attending GSummit as a speaker for the third year in a row, Yu-Kai Chou, developer of the Octalysis framework, is an established veteran in the gamification industry. Working in gamification for the past 11 years, Yu-Kai has developed the Octalysis (octagon + analysis) framework to explain the eight core drives that motivate people to engage in…
Gamification has proven to be a powerful tool in driving change across nearly all environments—business, personal goals, even education. What is it about gamification that makes it so successful in changing behavior? It isn’t just about points or badges, or earning little gold stars. The best gamification strategies are all about engagement, driven by motivation.
Science tells us that motivation is the single most important factor when it comes to learning and changing behavior—far more important than breadth of skill, or even innate talent. Increase motivation, and you will increase learning—surpassing limits in ways you never imagined—no matter the subject, domain, or context.
Join cognition expert Andrea Kuszewski for a lively, non-technical discussion of the science of motivation, dissecting that ‘magical’ process going on in the brain that is such a critical factor in engagement and learning in this GSummit SF 2013 talk. Watch the full video below!
Also, be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to get the latest videos from GSummit SF 2013 as they’re released. You can also download a copy of this presentation by downloading it here.
Gamification has drawn much inspiration from games and gamers in tackling real world problems. Just to name a few, video game titles such as World of Warcraft and Simcity are revolutionizing lesson plans, Portal 2 was used as a talent recruitment tool and a puzzle game helped to unlock parts of the AIDS protein structure. These developments have allowed significant progress in their respective fields. Yet, how do we tackle the burning issues of security and fraud in an enterprise scenario? While it may seem daunting at first glance, we could once again draw key lessons by literally observing gamers and combining big data analytics.
