Over 95% of our youth plays videogames. This huge wave (the next generation) can be mastered through gamification, because they understand games and therefore game mechanics. They live it, eat it, breath it and will embrace gamification! Roughly 50% of the current internet population plays social games. The rest? Well I am certain they play other games. It is fair to say that everybody plays. That’s why gamification is a very powerful tool! Gamifier.com gains knowledge about this phenomenon and shares it with the world. Feel free to explore Gamifier.com and find out if it fits your needs!
There are lots of definitions about Gamification The one from Oxford Dictionaries explains best: “The application of typical elements of game playing (e.g. point scoring, competition with others, rules of play) to other areas of activity, typically as an online marketing technique to encourage engagement with a product or service: gamification is exciting because it promises to make the hard stuff in life fun.“
Gamifier.com uses its own simple definition: Make things FUN by adding game-elements.
A short and understandable definition. To put this in the right perspective it is very important to understand what fun implies. The formal definition from Johan Huizinga on Wikipedia is: FUN is the enjoyment of pleasure and an absolutely primary category of life, familiar to everybody at a glance right down to the animal level.
Fun can be found in many things. Reading a good book is fun, accomplishing something difficult is fun, exploring new stuff is fun, achieving your goals is fun, socializing is fun, etc, etc.
Gamification brings fun into our daily routine and therefore is a very powerful tool!! A gamifier can make that happen. Using the plus 4 method a gamifier will find the game-factor of any given entity and create pure fun with it. As a result the entity (websit, school, organization, etc) will perform better. Throught this blog I want to inform you about Gamification trends and give my opinion about important matters. Please read the latest posts:
Life is hard and then you…play
Games are part of our culture, all of our youngsters play them. But why? First of all it’s nothing new, really it isn’t. Humans have played all kinds of games for thousands of years. Not only humans play, animals do it as well. Look at little kittens, they play through their first months of their lives. Even when they grow up, they won’t stop playing. It’s more or less the same with humans. In our childhood we played hide and seek, or tag and many other games. Some of us played war games, that could be recognized as a role playing...
read moreeSports is huge!
Who would ever thought that a bunch of “so called” nerds sitting behind a monitor could fill up an entire stadium. That’s not all, the winner gets 1 million dollars. The fun part is, they don’t call it gaming anymore. Probably the idea behind it is, if you can fill up a stadium, you should call it sport :) So they named it eSports. Funny isn’t it! Because every sport basically is a game. Well who cares, people are entertained and that’s what matters. Could this become the age of eSports? And if so, what could become of all those...
read moreDo killers rule the world?
I see a game in almost everything. A game contains players, so by looking at something as a game, I also recognize the players. Players can be categorized in many ways. The most popular one is Bartle’s Player types. Named after Richard Bartle, who created them based on the behavior of MMO players. A model that is adopted by many in Gamification. It provides psychological portraits for MMO players. One that professor Kevin Werbach categorizes as follows: Achievers are interested in ACTING on the WORLD. They are typical gamers,...
read more5 characteristics of modern society
Our current financial crisis is a symptom of the malfunction of our current society. That is just one symptom; a lot more is going on. We are in a transition and many people are aware of this. Our society is entering a new era. Look at our educational system for example. We educate people for their own spot in our working environment. Jobs that people made up decades ago, amongst them jobs that don’t exist anymore. Even if those jobs would exist the chance of getting one is very small. Our educational system likes to put people in boxes....
read moreYet another introduction to Gamification
Recently I was asked to blog for the online magazine Society30.com. I accepted the opportunity with honor. This magazine provides information about our failing current society and offers a solution with society 3.0 A lot of great inspiring people give an inspiring contribution to this magazine. That’s why I feel honored to participate in this great initiative with my posts about Gamification. Which I believe can have a positive impact on modern society. My first one is an introduction to Gamification, because many people first need to get...
read moreThe power of feedback mechanisms
Reality is sometimes hard to deal with and often we find ourselves wondering if the direction we are going is the right one. Games are an escape from reality. Within this virtual world players know if the direction they take is the right one. Feedback given at the right moment gives them guidance. When wrong decisions are taken, they won’t reach the next level. Gamers can try over and over again in desperate need to reach that next level. Appropriate feedback at the right moment keeps them motivated. They don’t worry about failure. Instead...
read moreUse Gamification to transform your employees’ mentality!
Melina Politi is a foreign guest writer from Greece. I am very happy to introduce her to you through an interesting post she wrote especially for gamifier.com. Gamification by nature is the element used to enhance game stickiness and engagement. In a colossal community, gamers compete against their friends while seeking for acknowledgement and recognition. Gamification represents how science can be cleverly disguised in order to provide incentives for cultivating creativity, encouraging peer cooperation in an entertaining and at the same time...
read moreSandbox Gamification: the next big thing!
Holliday season! A lot of people will bring their family to the beach; after the dessert the largest Sandbox that exists on this planet. The sandbox at the beach is better for our creativity, because it’s next to water. Water and sand are the only ingredients our young children need, to shape their imagination. They can spend hours and hours in the sand building the weirdest structures and guess what? Daddy is always there to assist. Because in his heart Daddy still loves playing with sand as well. Even if Daddy denies this there are...
read morePlus 4 an evolutionary development method
The new generation works in a different way. Especially when it comes to software development. It makes sense. During Education they are fully dependent on themselves most of the time. Teachers can’t keep up with the pace of new innovations. We can’t blame them for that, nobody can. It’s just going too fast and the amount of information has become too much for one person to absorb. What’s happening now is that these youngsters find their own way to handle projects. They have enough basic knowledge and a great problem solving talent....
read moreChanging the World, One Gamified App at a Time
At this point, you’ve probably heard of gamification. You’re most likely aware of this growing trend in which game mechanics are infused into business structures and processes. Chances are, this has been from either a marketing or an employee engagement standpoint. However, gamification can also be applied to various unique facets of life in order to make a real difference in society. The gamification examples that follow illustrate how elements of fun and other game mechanics can bring about social consciousness and positive...
read more