A presentation on gamification… by Richard Bartle himself!
Which is something I didn’t realize until I was halfway through the deck and noticed the sentence “My player types theory is invoked a lot…”
Anyway, excellent deck.
This wasn’t nearly as educational for me, since I’ve been immersed in social games space for a while, but it’s still not so bad.
I also went to TRY the game afterwards which, I think, has some real potential and breaks new ground, as far as typical Facebook games go. But it’s seriously lacking in the … well, everything else department. :( I’m a little afraid that someone is going to find their game and get their seasoned team of web game developers to rip it and put out a game that will squash the original.
In the meantime, I think a semi-edutainment Facebook game about learning-to-stock-market would be really awesome. >_> And works with what people naturally use FB for anyway.
This isn’t the first time I’ve heard of Jane McGonigal, of course, but I particularly liked this interview. I kind of feel like Colbert’s interviews with people are kind of hit and miss sometimes, because of his character style, but it worked out well enough for her here.
Just five more minutes, Dad, I’ve almost cured cancer!
The Engagement Hierarchy tries to graphically capture the idea that engagement is far more than a number. You can (and should) measure the retention of your game as best you can. But you also need to qualitatively understand what kind of engagement your game is generating, or trying to generate. Otherwise you might do stupid things, like try and sell poorly thought-out virtual goods to an audience that is so engaged that it finds such things cheapen their experience. Conversely, you might make the mistake of trying to charge subscription for a game that is really not valuable enough to warrant that kind of model.
Awesome. ::lol::
Jenova Chen is the designer of genre-bending, artfully crafted games Cloud, FlOw and Flower. He’s the co-founder of ThatGameCompany and the recipient of a master’s degree from the University of Southern California’s Interactive Media Division. He’s also a cheater.
At least when it comes to Capcom’s iTune Farmville knock-off game Smurfs’ Village. But unlike me, he cheats with purpose. He cheats to learn, to advance his understanding of game design and, perhaps, also to have a really kick-ass Smurf village.
I didn’t embed the video because I didn’t actually find it must-watch, though it’s not bad. I did enjoy the metaphor of WoW, and other games, just being one huge game of opening boxes all the time, looking for pies.
Part of me is more interested in the comments generated on this video, which are pretty polarized. Half of the people are in agreement of the need to utilize game mechanics to motivate students, whereas the other half are of the “are you crazy, we shouldn’t be manipulating people’s brains like this” camp.
(Part of me is a little depressed by the direction TED is taking. when they were still small and localized, they always had really interesting videos and it was less about what the community was taking away and more about personal introspection. now that they’ve gone global and full-out social, you can see how their discussions are sometimes going the YouTube route. oh well.)
On my part, I tend towards the belief that we should be harnessing video game mechanics to encourage exploration into topics that are difficult for students to start approaching. I can understand having a certain trepidation of the potential of “overlord manipulation”, but I am not sure I see I significant difference in this from parents who force their young children to take up a sport, a musical instrument, gymnastics, chess club, etc., knowing that the kid “will appreciate it later”.
Despite the fact that this may or may not be a questionable practice in itself, everyone must agree that children are not always (or maybe ever) totally understanding of the skills they are going to need later in life and that adults are responsible for guiding them around. Of course we want to inspire them into self-motivation, but if plopping them in front of a keyboard or lecturing them with diagrams isn’t going to cut it, then it is up to us to keep pushing the issue.
And for those who think it’s “fine” for children, but not for full-time working adults… please. I’m twenty-six years old and I STILL say “when I grow up” out of reflex. We’re all children, especially when faced with an unknown. If someone can give me a game to ease me into the process of finding a job (finally) or buying a house, freaking give it to me!
More thoughts along the line of gamifying the world.
Will Wright on various topics of gaming; a lot of it we’ve all heard before, but there are a few gems in here. If you don’t have a full half hour to watch it, go to the website and check out select chapters… the two I enjoyed were “05 Crafting Identity Online” and “09 Gaming and Education”.
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