In conjunction with the release of Gabe Zichermann and Joselin Linder’s newest book, The Gamification Revolution, also comes the release of ReadSocial App: the world’s first gamified social reading application by Dopa Labs
ReadSocial App creates social communities around books, allowing readers to connect directly with authors, discuss hot topics from the book, and deepen their understanding about the book’s ideas.
Back in 2011 (Wow, has it really been that long?), Gamification pundits Gabriel Zichermann and Sebastian Deterding had a large debate on various gamification concepts.
One of Deterding’s critiques was that, contrary to what Zichermann wrote in his book Gamification by Design, Serious Games and Advergames should not be considered as Gamification.
If you’re into minor league baseball and in the quaint area of Lehigh Valley between Pennsylvania and New Jersey, you’ll have a golden opportunity to play some games in the men’s bathroom of the IronPigs’ Coca-Cola Park.
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 SAP Senior Innovation Strategist, Mario Herger. In this week’s episode, Gabe and Mario discuss the challenges involved with designing gamification for employees in a corporate environment, especially when they’re forced to use it.
Be sure to catch a special episode tomorrow at 1PM EST with Gabe Zichermann as he discusses the release of his newest book also titled The Gamification Revolution
The technology and business world has been abuzz with a new term– gamification, defined as the use of game elements in everyday scenarios in order to drive engagement and make work more interesting. This has been seen by some as a game changer (pun unintended) to make boring tasks fun & drive motivation, while others see it as a modern and web friendly extension of the ubiquitous reward and recognition techniques already being used by companies in some form or another.
But the question is, is it always going to be just about points and badges? The answer has to be an emphatic no. While points and badges have served admirably in terms of providing social recognition and motivation to millions of users already, their novelty is rubbing off, and incremental gains are dropping alarmingly.
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.
Image by MridulRaj
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?
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 veteran game designer and current Creative Director of Jawfish Games, Tadhg Kelly! In this week’s episode Gabe and Tadhg discuss what motivational design means from a game designer’s point of view and how that applies to gamification. They also advise startup Commitchange, on how they could improve their design to promote more civic action.
Be sure to catch this week’s episode featuring BankersLab CEO, Michelle Katics, on the gamification of finance!
You can now catch the Gamification Revolution every Thursday at 1PM EST/10 AM PST/1800 GMT.
Prior to the 2012 elections, MTV was working on new ways to better engage US citizens to be involved in the American democratic process. With support from the Knight Foundation, MTV conceived Fantasy Election 2012, an online game which gave users a new way to hold electoral candidates accountable while being rewarded for getting involved in the electoral process.
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 Radoff, CEO of DisruptorBeam, explains what problems gamification can appropriately solve and how games are unique in that regard:
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.
We’ve seen a lot of positive feedback for some of Gabe Zichermann‘s 60 Second Solution videos with EntrepreneurMagazine so we decided to start releasing our own Gamification Co series of 60 Second Gamification Tips with Gabe Zichermann!
Every week from now until GSummit SF 2013, we will be releasing a series of short gamification tips to help you on your path to gamification. Watch Gabe’s first tip below:
IndieCade is a festival celebrating the works of independent game designers from all over the world and this past weekend was Indiecade’s inaugural appearance on the east coast at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York City. Attending this game festival from a gamification angle, I was looking for new and exciting ways to engage with an audience.
One of the main events was the game Renga by UK-based WallFour, who specialize in live, large-scale collaborative crowdgames. In other words, when I read that Renga was going to be a feature-length game for 100 people with laser pointers, I was sold.
We’ve all experienced that final push, whether it’s getting a project done, putting the finishing touches on a term paper, or running the last leg of the race. No matter what the particulars are of the situation, there is a sense of urgency just before the challenge is over. The final aspects of a journey are coming to a close and there’s usually an implied reward. Sometimes the reward is the end of the challenge, itself, as is the case with a term paper. Other times, there is a finish line to cross and a celebration of closure. It’s what we tell ourselves when we’re about to finish a book and we have “just a few more pages.” In terms of game mechanics, urgent optimism is a powerful force to get people to take action quickly and it could be very successful for your gamification program
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 week’s guest is the prominent Andrea Kuszewski! Currently working as the Senior Strategic Planner for the Linus Group, Andrea’s neuroscience background provides great insight for gamification designers. In this week’s episode you can be sure to learn about:
We had many viewers come on and ask questions and we thank you for your engagement and participation! Check out the full video below:
Download this episode (right click and save)
Be sure to catch this week’s episode featuring Elise Olding, Research Director at Gartner Inc. for her insightful work and studies on gamification.
You can now catch the Gamification Revolution every Thursday at 1PM EST/10 AM PST/1800 GMT. Be advised that you can now also subscribe to our audio and video podcasts to have this content downloaded automatically.
