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…
Pepsi has teamed up with The X-Factor, Simon Cowell’s new foray into TV singing competitions, to create Pepsi Pulse and Pepsi Sound Off, two gamified social media platforms that allow viewers to compete and communicate while watching the show. There has been some side conversations of the gamification of social TV, but this is the first time…
Our last Gamification Summit was a huge success. Taking place September 15-16 in New York City, the Summit brought together top companies, thinkers, and experts in the gamification space for workshops and to share case studies at the cutting edge of gamification. The main stage held keynotes and panel discussions, but some of the best…
From an inside look at gamification’s roots at StackOverflow to the future backlash of “badge fatigue” gamification has run the gauntlet this week. Be sure to check out the other stories including a word from Ian Bogost’s co-founder, Gerard Lafond, and gamification in education, environmental sustainability, and the exciting world of life insurance.
For a few of the past 139 years that the American Public Health Association has held annual meetings, it has sponsored a 5K run to support wellness and bring attention to the importance of exercise in public health. It may seem that a game would be ill-suited for such a venerable institution (it was created…
Last weekend the New York Times online carried an article that should be of great interest to anyone fascinated by the power – and peril – of software in learning. Taking a look at educational software vendors, their business successes and some school board clients, the writer clearly points out a yawning gap between marketing…
As part of our ongoing G-List of the top players in gamification, today we begin with the platforms that provide technology solutions for implementing game mechanics in marketing, business, and health. Rypple [http://www.rypple.com] Founded: 2008 Location: San Francisco, Toronto, and Atlanta Employees: 25 Funding: $13M total from Peter Thiel, Maynard Webb, and Bridgescale Rypple strives to…
Enterprise gamification, making everyday business tasks such as data entry and management training more engaging, continues to see burgeoning interest. Today, Rachel Emma Silverman from the Wall Street Journal has a piece on gamification of the workplace. With research from Gartner and M2 and quotes from gamification experts Mario Herger, Gabe Zichermann, Kris Duggan, and Byron Reeves, the…
There have been quite a few interesting stories on gamification from around the web this week. Highlights include a serious game on poverty that motivates participants to turn around and give back to the less fortunate, specifics by Michael Wu on how gaming the system can be overcome, an insightful Q&A on health games, and a terrifying…
Gamification, “the use of game play elements for non-game applications,” has taken the marketing world by storm, as companies use fun techniques to make their websites, social media, and mobile apps sticky, viral, and engaging to customers. While it’s a hot buzzword for today’s marketers, it’s hardly a new concept for teachers and trainers. In…
Along with the keynote at today’s JiveWorld2011, gamification is making a big splash. Platform company Bunchball announced that they will be integrating their Nitro platform with Jive in order to bring game mechanics into the leading social business software platform. Jive combines collaboration software, community software, and social applications, and makes for an easy fit for…
There has been an influx of gamified fitness-based apps in the last year, all focused on helping users to lose weight, be healthier, live happier. Fleetly is a Canadian site that claims to make fitness “simple, friendly and fun.” Similar to sites like DailyBurn and RunKeeper, Fleetly uses social competition to motivate users and build…
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…
Most smartphone users (i.e., mostly everyone) have been getting excited by mobile providers new claims on their 4G networks. The speeds are supposedly incredible and who could resist the possibility of downloading a full-length HD movie right to your phone? But before you get too jazzed, you might want to check out the recent post…
Over the past week, two excellent overviews of gamification have come out that highlight a few of the pitfalls that must be overcome for a successful product or campaign. Michael Wu, PhD is principle scientist of analytics at Lithium. In his most recent post, Michael discusses the inevitable, that players will always try to game a…
