I'm not sure there's a practical method, or reason, for gamifying the search engine -- it's usually a very transactional experience. But, if there’s any way to make using a search engine more fun, I have yet to think of a better example than this, along with the often delightful Google Doodles. Bravo, Google. Bravo.

It’s hard to argue about the evils of gamification when it’s being used to inspire people and corporations to act responsibly, whether that’s to improve your waistline, learn basic mathematics or, in the spirit of Earth Day, to go green.

There have been many programs, both online and in the real world, that have offered cash for recycling cans, or discounts in exchange for used ink cartridges. ‘Green gamification’ has spread to the web and on Facebook as well, although it’s perhaps not as high-profile as it deserves to be.

Recyclebank, a web-based program that gives consumer points for doing things like reading green articles, recycling at home and making greener purchases (like saving paper by buying a Barnes & Noble Nook tablet). Rack up enough points and then use to them to ‘buy’ discounts on everything from lip balm to generic discounts for larger retail outlets, such as Kmart and Macys.

Fast Company as one of the World’s Most Innovative Companies in 2012.

Practically Green, which offers advice on how to green-ify your lifestyle.

It’s too bad that there aren't some more recent high-profile examples of green gamification or green gaming, and I would love to see some new attention paid to this space. Earth Day only comes once a year, but there’s no reason we can’t encourage people with related games and interactive features all year long.

What made Kinect interesting, was that it wasn't pitched as a game-only device, and in fact, recently we've heard more about its use as a multimedia remote control than any new video games. (One exception is the brand-new Kinect Star Wars game, which is about as much of a train wreck as it sounds -- although the especially goofy song parody dance mini-game is pure red meat for nerds).

But, Kinect hasn't been a huge game-changer, even though about 18 million units have shipped (note, that's shipped, not sold), since its release in November 2010, and we haven't seen too many other attempts to build devices around hand gestures since.

Smart TV, which involves building a small webcam into the bezel of a TV and using it to translate hand waves and spoken words into action. Can it add some game-like sizzle to the normally tedious work of pressing remote control buttons (we ask with tongue planted firmly in cheek)?

In hands-on testing, the Smart TV voice and gesture control features routinely mis-heard commands, and the gesture commands were laggy, when they were properly received at all.

It's a shame, because not only is simple voice a gesture control a staple of sci-fi movies and TV shows, but if done right it could actually be very useful for both games and everyday tasks, and could certainly help build game-like experiences into all kinds of situations.

Nike+ FuelBand has appeared on my radar several times from several sources over the past few weeks. In each case, this high-tech exercise-tracking wristband has so inspired the people who use it that they're inventing their own games to play with it. If that's not an engaging user experience, I don't know what is.

If you haven't seen it, the FuelBand looks like a black rubberized bracelet when it’s off, but turn it on and it transforms into a pedometer on steroids, tracking standard stuff like steps, calories and the time, as well as letting the wearer set daily goals and tracking how much ‘fuel’ you’ve earned for the day ('fuel' is a Nike-created measurement based on the amount of oxygen taken in per day). The device connects wirelessly to a mobile app, allowing you to have access to your stats whenever the mood strikes, and offers some basic information sharing with friends. At $150 a pop, these bands are a little on the pricey side, reserved for those with a certain level of disposable income. That hasn’t stopped people from going out in droves and buying them - this must-have device is sold out online and the NikeTown in Manhattan is delving them out daily on a limited basis.

An interesting side effect to this tracking device is, not only does it let you turn your day-to-day activities into sharable information, with some very light game-like or competitive elements, but it also has inspired wearers to create their own games in the form of competition that happens while standing around the watercooler.

I witnessed a handful of coworkers comparing the amount of Fuel they had accumulated for the day and deciding to meet up after lunch to compare stats again. In other NYC offices, I've spoken to people who are setting up their own challenges among coworkers, tying into natural workplace competition and general bragging rights.

