June 7, 2026
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Crowdsourcing GIF Emotional Research with MIT Media Lab

Heong Weng Mak11 mins

Last week, we featured MIT graduate students Travis Rich and Kevin Hu to talk about their gamified crowdsourcing project, GIFGIF. The MIT Media Lab project aims to map out the emotional language of animated gifs using game mechanics to draw user engagement and quantifiable methodologies to gather research data.

Watch the full interview below to learn about:
  • The design purposes for using specific mechanics to drive outcomes.
  • Where they drew inspiration from when building in the mechanics.
  • How the team plans to use gathered data to be used for scientific research.
  • The ethical questions for utilizing a crowd sourcing capability.
  • What possibilities lie ahead to facilitate complex dialogue beyond cataloging gifs.

Be sure to also catch our next episode of the Gamification Revolution this coming Tuesday April 15th at 1 PM ET:



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Evolving Loyalty Using Persuasive Design with Barry Kirk and Bill Hennessey

Ivan Kuo12 mins

Last week we featured two loyalty gamification pros from Maritz Motivations: Barry Kirk and Bill Hennessey, to talk to us about the proper way to gamify loyalty and how strongly immersed the gamification is in this long standing industry.

Want to increase your knowledge on persuasive design? Be sure to sign up for Barry & Bill’s full-day Workshop at GSummit SF 2014 (June 10 in San Francisco)–Persuasive Design Workshop for Next-Gen Loyalty Marketing.

Watch the full interview below to learn about:

  • How loyalty can’t get past a P.B.L. design philosophy
  • The conservative nature of loyalty practionioners
  • Keeping loyalty members past the onboarding stage
  • “Grinding” vs “Rituals” for influence habits
  • Using randomized prize distribution
  • Using emotions for True loyalty and Cult loyalty

And much more! Check out the full 3-man special on gamified loyalty below. Be sure to also catch our next episode of the Gamification Revolution this Thursday at 1 PM ET. Also, learn more about Barry & Bill’s Persuasive Design Workshop for Next-Gen Loyalty Marketing at GSummit this June 10th.



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sascha goto

Guiding Gamification Through Management with Sascha Goto

Ivan Kuo02 mins

Sometimes when you want to gamify in a large organization, the hoops and hurdles you need to surpass may seem daunting. Sascha Goto is an Senior IT Manager at McKinsey who was able to successfully implement his own low-tech gamified system and was able to share some wisdom for us all on how we might approach doing the same thing.

He joined us on our weekly Gamification Revolution webshow with Gabe Zichermann and talked about:

  • Implementing gamification for IT management
  • Getting employees to participate with gamification systems on their own time
  • Demonstrating success with products
  • How to get approval for gamification
  • The effect of competition in an organization
  • Using low-tech proofs of concept

Watch the full interview below and catch this week’s special double-guest episode on gamifying loyalty with Maritz’ Barry Kirk and Bill Hennessey this Thursday at 1 PM ET.



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gabe zichermann

Gabe’s Gamification Office Hours Review

Ivan Kuo01 mins

After a long hiatus going on a massive trip around the world for GSummit Global, Gabe Zichermann returns to our weekly Gamification Revolution show to give readers some updates on our online gamification certification courses and to answer some questions from the audience.

Learn more about:

  • How to find gamification-related jobs
  • Gamifying work “offline”
  • The potential danger of “over-gamifying” and desensitizing users
  • The danger of making systems too fun and distracting
  • Approaching CRM gamification

Check out the full video below and be sure to watch the Gamification Revolution every Thursday at 1 PM ET. Catch Gartner Analyst Brian Burke this week to discuss his finding and research on gamification future and ask him questions.

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nir eyal

The Ethics and Tenants of Habit-Forming Design with Nir Eyal

Ivan Kuo01 mins

Speaker, author, entrepreneur, and GSummit Alumnus Nir Eyal joined us last week on the Gamification Revolution weekly webshow and discussed some of the ideas he presents in his Hooked Model on creating habit-forming designs. We review Nir’s thoughts on the ethics of creating these designs, the emotive effect of engaging experiences, and how the evolution of technology evolved user-experiences. Watch the full interview below:



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If you’re interested in learning about Nir’s work, you can visit his blog at NirAndFar.com

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knack wasabi waiter

How Playing Games Can Discover True Talent

Ivan Kuo12 mins

Recruiting games are some of the most exciting applications for gamification today. We’ve seen it applied everywhere from the Air Force to big data analytics startups and now a new company has emerged to create games for talent discovery.

Knack is a startup that deeply believes in the mantra “you are how you play” and makes casual games to unveil player traits, soft skills, and behavioral qualities.

Essentially — the games by Knack serve as a medium for behavior observation and will pair you with appropriate recruiters and companies based off your revealed traits.

We invited Knack founder Guy Halfteck to join our Gamification Revolution show to explain the company’s vision and what Knack is capable of. Watch the video below for the full interview.



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If you’re interested in trying out these games, check out Knack.it to request an invite.

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