Teaching you the secrets about Gamification
Game mechanics are just rules. Set up in ways to become really interesting. But a lot of things are just rules, government, exercise, jobs and school; just rules.
Sebastian Deterding has made a great presentation on rules and how they effect the things the rules are made to control. Spoiler: they never do what they’re designed to do.
Really interesting both from a gamification perspective but also just for anyone in an organisation or trying to build anything that relies on rules.
Posted by in Learning from others
Khan Academy is an online learning tool. Or possibly web2.0 school. It’s a lot of fun and provides good incentives to learn.
In the article Motivating Students and the Gamification of Learning the founder of Khan Academy talks about how incentives work. What does and doesn’t work from gamification and why the school system is broken in the first place.
I have one correction before you read it though:
“one of the first things we did was bring in the concept of badges and other game mechanics”
Badges are not a game mechanic. They’re just a way to give feedback on game mechanics.
Posted by in Learning from others
Really interesting Infographic detailing a MIT study on how games can help learning in US schools. By knewton.
Created by Knewton and Column Five Media
Posted by in Learning from others
IKEA, and the logic of video game design by Kotaku
Great article on how to apply the incremental learning process of games in stores. Not sure IKEA thought it through this way but still an excellent example of applied gamification.
Posted by in Game Design, Learning from others
Notably similar to how I was trained to think as a game designer. I’ve always found it frustrating that more designers don’t think in these terms.
Posted by in Learning from others
The MAO Model: Research for Behavior Change.
Long time readers of Adding the Fun will remember my outmost respect for the famous ludologist Sebastian Deterding. In the slew of really bad information about Gamification and motivational science Deterding cuts through the crap and delivers.
He has just shared his the slides from his most recent talk where he details the MAO model. A model for implementing motivational science in products and services. Not exactly Gamification but very, very, close.
Posted by in Learning from others
In the article In Defense of Video Games: More Than Just an Entertaining Time Sink Lifehacker shows some examples of studies that have researched how games affect our brains. In short, games are training you to recognize patterns. Exactly like Soduko, and much like basic math.
Best take-away:
Point: Video games are fun, but they’re not very productive or useful.
Counterpoint: One of the biggest benefits of video games and other interactive training techniques is that they offer a type of engaging and interesting activity that can help build and practice new skills.
Just remember that your mind perceives games as a system of rules. All the “action” and “story” is just there to make the rules easier to understand. Games to not train people to shoot guns, they train people in finding patterns and solutions.
Posted by in Game Design, Learning from others