Virgin HealthMiles, for example, does this now -- with a junky pedometer rather than a high-tech wristband -- and the winner gets points, which eventually translates into real-life cash.

Nike continues to lead the way in hot high-tech hardware for motivating people to improve their health, but the entire Nike+ platform could really use a much more game-centric approach. But if the FuelBand continues to build its cult status, either Nike, or someone else, will surely build it.

More importantly, at least as far as we are concerned, is that this gaming app has been downloaded more than 20 million times in five weeks, according to the company. This past Sunday, OMGPOP says 4.5 million people played Draw Something between 8pm and 9pm ET, and celebrities are Tweeting about it and looking for people to play with.

Whenever we see a novel gaming mechanic, especially one with a strong social element, we have to wonder how else it could be put to use. Draw Something is especially worth studying, as most of the content, and indeed the interaction, is user-generated. The game itself provides a hook into Facebook for finding friends to play with, and, well, a list of words to draw, and that's about it. It's up to players to figure out how to interpret the words into drawings, and then keep up with the back-and-forth picture swapping with friends.

That's a level of engagement that both game makers and marketers usually only dream of. If you were promoting a movie or TV program, imagine the engagement offered by getting fans and potential fans to draw out scenes and characters and quiz each other with them. Or picture (no pun intended) Draw Something recast as a promotional game for a product or service.

To not seem tacked on, it would have to be a very clever hook, to be sure, or offer some kind of rewards system, but it's certainly more inventive than badges and location check-ins. And branded offshoots of social games have certainly worked for Angry Birds (Rio) and Fruit Ninja (Puss in Boots).

A left-field social gaming app hit always gives us a chance to see what new ideas have true viral potential, and how we can expand on them to move beyond pure gaming. If Draw Something the biggest gaming hit of the year, or is it just a fad that will soon dry up? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

It doesn't matter where you run. It doesn't matter how fast you run. It doesn't matter how far you run. Just run.

Zombies Run app for iOS, an adventure game of sorts designed to encourage people to run like hell. Joggers turn on the app and in addition to listening to their usual musical soundtrack, they’re encourage to run longer and faster with a storyline about ‘Runner 5’ who is the unlucky sucker that has been sent out into the zombie infested open to collect supplies for a base of surviving humans.

While moving, the runner will automatically collect supplies, such as weapons, ammo, medical equipment, as well as notes and recorded messages that give clues to how the world turned into an undead all-you-can-eat buffet. Occasionally, zombies will catch up with the runner (cued by progressively louder moans in the app), which means that it’s time to run as fast as possible to escape. If advancing zombies don’t encourage someone to pick up their gait, what will?

Once the run ends, Zombies Run will let you know all of the typical running app stats, i.e. distance, time, pace and calories burned, as well as what supplies you collected on your run, which you then must determine how to distribute them to the other survivors on your base. Do they go to doctors or to soldiers?

Run for Your Lives (both 5K runs with obstacles, the latter with actual people dressed as zombies chasing after you) to create something that, while it might be too gimmicky for long-term use, will certainly genre fans some new inspiration to stay physically fit. At the very least, if there’s a zombie apocalypse, users of this app will be prepared.

Tying game mechanics in with fitness goals is an increasingly common idea in our era of the Nintendo Wii and Microsoft Kinect -- but few examples have done it so effectively yet simply -- and the concept seems infinitely expandable to other genres and audiences (something related to shopping, or a perhaps fantasy sports league, as examples).

Zombies, Run is available on the App Store for $7.99 and will be available on Android in the Spring. It’s also worth noting that this project got off the ground on Kickstarter, raising $72K from 3,400 backers.

If you’ve been thinking, “Hmm, how can I gamify my mobile apps?” -- BadgeVille purports to have the answer. Today, the company officially releases its Mobile Software Development Kit for iOS and Android devices.

“Gamification’s greatest potential is in its ability to track and reward user behavior across any device or application, whether that be on web, mobile, or connected device,” says BadgeVille CEO Kris Duggan.

