April 22, 2026
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gabe Zichermann

stella grizont

Using Happiness for Engagement with Stella Grizont

Ivan Kuo12 mins

Stella Grizont, Founder of woopaah! has been a Gamification Co regular and prominent GSummit speaker on the topic of positive psychology and happiness.

We were lucky enough to grab her to join our latest webshow to dive further into the science behind happiness and how a positive focus on psychology can have a significant impact on engagement.

She states:

“If you want others to be engaged, how can you embody that? Happiness.”

Watch the full video below for the full interview and be sure to catch our next guest this Thursday with Guy Halfteck,  the CEO and Founder of Knack, a company dedicated to using games in order to discover our full talents.



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As a special offer for all our readers, Stella Has been kind enough to offer a 50% code for her newest course on UDemy on The Science of Happiness: Hacks & Skills to Flourish.

Use code GABE for a discount on her online class!

Remember to check our channel every Thursday at 1PM ET for a new guest on the Gamification Revolution webseries and more great content like this.

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narrative in gamification

Embracing Paradoxes and Narratives in Education

Eugene Sheely48 mins

How Gaming Keeps Us Learning for Longer “In the realm of strategy, only contradiction and paradox work. Common sense and straightforward linear logic always fails” – Edward Luttwak According to Charles Handy, success belongs to those who learn to embrace complexity by reconciling the contradictions of this world. Gabe Zichermann gives an example of these contradictions with…

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john hendricks boombox

Boombox’s Approach on Designing Gamification Campaigns at an Agency

Ivan Kuo11 mins

We first heard about digital agency Boombox when we attended Adweek’s Science of Gamification panel to hear what prominent agencies had to say on the efficacy of gamification. We decided to invite Boombox CEO John Hendricks to come back on our own show to circle back on some of his ideas and to tell us about how he approaches gamification design for his agency. This is a great episode for anyone looking to offer gamification consulting and design services at their own company.

Check out the full video below and  Be sure to catch our next episode on Thursday, November 14 at 1PM ET/1800 GMT, where we will feature Livecube Co-Founder Aaron Price as our next guest.



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adam penenberg play at work

Adam Penenberg Explains How Games Inspire Breakthrough Thinking?

Ivan Kuo21 mins

When it comes to innovation, the gamification community is well-aware of the power of a fun game with many engaged players, like the crowdsourced AIDs research game Fold.it, for example. It’s no wonder that Pandodaily editor and NYU Professor Adam Penenberg felt compelled to write an entire book on the subject entitled Play at Work: How Games Inspire Breakthrough Thinking.

We invited Adam to come on our Gamification Revolution webshow to discuss some of his findings on the innovative power of games. Check out the full video below:

 


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Be sure to catch our next episode on Thursday, November 7 at 1PM ET/1800 GMT, where we will feature Adweek Gamification Panelist and Boombox CEO, John Hendricks as our next guest.

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ryan mizusaki delta

Delta Gamifies Employee Training with Ready, Set, Jet!

Ivan Kuo22 mins

The Gamification Revolution is the only live gamification webcast featuring Gabe Zichermann and fellow gamification experts every week. Be sure to catch our next episode on Thursday, October 31 at 1PM ET/1800 GMT, where we will feature GSummit Global speaker and author of the new book Play at Work: How Games Inspire Breakthrough Thinking, Adam Penenberg.

Remember you can participate in the show if you sign-in and RSVP! Signing in will allow you to receive show reminders, ask questions, and even join Gabe and our guest for a live question.

In this episode, Ryan Mizusaki, GM of Learning at Delta, shares the full story on how Delta arrived at a gamified training solution and its development process to make learning about flight culture get adopted by 98% of Delta’s trainees. Watch the full video below and if you want even more information on this story, visit GSummit Global for Ryan’s full length talk.



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yu-kai chou gamification revolution

Yu-Kai Chou on Octalysis and Gamification Design Principles

Ivan Kuo11 mins

The Gamification Revolution is the only live gamification webcast featuring Gabe Zichermann and fellow gamification experts every week. Be sure to catch our next episode on Thursday, October 17 at 1PM ET/1800 GMT, where we will feature GSummit Global speaker and Nissan’s Creative Director of GT Academy, Karl Dunn

Remember you can participate in the show if you sign-in and RSVP! Signing in will allow you to receive show reminders, ask questions, and even join Gabe and our guest for a live question.

