http://www.zdnet.com/blog/gamification/rss en-us Over the past week we’ve witnessed a fascinating phenomenon in games. Double Fine, a game developer run by lauded game maker Tim Schafer (Secret of Monkey Island, Psychonauts), asked fans to directly invest in its next big project. Just over a week later, this experiment has raised 1.9 million dollars. How did they manage to [...]

]]> Bring up the word ‘gamification’ to many game makers and you’ll get a common response — a facial expression that’s similar to what you might have after accidentally stepping in dog droppings on the street.
Google ‘Gamification, bad word’ and you’ll find your share of diatribes against this whole trend, [...]

]]> In one of those rare, only-on-the-Internet moments, an anonymous former Zynga employee has opened the floodgates, speaking in great detail about his experiences, both good and bad.
The question-and-answer session, hosted on reddit, has already cased a firestorm of controversy, and it should be required reading for anyone interested [...]

]]> To be honest, I have a lot more interest in the high-profile Super Bowl commercials than the Super Bowl itself. But football is, under all the money and hype, still a game, and the natural question to ask is, how do we tie interactive and/or video games in with this once-a-year [...]

]]> Spending much of my time delving into the trends driving social and casual games, it’s worth noting a slow-burn development that may be of use to gamification developers. The once lowly Hidden Object Game, or HOG, has come to eclipse farming/city building/etc. games as the hot genre of choice.
If you haven’t seen one of these [...]

]]> So many game mechanics rely on proprietary points systems, especially gamification plays that involve collecting or loyalty card programs. Is the humble ‘point’ a needless level of abstraction?

]]> The best gamification ideas usually come from just outside the traditional game space (and typically not from gamification ‘experts’ who are too busy adding badges and points to everything under the sun). The latest blockbuster idea, which could easily be adapted for some really interesting game mechanics, is Pinterest.
If [...]

]]> New Xbox 360 dashboard software update further blurs the line between games, television, and social networking

]]> Adding game-like elements to your product or service isn’t just about slapping a badge notifications all over everything. The key metric should always be to actually create an experience that provides real game play and, most importantly, fun — even if it’s in the service of a greater goal, whether [...]

]]> There most common gamification platform may be your standard PC web browser, typically accessed via a laptop or desktop computer, but every new piece of personal tech hardware has the potential to open up new avenues. For example, mobile phones and tablets such as the iPad have had some gamification [...]

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