Deloitte & Touche, a name brand financial consulting firm, has employed BadgeVille mobile to enable geo-location, which works in conjunction with an internal system where consultants are rewarded for checking in, FourSquare-style, when they visit clients. While the idea of your bosses being able tracking your every move sounds a little Big Brotherish, Duggan says that the Deloitte program has injected a little more fun, e.g. friendly competition, into employees’ jobs and helped the consultants from different parts of the company connect in ways they hadn’t before.

BadgeVille is the first to release an mobile gamification SDK on the market, not counting game-centric applications like Apple’s GameCenter and GREE. “Those are for companies who want to be part of a game network,” Duggan says, “but what if you’re a brand or a media company?” There’s nothing out there that can satisfy that demand, he says.

Considering how many people tote around smartphones and tablets these days (Morgan Stanley reports that by 2014, mobile web usage will dominate traditional desktop usage), it only makes sense to assume that companies are pushing harder than ever to establish a mobile presence, and possibly a gamified mobile presence at that.

BadgeVille might be the first company with a mobile SDK, but I’m sure we’ll see like-minded companies following suit in the not-too-distant future.

A recently approved proposal to allow iPads to be installed in NYC taxis offers some very interesting possibilities, putting what may be the world's most popular game-playing gadget potentially in front of millions of taxi riders.?? Before getting too excited, note that this is just a year-long pilot program, currently approved for 30 cabs in New York (out of about 13,000 total).

The New York Taxi and Limousine Commission is primarily interested in the iPad's credit card capabilities, and the tablets will be use Square's hardware and software to process payments (all NYC cabs currently accept credit cards, but the system can be clunky and hard to use at times).

Games aside, this is still great news for future taxi riders. Two companies currently supply the touchscreen monitors found in the back of nearly every cab, VeriFone Media and Creative Mobile Technologies. Both companies stream a variety of news and advertising (mostly advertising, really), along with weather and traffic information, and an interactive GPS map.

But, in actual use, these current-generation screens are almost universally hated, as any taxi rider blasted by high-volume TV commercials while stuck in traffic will tell you. The screens are slow to respond, and the controls often crash, leaving you with no way to turn them off or even mute them. And, if you do manage to turn off the screen, just brushing a knee up against it (almost impossible to avoid in many cabs) will turn everything back on.

Hopefully, a seat-mounted iPad will work much better, and be less crash-prone. ??There's no indication yet just how locked-down, software-wise, these new iPads will be. Presumably, they'd have a custom app pre-loaded to stream the same news and information taxi riders are used to getting, but allowing games would be an even better idea. ??Sure, a few rounds of Angry Birds or Fruit Ninja would be fine, but the possibilities for interactive games actually related to your taxi ride is even better. Quizzes or trivia games could use GPS data to ask specific questions about the part of town you're in, or even offer a virtual tour guide.

Even bolder, a savvy marketer could create an advertorial-like game experience with badges or credits. Build up enough during one or several rides, and you could earn a dollar or two off your cab fare.

Of course, these are all hypothetical examples, and it's more likely the risk-averse TLC would not take kindly to ideas like that, but once iPads start showing up in taxis, I'd wager it's inevitable in the long run.

What kind of interactive game experiences do you think would work in an iPad-equipped taxi? share your ideas in the comments section below.

The conference entirely devoted to the topic of using game-like mechanics to enhance real life is back, and will be held in San Francisco June 19-21.

The three-day conference, called The Gamification Summit 2012, will include a new 'inspirational format' where there will be no panels. Instead, speakers will deliver an "18-minute, data- and insight-filled talk" followed by Q&A and lots of networking. There will also be hands-on workshops and companies showing off new products.

As for what’s been happening in this area lately: “Gamification has long been associated with consumer marketing, but its effects are now reaching much further - to areas such as Loyalty, Enterprise/HR, Healthcare, Education, Research & Development, and more,” GSummit Chair Gabe Zichermann says.

