

Gamification = b*llsh$t - kreek
http://www.gravitybear.com/blog/archives/243

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vitovito
The author has a legitimate beef. "Game mechanics" is the new "Web 2.0" as far
as misapplied buzzwords go, but "gamification" still comes out of "video
games" and "psychology," both of which have been around longer than the web,
and the web likes slapping a new term on something and thinking it invented
it.

To truly take advantage of game mechanics properly, you really need to know a
lot about both video games and psychology. Like anything else, you may have to
design with gamification in mind from the get-go, and you'll probably get it
wrong the first few times out, which means you'll need to practice (or have
betas).

Instead of completely retooling your software or process or "healthcare
issue," perhaps instead you can add a meta-game on top: Office Hero was a game
added atop Microsoft Word by Lost Garden writer danc:
<http://www.officelabs.com/ribbonhero> &&
[http://www.lostgarden.com/2010/01/ribbon-hero-turns-
learning...](http://www.lostgarden.com/2010/01/ribbon-hero-turns-learning-
office-into.html)

You'll never be able to "let's just add badges!" just like you can't "let's
use gradients and glossy buttons!" to move the needle.

There's even the notion that video games and traditional UI interaction design
are incompatible: IxD is about making things easy, but video games are about
intentionally challenging the user. If your users aren't expecting a game,
they may end up incredibly frustrated instead.

I did a workshop on adding game mechanics to an existing product (a
calendar/dayplanner) and the results varied wildly. One group (Ray and Nicole)
integrated social game mechanics into the application really well. Another
group (Cecy and Brody) treated each mechanic as a feature, and by the end of
the discussion I felt like it was "missing something." You can read the write-
up of the workshop here: <http://vi.to/workshop/20100426/>

My notes include a lot of references, as well as images of the handouts and my
own distillation of these principles: <http://vi.to/gmnotes>

------
c1sc0
I've been looking at gamification for my startup & I feel ambiguous about it
at best. Especially when applied to healthcare issues. There are plenty of
simpler things you can do that will have a better impact long-term. One thing
gamification seems to be really good at though is driving up traffic in the
short term & I guess _that_ is the reason why VCs are swooning with joy over
these types of startups.

Question: does anyone have references to controlled studies proving the
effects of gamification?

------
wccrawford
I quit reading at:

"Scrum is definitely “gamification” (they even have planning poker!), "

... Seriously? Does he even know what 'planning poker' is? Hint: It's not a
game.

If you can implement some game mechanics in your site and drive up sales and
usage, do so. But don't stretch the site for it. Most people won't care or
will be annoyed if it's done wrong.

