Sounds like a silly word, but "gamification" is garnering buzz. The idea is that an enterprise can smooth difficult change issues like innovation, training, new processes, and so forth, through the use of gaming mechanics. Gaming mechanics include things like leader boards, points, clear goals, and real-time feedback.
In August of 2010, gamification wasn't on the list of Gartner's big changes to the world of work in the next 10 years.
Now, Gartner is talking a lot about it, but on both sides of the issue: Here and here are a few examples.
What do you think? Is there a place for game mechanics in the work place?
"Gaming mechanics" or "Gamification"?
ReplyDeleteHmmmm... isn't that just putting a new face on the divinely-inspiried "return and report"?
I feel that gamification plays on something that is built into our brains. It can turn the most mundane thing into something that we actually WANT to do. How else could games like Pong and Tetris earn so much fame? The thrill of beating the high score, beating one's old score and/or earning that next level is exciting. Lets face it, no matter what job one has there is always a bunch of mundane tasks (The movies always skip over the years of research that Indiana Jones has to do before the adventure). If there was a game element, I assert that it wouldn't turn these boring things into fun things but that it would wrap fun around them and, because of this, more would get done and with fewer complaints.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.wimp.com/peacegame/
ReplyDeleteThis game presented in a TED Talk by John Hunter, 4th grade teacher from Virginia, may be how kids are being taught. 'Makes sense to me that if that works, that's how our "future" leadership will approach things. Sure, why not try it now with big kids?
damarisfish@gmail.com
A good example of this:
ReplyDeleteStackOverflow "rep" and "badges" have helped create what's easily the best programming Q&A "forum" on the planet, where tens of thousands of the world's best programmers do hundreds of hours of free work answering each other's programming questions:
http://stackoverflow.com/faq