June 17, 2026
Headlines

Where Does Gambling Fit in Gamification: Legal Issues and a Success Story

Sudarshan Gopaladesikan37 mins

Gamblification is the intersection of social gaming and gambling. Many casino and card games make use of a human’s gambling instincts to lure people into deep engagement. Although real money is used to purchase chips to be used in these games, the chips are not redeemable for money. However, some social games provide venues where in-system virtual currencies can be exchanged or raffled for virtual goods. Some systems such as Virgin Gaming allow console players (PS3, XBOX) to wager real money against others for big cash prizes. But It doesn’t end there.

Read More

The Gamification Revolution Starts Today with Gabe Zichermann’s Newest Book

Gabe Zichermann46 mins

When my first book, Game-Based Marketing was being picked up by its publisher in 2009, I tried to convince them that the right concept was a business strategy title. The original idea was called The Serious Business of Games, and was meant to look at a wide range of ways that games intersected with industry. As a result of the global financial crisis and the unproven nature of the discussion, they wanted something more focused. Of course, this was before the term gamification had come into common use and before the rise of Foursquare or Zynga. In short, the idea that combining game design with business could be a strategy was a little ahead of its time.

That time has come.

Read More

Mobile Game Get Water Teaches About Water Scarcity with Good Gameplay and Narrative

Alex Landa36 mins

There are games that try to create a message while still attempting to remain enjoyable. Many times either the message becomes blurred or the game simply isn’t fun. Get Water manages to hit both marks properly.

Get Water by Decode Global is a simple screen-swiping endless running game about a young girl named Maya who is dragged out of class to obtain water while fending off various animals in her way. Many swiping games such as this have little-to-no story or purpose — they’re just casual games to play when waiting at the doctor or in between classes. Get Water has strong messages about water scarcity, gender inequality, and educational problems that plague other countries.

Read More

GSummit 2012 Behind the Scenes: Jon Guerrera on Engaging Audiences

Taavi Lindmaa01 mins

(14/26 Gamification Expert Interviews Unlocked)

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.

Jon Guerrera, lifehacker and frequent GCo contributor, explains the importance of understanding your audience to engage them with gamification.

To see more expert gamification videos, visit our Video page or Subscribe to our YouTube channel! Learn the latest in gamification by going to GSummit SF 2013. Register today!

Image by MridulRaj

Read More

PricewaterhouseCoopers joins GSummit as a Sponsor

Gabe Zichermann23 mins

As the market for gamification matures, there are a number of significant changes in store for our nascent industry. Chief among those is the increased attention from bellwether companies that signal broadening support for our view of increased engagement through great design.

One of the most sought-after categories is consultancies, particularly the large management/strategy agencies. Their participation in our community is an essential step in getting major enterprises (e.g. Fortune 1000s), governments and large NGOs to see gamification and engagement science as a core part of their strategy.

Read More

6 Steps to Successful Loyalty Programs that Win

Sudarshan Gopaladesikan27 mins

Reward programs are nothing new. They all work under the simple premise of “more you do business with us, the more we will recognize your loyalty in the form of discounts and/or prizes.” For example, airlines give out frequent flyer miles that can be redeemed for free trips depending on how many times you have flown with that certain airline. Rewards program extend to any and all retail, from airlines to Starbucks to your local gelato store. However, did you know that in 2011, it was reported that Americans accumulated $48 billion dollars on loyalty programs. What’s worse, $16 billion of that $48 billion went unredeemed. Would you ever want to throw away a third of your money?

Read More

How Big Data Analytics and Gamers Could Solve Fraud and Security

Heong Weng Mak45 mins

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.

Read More

GSummit 2012 Behind the Scenes: Jeff Ma on Intrinsic Motivation

Taavi Lindmaa11 mins

(13/26 Gamification Expert Interviews Unlocked)

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.

Jeff Ma of Bringing Down the House fame and tenXer discusses what motivation means to a man who can beat the system:

To see more expert gamification videos, visit our Video page or Subscribe to our YouTube channel! Learn the latest in gamification by going to GSummit SF 2013. Register today!

Read More

Gamifying Financial Compliance Training with Michelle Katics

Ivan Kuo11 mins

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 compliance training gamifier and BankersLab CEO, Michelle Katics. In this week’s episode Gabe and Michelle discuss the difficulties for designing gamification for finance, approaching gamification from a leadership role, and how to design gamification for training.

Check out the video below for the full interview.



Download this episode (right click and save)

You can now catch the Gamification Revolution every Thursday at 1PM EST/10 AM PST/1800 GMT.

Read More

Gigya’s Social Gamification Boosts Content Discovery by 68%

Ivan Kuo05 mins

Gigya has recently released a new infographic that shares some statistics about their gamification implementations in 2012. According to their internal study, Gigya was able to raise website commenting by 13%, social sharing by 22%, and content discovery via activity feeds by 68%. Overall, Gigya has claimed their implementations in 2012 have resulted in a general 29% increase in site actions.

Read More

How Gamification Can Create a Homeschool Education

Kevin Shane34 mins

Homeschooling has become one of the fastest growing forms of education, and gamification has become very integral to the way these children are learning.

When a parent decides to remove their child from school, many times it’s due to the boring nature of traditional classrooms, inflexible schedules, and just a general disagreement with the American education system but now there are a number of gamification tools that can solve these issues and make homeschooling better.

Read More

SimCity as a Game to Inspire Young Engineers and City Planners

Alex Landa09 mins

SimCity is an urban-planning game that is now being used for education in the form of SimCity EDU. The game can teach anything from economics, urban planning, and even environmental studies. The goal with SimCity EDU is to make the game a common part of the classroom experience; students can learn a wide variety of subjects, while working work together, and teachers can create detailed curricula that adhere to learning standards. However, that isn’t to say that the standard SimCity game couldn’t be just as educational as the version designed for classrooms. 

Because of the realistic nature of the game as an urban city simulator, one clever gamer by the name of Mike Rose, has been experimenting with using SimCity as a tool to address problems in cities. 

Read More

GSummit 2012 Behind the Scenes: Byron Reeves on Games at Work

Taavi Lindmaa21 mins

(12/26 Gamification Expert Interviews Unlocked)

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.

Byron Reeves of Stanford University discusses his research on how people react to games and his fascination towards games emerging in the enterprise:

To see more expert gamification videos, visit our Video page or Subscribe to our YouTube channel! Learn the latest in gamification by going to GSummit SF 2013. Register today!

Image by MridulRaj

Read More

Boston CIO to Gamify Citizens Connect App to Thank City Workers

Ivan Kuo34 mins

If the case for non-physical rewards (see SAPS) as a motivator still hasn’t convinced you of its effectiveness, you might want to look at Boston’s government mobile app that will allow Bostonians to improve city services.

Released in 2008, Citizen’s Connect allows local citizens to report issues like broken signs and potholes to make sure they are fixed quickly. According to SearchCIO, this effort is in part of Boston CIO, Bill Oates’ desire to create an active communication loop between citizen and workers to ensure city problems are solved.

Read More