Heavy snowfall in New York is to be expected this time of year. We have really humid weather, our summers and winters are equally brutal and our proximity to the ocean often makes forecasts difficult more than just a few days in advance. But the recent East Coast blizzard seems to have taken New York…
Did you know Adobe has been working with gamification for awhile now? I’ve heard of their first venture into gamified learning when they introduced LevelUp to help new Photoshop users learn the ropes. At GSummit 2013, Tacy Trowbridge took the stage to tell us about all the new gamification initiatives Adobe has been working on to unlock creativity in children.
Check out the video below and be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to get all the latest updates as they come.
One of the more vexing questions within game design is “what is a game mechanic” and its corollary — what isn’t. Along with some of the other major disagreements in game design, the mechanics question is both existential and crucial for understanding the interplay between games and gamification. Very long and interesting articles, papers, speeches and presentations (n.b. there are obviously thousands more) have been given on the topic of what is a game mechanic, how it works, what conflicts are, etc – most of them interesting, if academic.
Each week on the Gamification Revolution web show, Gabe Zichermann answers all your burning gamification questions LIVE every Monday at 1pm ET/10am PT/1800 GMT at http://gamification.co/live. This week’s show features Michael Hugos, Managing Principal at SCM Globe and Author of the book, Enterprise Games and a very special guest appearance by Hugos’ wife and cat. Here’s a rundown on some…
Yesterday Apple revealed iOS 7, the latest version of its operating system for mobile devices. The update was greeted – as usual – by thunderous applause from the company’s legions of fanboys and with vocal derision from pro-Android bigots. In the midst of all the hoopla and traded social media barbs, one thing seems glaringly obvious: Apple is out of ideas, particularly for business users.
Last time, we featured chief reporter on People and Power from Al Jazeera English, Juliana Ruhfus in discussing the current affairs program’s interactive documentary, Pirate Fishing. Blending investigative journalism practices with gamification mechanics, the interactive tool introduces users about the multi-million dollar illegal fishing trade affecting West Africa’s poorest people.
Watch the full interview below to learn about:
Watch the video below and be sure to catch our next episode of the Gamification Revolution.
The smart people at OhMiBod may have ushered in a serious game revolution with the release of their new wearable device, Lovelife Krush. “It’s the gamification of sexual health,” declared OhMiBod’s co-founder, Brian Dunham, to CNBC’s Chris Morris as they discussed his product fetching one of Engadget’s top honors at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES). This top honor certainly helps OhMiBod efforts to launch their new device into a Sexual Wellness market currently worth $16 Billion and forecasted, by research firm Technavio, to reach $21 Billion by 2019.
Last week, Keas came out of stealth to reveal a gamified business that aims to engage individuals in the quest to get more fit. The company was founded by George Kassabgi and Adam Bosworth in 2008, who previously worked heading up the Google Health program. The site has already gone through a 12 week pilot at…
In the early 90’s, Gabe Newell, a Microsoft employee, commissioned a survey to see what was actually installed on people’s PCs. To Newell’s surprise, the most installed software actually was not Windows. Windows was only in second place at the time. What was the first? First place actually belonged to to id Software’s Doom video game. It was at this time Gabe left Microsoft to start Valve, one of the best video game development companies in the nation. They are the creators of the famous Half-Life and Portal series. They also have their own online game distribution platform called Steam, which has over 50 million users.
Gabe started Valve because he found the results of the software survey to be very telling. How could dozen people in their mid-20’s manage to get their software installed on more PCs than the product made by the largest software company in the world? Simple. The nature of productivity has changed.
Remember the promise you made to your mom that you would call every so often? What about the other time you promised your boss that would not be late for work again? Or that promise you made to yourself that you will quit smoking?
Many individuals are capable of keeping to their promises, but there are also many others who are unable to do so. The fallacy of making promises is that there is no one else besides the person who is being made the promise to that will hold the individual accountable for his or her actions. As there is a lack of an immediate feedback loop, it leaves the individual complacent in accomplishing their tasks and making good on their end of the promise. A new IOS app, PromiseUP aims to change that by helping people to fulfill their promises.
Loyalty programs have been commonly associated with airlines and retailers but Montreal’s recent plans may soon change that perspective to include public transportation systems. Montreal operates the Opus-à-l’année also know as the Opus & Cie subscriptions, a subscription service which recharges a commuter’s OPUS card automatically every month.
Montreal STM will be introducing a VIP class for its customers, which will only be made available to 20,000 commuters (9% of the 217,000 who regularly buy monthly Société passes). After subscribing for more 12 months, Opus & Cie users will be given the opportunity to upgrade to their new “maestro” status.
The Gamification Revolution is the only live gamification webcast featuring Gabe Zichermann and fellow gamification experts every week. Join us and have all of your gamification questions answered by these experts. This past week’s guest was Mark Koerner, VP of Product at employee wellness platform Keas.
Gabe and Mark go through some of the features of Keas and discuss how organizations can improve their internal processes by engaging with employee health. Learn about the intricacies of data privacy, the metrics for success, and Keas’ general approach of gamification for health in the video below:
Gabe Zichermann was recently interviewed for an article in The New York Times by Fiona MacKay. The article discusses how the wide appeal of gamification can be applied to luxury fashion brands. Some companies like Britain’s Dunhill have already taken the initiative. Dunhill, in collaboration with the Japanese media company, Hakuhodo, created a simulated soccer…
An inside look at Kris Duggan: CEO and Founder at Badgeville [SlideDeck id=’880′ width=’100%’ height=’450px’] You can read more of Kris’s thoughts by following him on Twitter: @kduggan And don’t miss hearing him speak at the Gamification Summit in January!
Thwack Gamifies User Support and Drives Engagement SolarWinds (@solarwinds) is a self-described IT generalist company that has employed a social community dubbed “thwack” (@thwack) to provide a venue in which customers, employees, resellers and visitors can connect with one another in a place where they both share and learn. Several years ago SolarWinds gamified thwack, so…
