September 18, 2026
Headlines

motivation

intangible rewards

How to Incentivize Users with Non-Physical Rewards

Kevin Shane11 mins

A common feature of nearly all gamification implementations is the presence of a reward system. People are motivated by rewards but do they always have to come in the form of a cash prize or fancy gadget? Suchit Dash of ifeelgoods believes it doesn’t have to be.

Tangible Rewards come in many shapes and sizes, and though they may not scale super well, they can be transformative. See how you can use non-discount, tangible rewards to drive user loyalty and engagement in this fast-paced talk from rewards expert Suchit’s session at GSummit SF 2013.

Be sure to also subscribe to our YouTube channel to get the latest videos from GSummit SF 2013 as they’re released. You can also download a copy of Suchit’s presentation by downloading it here.

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fear is a powerful motivator

Why Fear is a Powerful Motivator

Alicia Sanchez89 mins

Our community has long extolled the virtues of gamification for motivation. Motivation, however, has many facets. Fear, for example, is a powerful motivator. Could gamification be a heads up version of survival of the fittest? Today let’s play devil’s advocate and look at the dark side of gamification, even if just to better understand it. Because without dark there can be no light.

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Social Selling: How Gamification Supports Sales Productivity and Performance

Ivan Kuo02 mins

Needle CEO and founder, Morgan Lynch, has created a remote online customer sales chat platform that implements gamification to encourage remote workers to excel, using social influence to sell. He is an expert in using game mechanics in a non-game context to incentivize remote workers to achieve success by clearly defining benchmark performance goals – creating healthy competition as they compete for points toward free products and more. Needle’s system is proven to help brands boost their online sales and strengthen the online customer experience.

During this session, Morgan explains how using gamification with his untraditional online sales support platform has improved productivity and performance, while driving millenial workers in unique and unprecedented ways.

Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to get the latest videos from GSummit SF 2013 as they’re released. You can also download a copy of Morgan’s presentation by downloading it here.

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The Psychology of Fun: Transform Awareness into Impact

Kevin Shane02 mins

Following up her main stage talk from GSummit 2012, Nicole Lazzaro took the main stage again at GSummit 2013 and gave us a new talk on how the emotional response from games can inspire people to take real actions for social impact.

We take a look at Nicole’s analysis on the psychology of fun and how her own game, Tilt World, was able to accomplish significant social impact by simply being fun.

Also, be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to get the latest videos from GSummit SF 2013 as they’re released. You can also download a copy of Nicole’s presentation by downloading it here.

If you have questions about this content or anything else related to gamification design, please join us tomorrow at 1PM ET as Nicole joins us as our live guest on the Gamification Revolution webshow.  RSVP and Sign-In to join the conversation!

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tacy trowbridge

Tacy Trowbridge on Adobe’s Education Exchange and Promoting Creativity

Ivan Kuo12 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 Tacy Trowbridge, Head of Education Programs at Adobe.

Be sure to catch our next episode this Thursday, August 22 at 1PM ET/1800 GMT, where we feature Nicole Lazzaro, creator of Tilt World and president of XEODesign Inc.

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 Tacy share some of Adobe’s education programs to see how they’re getting kids to become more creative and the resources they’re offering for educators and students. You’ll learn about Adobe’s Education Exchange, Tacy’s approach to motivating students in education, and a spirited user-chat about gamification user-experience. Watch the full talk below:



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stella grizont

How Playing Can Unlock Your Mind and Inspire You with Stella Grizont

Ivan Kuo32 mins

How would you react if a truck showed up outside your door and you were told to scream inside it for a team-building exercise?

Stella Grizont is the founder of WOOPAH and she believes positive psychology and play are the keys to unlocking our creative sides. She took the stage at GSummit 2013, to tell us about how her studies in psychology led to this revelation and how we might be able to leverage these techniques for ourselves.

She explains

  • Core principles of positive psychology and its perspective on engagement.
  • What is play? What is a game? And what’s the difference?
  • How to use play to spark transformation

Check out the video below to see how play can help you and be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to get all the latest updates as they come.

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gamify the job search

How Can You Gamify The Job Search?

Ivan Kuo21 mins

Jon Guerrra first showed up at GSummit in 2012 when he spoke about a low-tech personal gamification system he created to achieve his goals. One year later, Jon has taken this system and used it to get a job at Google. Watch his talk from GSummit SF 2013 to learn about his journey into Google’s Mountain View campus and the ultimate power of post-its.

We’ll be releasing more talks from GSummit SF 2013 in the weeks to come! Subscribe to our YouTube channel to get each video as they’re released and as always, if there is someone you want to see released next, sound off in the comments below.

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naureen meraj

Naureen Meraj on Motivational Psychology and The Leadership Game

Ivan Kuo12 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.

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 asks Naureen about her work at NTT Data as a behavioral psychologist who led the implementation of a leadership game worldwide. Expect to learn the nuts and bolts that go into such a big implementation, important global design principles, and measuring engagement.



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Keep up with NTT Data’s work by following them on Twitter at @NTTDATAAmericas

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Blue Goji

The Creators of Guitar Hero Want to Make Your Treadmill Less Boring

Ivan Kuo15 mins

Even if you deny your participation with the plastic instrument fad with Guitar Hero and Rock Band in the late 2000’s, everybody had a taste of how awesome it was to be a fake rockstar. The toy instruments sure didn’t make anyone into a musician but what if these same mechanics actually helped you run or bike more? That’s a much more feasible prospect to accomplish.

Guitar Hero co-creators Kai and Charles Huang have been quietly working on a series of game accessories that could be used on bikes, treadmills, and ellipticals in their new venture called Blue Goji.

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game mechanics

Focus on the Game Mechanics, Not the Game

Kevin Shane23 mins

While games are an important and fun aspect of gamification, the main focus of gamification should not be the games, but rather the game mechanics. Game mechanics are what makes gamification so motivating and flexible; depending on the goal for implementing gamification, the games may vary considerably, but the most basic game mechanics will have the same purpose: to engage the user. Because of this, when companies evaluate the impact of gamification, they should not be focused on how many points the user achieved or whether or not they won the game, but rather on the increase or decrease in their productivity after the installment of game mechanics.

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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:



Download this episode (right click and save)
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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Why Gamification Design Should be Individual-Focused

Kevin Shane34 mins

While there are many benefits to gamification and many businesses are using this practice to make their website more engaging, the methods used by practicing businesses could often be more effective. Many businesses who integrate game dynamics within their company are often too focused on a corporate level, rather than the gamification of individuals. Because people play games for their own enjoyment, gamification that is too general is often ineffective due to its irrelevance to customers or employees.

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PromiseUP, the Gamification App to Help Keep Promises

Heong Weng Mak25 mins

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.

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