In the decade-ish since the second coming of social media, global democracy has been severely impaired by the spread of fake news. I believe that using gamification techniques could substantially retard this phenomenon and reset the balance. N.B. I’m using “fake news” to refer to things which are actually fake, not things that are true…
Highlights From This Year’s Games For Change Last week, Games For Change had their 13th annual festival at the New School’s Parsons School of Design. New to the festival this year were three featured tracks participants could focus on: the Games for Learning Summit; health and neuroscience; and civics and social change. Gamification.Co was lucky enough to attend,…
Yellowstone National Park is one of the most popular of the nation’s 409 national parks, drawing visitors from across the country and around the world. But not everyone who visits Yellowstone understands the wildlife that make these parks home. Recently, two well-meaning tourists driving through Yellowstone came upon a baby bison standing in the middle of the road. Fearing that the calf was cold and at risk of dying from exposure, they packed the bison into their SUV and drove it to a ranger station seeking help, according to Time. That was a mistake.
If you are interested in how serious games can solve problems around the world, you will want to check out a festival designed to highlight the impact games can have across many different industries. Every year the Games for Change Festival showcases cutting edge games that target areas of concern in healthcare, environmental impact, research, human rights, economics, education and many other major issues.
If you could apply a game-based approach to nonprofit fundraising online, would you? Online fundraising is a continuous challenge for nonprofits, competing with each other for donations through e-mail or on websites. Serious games in online fundraising events provide motivating ways to raise money for causes and connect with others.
While automobiles have been part of the American landscape for a century, mobile phones only started becoming commonplace about 15 years ago. Today, the pairing of the two products forms a dangerous combination leading to distracted driving, and in far too many cases, car accidents. TextNinja, a gamification startup is trying to overcome the problems caused by the collision of these technologies with a new technological solution: a mobile app that helps keeps drivers’ focus where it belongs – the road.
With much of the West Coast mired in a years-long drought, it’s hard to get away from the stream of messaging about water conservation. But much of that messaging doesn’t get through. Many people still use (and unfortunately waste) water in the same way that they did when water was abundant. A gamification startup called Oasys has a developed a device that aims to help homeowners understand just how much water they use.
Few environments present training challenges more difficult than those encountered in disaster management. The elements of any particular disaster – including location, severity, duration, the extent of damage to infrastructure, and existence of any continuing threat – are unique. Even so, and regardless of the exact nature of the event, one thing is certain: public agencies and first responders need immediate access to accurate data regarding conditions in precise locations. That not only allows the correct first responders to be deployed to the places where they can have the most impact, but it also reduces the confusion inherent the same conditions being reported by different people in different media.
These days, most people will do what they can to lessen their individual impact on the environment. We shut off the tap while brushing our teeth. We try to remember to bring those reusable grocery bags along, when we head to the supermarket. The problem is, other than these, very few, popular green habits, most people are at a loss when it comes to living a more Earth-conscious lifestyle. So, now what? How do we get people to not only invest their valuable time learning new green habits, but also expend the energy necessary to implement these new habits into their daily life? The answer is simple. We use gamification.
A Serious Game Helps Analyze Complex Cancer Research Data Although serious games have many uses – employee engagement, marketing and learning among them – one area that may prove as a surprise is cancer research. After all, researchers don’t need games, and cancer research cannot be done by just anyone, right? Play to Cure: Genes in Space…
Gamification is well-known to boost players’ engagement and interest. Players are rewarded through badges or leader boards. Health, education, and even charitable sectors are using gamification as a method to increase awareness of social issues as well as encourage donations to causes. Here are several examples of successful charity apps: 1. Charity Miles: Once you sign…
It all started in June 2004. This was the very first Games for Change Festival ever, it was held at New York Academy of Sciences in New York City. The goal? To investigate whether or not games could become serious games, ones that could be used for educational purposes and to inspire social change. Unfortunately only forty-two people attended…
However, this year’s Games for Change Festival will prove just how strong this movement has become. It has been projected that more than 800 people have attended in-person and an additional 10,000 people will have attended the event through streaming this past week. The festival also nabbed a great ally in their quest for social good by partnering with the Tribeca Film Festival for this year’s event.
This year, the campaign for UNICEF’s Tap Project is challenging us to set our phones aside for a few minutes in exchange for a clean water donation. Just to give you an idea of the challenge: spending a mere 10 minutes away from your phone provides a full day of clean water to a child in need. The longer you go, the more water is donated.
“Some of us can’t go for more than a few minutes without checking our cell phones. Imagine what it’s like to go days—or longer—without safe drinking water” says Caryl Stern, President and CEO of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF.
Linkin Park is clearly not afraid of new marketing strategies as evidenced by their new LP RECHARGE game, which is a free-to-play action game designed to raise attention to environmental issues and is set to the tune of Linkin Park’s new remix album, aptly named, Recharge.
Given that Recharge isn’t exactly a new album and is rather a compilation of remixes of songs (like Reanimation) off their last album Living Things, it looks like Linkin Park’s game was created to drive a little more interest in the album and their cause.
Developed in partnership with Kuuluu Interactive Entertainment, LP RECHARGE takes place in a not too distant future in which humans have consumed nearly all natural resources on the planet and the last remaining resources are being seized by killer robots.
It used to be enough just to give consumers 22 minutes of quality content, once a week, year after year, to be successful. Today, media consumption has dramatically changed. Where TV used to be the distraction, now viewers use second and third screens – a distraction from the distraction. This change, both demographic and technological, forces us to reimagine the nature of storytelling and narrative in an unprecedented way.
Viewers today want to lean forward (and you need them to), become part of the action, engage with characters and each other in new and exciting ways, and shape the outcome. But how do we do this without ceding total control to the audience and reducing the main reason they “pay” to be with us in the first place?
Join Tim Kring, Transmedia expert and creator of the blockbuster TV programs Heroes and Touch, as he shares his insights about how to tell stories in this new lean-forward era that consumers are willing to pay for with time and money.
Watch Tim’s full GSummit SF 2013 video below and 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 this presentation by downloading it here.