The show will focus on the long arms of Gamification, and a few of the bigger name keynotes will expand on that. Salesforce CSO JP Rangaswamci will discuss how to use gamification to inspire employees to be more innovative, and United Mileage Plus Director Dave Anderson will talk about modern-day loyalty programs.

If this is something you're interested in for your business, this summit seems worth your time and money (FYI, both of last year's shows were sold out). The idea of a panel-free conference is also intriguing, though wouldn’t it seem appropriate that a gamification summit include some form of, ya know, gamification to inspire participation? I vote for a conference-wide scavenger hunt.

To register for the 2012 Gamification Summit, go here: http://www.gsummit.com/register/. Do it before March 31 to score the EarlyBird discount.

Kickstarter.

For the few out there who aren't up to speed on this cash-raising platform, Kickstarter is a web service that launched in 2008 and allows creators of pretty much anything pitch their product to the masses, and hopefully everyday folk, like you and me, will spend our hard-earned cash funding whatever sounds worth our time.

this board game about sourcing coffee, offer a logoed tote bag and tumbler for anyone that spends $25 and up, and a prototype of the game for anyone who spends $200 and up.

I reached out to Kickstarter and asked for more details on how and why this feature came to fruition. A company rep says the following:

“There's always a value exchange between backers and creators on Kickstarter... Rewards that bring backers and creators closer together or offer behind the scenes access to the creative process tend to be popular. Beyond rewards, backers enjoy the journey as the project progresses and the bragging rights that come with getting a project they believe in off the ground.”

To use a personal anecdote, I was tempted to give $100 to the Double Fine project just to have my name included in the final product’s credits. But, with a new baby and the expenses associated with that, I decided to stick with pledging $15 instead (which makes me a responsible parent and secures me a copy of the game when it comes out.).

So, if you have an idea for a game or a gamification approach to something else, is Kickstarter something you'd consider to raise the money needed for your project? By offering one-of-a-kind support tiers with special real-world and/or virtual prizes (which fans would hopefully race each other to take advantage of first), it's possible to make even the funding of a game into a game itself.

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, though the problem seems to be less about the idea -- using game-like mechanics to change behavior -- and more about the term used to describe it.

same content devoted to the topic, but instead of using the dirty G-word, that portion of the event is simply called Game IT (a name that GDC Director Meggan Scavio tells me that hasn’t won over any fans either).

author Jane McGonigal argues -- change the world.

I tend to agree with McGonigal. Gamification, or whatever word you want to use to describe it, can be used for powerful stuff. Take, for example, the countless diet and fitness apps that make a game out of getting healthy. Since I don’t make games, I guess I’ll never quite understand the visceral reaction -- kind of like a vampire running into a room filled with garlic -- that some traditional game makers have to this whole movement. Sure, I can appreciate the argument that it’s a bastardization of an art form, etc., but in a lot of ways, it’s also a unique opportunity to apply those skills in a way that touch people in truly meaningful -- even life-saving -- ways.

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.

reddit, has already cased a firestorm of controversy, and it should be required reading for anyone interested in gamification, casual and social games, or the interactive entertainment industry in general.

As with all anonymous postings, the details offered here should be viewed skeptically, but the original poster did publish scans of some of his employment documents as evidence of his employment at Zynga.

Here are a few of the highlights:

What kind of creepy stuff went on? Spying on players. Getting intimate gaming data, their habits, their networks, and how to effectively monetize given X. Another issue was skewing gameplay for the sake of profit, example; I actually resorted to BAD MATH, to make the case for making a feature more fun. At the end of one sprint, a QA dude was complaining about the drop rate of a specific item being absurdly insane, and therefore UnFun. I looked at the code, and tweaked some values, gave it back to QA guy, and fun was restored. Product Manager overrides this, goes for unfun, yet more profitable version.