In last week’s show we had prominent gamification community figure, Yu-Kai Chou to join us on our show. They spoke about Yu-Kai’s Octalysis gamification framework, long-term effects of motivation with white hat vs black hat gamification, and a discussion into why “serious games suck”.

Watch the full interview below:



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calm

Calm: A Meditation App That Does Feedback Right

Gabe Zichermann35 mins

One of the most elemental concepts in good gamification design is what I call the three Fs: Feedback, Friends and Fun. They come in many forms, but together they form the foundational structure of how we create engagement. I’ve written and spoken about the three Fs at length, but I find myself spending a lot of time thinking about and designing effective feedback systems.  I also love to meditate.

At the intersection of both of these interests is the excellent and visually gorgeous app, Calm. It’s a guided meditation app for iOS that’s received a number of accolades for its simple design and great programming. The premise of guided meditations it that an instructor’s voice (and soothing music) help you relax, focus and create productive, healing brain states.

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michael wu

The Psychology Behind Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation with Michael Wu

Ivan Kuo32 mins

The Gamification Revolution is the only live gamification webcast featuring Gabe Zichermann and fellow gamification experts every week. Be sure to catch our next episode tomorrow on Wednesday, October 9 at 1PM ET/1800 GMT, where we will feature  prominent gamification community figure, Yu-Kai Chou.

Remember you can participate in the show if you sign-in and RSVP! Signing in will allow you to receive show reminders, ask questions, and even join Gabe and our guest for a live question.

Last week, Lithium’s Chief Scientist Michael Wu came on the show to discuss the psychology behind engagement and motivation. During the show he mentions the following on the morality of motivating others intrinsically:

“Engaging with people through their intrinsic motivations isn’t good or bad…it’s just the way it is”

What does he mean? Watch the full episode below to get a thorough explanation of the meaning behind intrinsic/extrinsic motivation, how motivation changes over time, and a glimpse into Lithium’s IT security practices:



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wexler

Is Advergaming Still Relevant?

Ivan Kuo01 mins

The Gamification Revolution is the only live gamification webcast featuring Gabe Zichermann and fellow gamification experts every week. Be sure to catch our next episode next Thursday, October 3 at 1PM ET/1800 GMT, where we will feature Michael Wu, Chief Scientist at Lithium.

Remember you can participate in the show if you sign-in and RSVP! Signing in will allow you to receive show reminders, ask questions, and even join Gabe and our guest for a live question.

In this episode, Jim Wexler, CEO of Experiences Unlimited and chair of the Enterprise Gamification Forum, came on to talk about advergaming’s place in the world of gamification. Can advergaming still matter with gamification around? How can marketers decide between the two? Learn about Jim’s design philosophy in the full episode below:



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levelup

Startup Gamification: What’s in an MVP?

Gabe Zichermann311 mins

The one question I get asked over and over again by startups is: at what point should I include gamification? My answer has evolved significantly over the past four years.

Every year, I teach hundreds of people how to use gamification to raise their customer and employee engagement through my live, hands-on workshop series. Hundreds more also earn their design certification through the Engagement Alliance’s online course program. In the years since I’ve been teaching gamified design, I’ve found that about 30% of my students are startup founders, product managers and UX designers trying to figure out how to apply powerful game mechanics to their breakthrough ideas. I also co-direct the Founder Institute startup accelerator in NYC where 80 aspiring entrepreneurs work with me on getting launched and gamifying each year.

What I’ve learned from all these interactions is that there isn’t a cookie cutter solution that would work for every new project. However, there is a pattern of best practice that has emerged that – when combined with a good gamification design education – can produce superior results. I’ve taken to calling it the 3Ps: Progress, Points, and Prompts.

