If you’ve ever raised a skeptical brow at the notion that badges and points were a magic bullet solution to engaging communities, this article is for you. Not because I’m going to change your mind. But because I’m going to wholeheartedly agree with you – and hopefully give you some ammo to win your next argument with that newly-minted “Certified Gamification Expert.”
Educational games have come a long way since The Oregon Trail and Math Blaster.
Sokikom is a MMO math game that aims to help teachers educate their students by using this interactive and math-based online world. After receiving a $2M startup grant funded by The Institute of Educational Sciences as well as former Intel Chairman and CEO Dr. Craig Barrett and Zynga co-founder Steve Schoettler, the game is finally ready to be unveiled to the world and to evolve out of beta.
Happy new year everyone! We’re continuing our Best of 2012 Series with the top articles on Social Good from last year. From new startups and successful programs, to Gabe Zichermann’s challenges for game designers, 2012 had some very interesting moments for social good gamification:
First off, we’d like to welcome our newest members to the gamification space: Snoop Dogg, Edward Norton, Sophia Bush, Kristen Bell, Eva Longoria, Jonah Hill, John Legend, and Paul Pierce. They have all taken part in Zynga & American Express’s Words With Friends Celebrity Challenge to donate $500,000 to their favorite charity. Here’s how we…
Half the Sky, the bestselling 2009 book by Kristof and WuDunn, sparked a global movement (www.halftheskymovement.org) to address “the central moral challenge of our time” – ending the oppression of women and girls worldwide. The Half the Sky movement is producing a number of big projects to raise awareness for their cause, including educational materials, a four-hour miniseries on…
M2 Research recently updated its bellwether forecast for Gamification Industry revenues, projecting aggregate spending of $2.6Bn by 2016 in the US, climbing from $242m in 2012. Revenues among the leading gamification platform providers are set to approximately double per year from 2011 to 2016. Wanda Meloni, lead analyst and CEO at M2 will further analyze…
In the past, I have been surprised to come across a number of people working on gamification that have never designed games and don’t play them regularly. Luckily, there are also people like Tony Ventrice who works at Badgeville and is a veteran game designer. In the past, he has made games with Playdom and…
Though many naysayers continue to shrug off the serious impact of gaming in our culture, there’s no longer any room for doubt in how it is effecting our economy. A recent article by Leena Rao for TechCrunch highlights a study by the University of Maryland of what is being referred to as the “Facebook App Economy” –…
With the daily hacking successes, breaches in security, and unethical behavior by corporations, it has never been more important to read through the “Terms of Service” and “Privacy Policy” before entrusting personal information and potentially sensitive data to companies. Zynga has made the process a little easier on the eyes (and on the scrolling finger)…
Today Econsultancy realized a Q&A with Laurie Petersen and Gabe Zichermann about gamification, fun and metrics. In the piece, Gabe discusses which metrics really matter, how to make gamification sustainable, unusual examples of gamification and the future of Zynga and engagement as a whole. You can read the entire Q&A here.
We’re very happy to announce that 2 videos from GSummit are now completely free to watch on Fora.tv. These are talks from our own Gabe Zichermann and Demetri Detsaridis, General Manager of Zynga (formerly Producer at Area/Code). The presentations from all of our speakers are also available on SlideShare for everyone to review. GSummit is…
The Engage Expo is wrapping up here in New York. The conference focuses on engaging kids and youth with digital games, with thematic tracks ranging from “App Strategy” to “Creative, Design, and Development”, and of course our favorite, gamification. Speakers in the gamification track included a panel with Rajat Paharia, Chief Product Officer at Bunchball,…
Gabe Zichermann participated a great deal in Social Media Week, New York. On Monday he gave a talk at Time Inc. called “The Year of Gamification” where he discusses the trends we can expect to see in 2011 and the possibilities for the future of gamification. You can see the presentation slides here. He was…
The Gamification Summit is only 2 weeks away! Excitement is building and available tickets are dwindling. Of course, The Gamification Summit will have amazing keynotes and panels, featuring speakers from such top companies as: Google –Amit Fulay, Product Manager NBC/Universal -Jesse Redniss, Vice President of Digital Bing – Neal Freeland, Director Zynga – Manny Anekal,…
The Gamification Summit is a little over a month away (January 20th – 21st, San Francisco) and things are getting even more exciting. Here are some of our big updates: The Hands-On Gamification Workshop (Day 2) is officially sold out. A limited number of tickets are still available for Day 1 of the summit, and…