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Gilt’s New Loyalty Program Provides Exclusive Access to Customers

Kevin Shane04 mins

The gamification community in NYC came together last night for our first GSummitX event fully focused on loyalty marketing. To start things off, Gilt Groupe’s Jeff Bobula (Program Manager) delivered an educating talk on Gilt’s new loyalty program, Gilt Insider. Then, we all engaged in our Play for a Cause to help solve NYC’s composting issue.

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jon radoff on the gamification revolution

Applying Game-Design Principles to Gamification with Jon Radoff

Ivan Kuo02 mins

The Gamification Revolution is the only live gamification webcast featuring Gabe Zichermann and fellow gamification experts every week. Today we’ll be looking at last week’s guest: Karl Kapp, Professor/Consultant at Bloomsburg University and Gamified Learning Veteran.

Be sure to catch our next episode this Thursday, September 5th at 1PM ET/1800 GMT, where we will feature Jeff Atwood, the esteemed man behind Coding Horror and co-founder of StackOverflow. Remember you can participate in the show if you sign-in and RSVP! Signing in will allow you to receive show reminders, ask questions, and even join Gabe and our guest for a live question.

Regardless of where you might stand on the gamification versus game-design debate, each side has many lessons to offer to the other when you consider differences in their design. This week we brought on Jon Radoff, CEO of DisruptorBeam, to give us his input on various facets of gamification design as a game-designer. We take deep looks into story narratives, feedback loop lengths, and many other game design theories as it relates to gamification.

Catch the full video below:



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gamification certification

The Guide to Our New Gamification Certification Levels of Mastery

Gabe Zichermann27 mins

The first gamification design course was offered in 2011 at the inaugural GSummit in SF. Since then, nearly 1000 people have taken live and online courses that are eligible for certification through the Engagement Alliance. Additionally, tens of thousands have attended on-and-offline gamification courses that don’t offer any commonly accepted accreditation.

After many years of experimenting with design frameworks and through extensive discussion and consultation with industry, I’m pleased to announce a new rubric for design certification. This new program is based on best practices, designed to maximize the value of your education and help you deliver optimal results for your employer and your career. Here are the new levels of certification, and what they mean:

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bob marsh

Bob Marsh on Motivating Employees with Competition

Ivan Kuo02 mins

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 week’s guest was Bob Marsh, CEO of LevelEleven, which is a company that develops gamification apps for Salesforce.

Be sure to catch our next episode this Thursday, August 1 at 1PM ET/1800 GMT, where we feature Naureen Meraj, Senior Global Director, Gamification & Strategic Engagement at NTT Data.

Remember you can participate in the show if you sign-in and RSVP! Signing in will allow you to receive show reminders, ask questions, and even join Gabe and our guest for a live question.

In this week’s episode, Gabe and Bob discuss the theory behind motivating sales teams with gamification mechanics. They explore interesting topics as to why employees need more motivation beyond commission, what really determines an effective salesman, how gamification allows employees to track performance, and what’s unique about LevelEleven’s approach to gamification design. They also take a number of questions from the audience and a special video guest who comes on to ask about the potential for gamification desensitization in the future. Watch the full video below:



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Check out LevelEleven to learn more about their Salesforce offerings and be sure to follow Bob on Twitter at @BobMarsh5

Be sure to check out next week’s episode on Thursday at 1PM ET.

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gamification revolution

Rajat Paharia discusses Loyalty 3.0 and the State of the Industry

Ivan Kuo01 mins

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 Bunchball Co-Founder, Rajat Paharia.

In Rajat’s second appearance on the show since December, he and Gabe talk about the book’s rise up the New York Times Best Seller List and have a deep discussion on the current shortcomings of the loyalty industry. What’s holding loyalty back now and what will it have to do to really sustain itself in the future? For more information on Rajat’s new book, check out Loyalty30.com. Watch the full video to find out:




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In Rajat’s second appearance on the show since December, he and Gabe talk about the book’s rise up the New York Times Best Seller List and have a deep discussion on the current shortcomings of the loyalty industry. What’s holding loyalty back now and what will it have to do to really sustain itself in the future? Watch the full video to find out:

For more information on Rajat’s new book, check out Loyalty30.com

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