Just how data driven is Zynga? How much do the PMs rely on metrics to craft the games? EVERYTHING. I have a hook into every piece of new data and user involved feature. I have to report the data at all times. PMs rely on metrics more for office politics, not science, not game design. Zynga is a marketing company, not a games company.

Dream Heights is a new Zynga game widely accused of ripping off a similar indie game called Tiny Tower)

find it here. The most important takeway is that, no matter how much the game elements are emphasized, social games are still extremely data driven, especially compared to traditional PC and console games.

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 cultural experience?

pre-Super-Bowl simulation. In the just-played official EA match, the Giants defeated the Patriots, 27-24. A reasonable potential outcome, but keep in mind that the Madden simulation was wrong last year, when it predicted that the Pittsburgh Steelers would beat the Green Bay Packers.

animated film 'Rio,' featured a code that viewers could use to unlock new levels in one of Rovio's insanely popular Angry Birds games.

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 before, they've been popular as standalone web-based (or downloadable) games for some time, but until recently, the social games industry largely ignored them. The basic premise is usually the same -- a detailed scene, much like a still painting, is presented, and the player must find and click on a list of objects hidden in the details.

from Game Insight and World Mysteries from Vostu.

There's not a ton of daylight between these games, although they all attempt to wrap some kind of overall narrative storyline around the game mechanic. Zynga has even gone as far as hiring legendary adventure game auteur Jane Jensen (of the classic Gabriel Knight games) to provide narrative content for Hidden Chronicles.

Whatever the secret sauce is, it seems to be working. While some social game genres are shedding players, all four of the HOB games mentioned here have passed the million-player mark on Facebook.

But in the worlds of gamification and advergaming, Hidden Object games have been few and far between, but not unheard of. Dr. Pepper had a short-lived version, and things like Foursquare scavenger hunts put a real-world twist on it.

The genre seems well worth exploring, as its among the stickiest of social gaming designs. Players are forced to literally spend several minutes at a time starting carefully at their screens, taking in every detail.

The challenge is to develop a version of the Hidden Object Game that serves your purposes, while providing some extra incentive to motivate players to interact with your game, rather than the many successful versions already out there on social networks, tablets, and web browsers.

File this under 'unsubstantiated rumors,' but a report circulating widely this week claims that Microsoft is sunsetting its Microsoft Points system, currently used for some (but not all) Xbox Live purchases.

That's the only source for the story right now, and Microsoft has refused to comment, so take that report with a grain of salt -- but it brings up an interesting issue. 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?

For those who do not consider themselves 'gamers,' which is really the target audience for a good mainstream gamification project, the very idea of collecting points may seem a little too Xbox-like (or insert your own video game reference here). Perhaps by replacing these arbitrary points with something like real-world rewards -- product discounts, for example -- we can form a stronger bond between the user, the game mechanics, and the goods or services being promoted.

Of course, Microsoft could always keep the points system for purchases, which allows the company to charge the same amount (800 points, for example) in different regions. And, of course, there's little chance of dropping the Xbox Live Gamerscore, which tracks achievements across different games for a persistent running tally of your in-game skills. But the question should be asked: Is the arbitrary 'point' a concept whose time has come?

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.

Sounds like pretty much any other social networking tool or site, but somehow this particular one has exploded in popularity over the past few months, after launching quietly in 2010. I think this particular implementation works on two levels. One, it's primarily visual -- you're literally browsing scrapbooks of interesting things (a bit like a good Tumblr blog, in a way). Second, it appeals primarily to women, who make up the majority of social and casual game players (and should therefore be a key target for anyone interested in gamification).

The challenge is to develop a more game-centric version of this really interesting form of visual product communication. Could websurfers pin (or thumbtack, glue, etc.) their favorite products or uses from a brand or company to a shared virtual space, or perhaps their favorite scenes and characters from a film or television show?

If you've got other ideas for Pinterest-like game mechanics, I'd love to hear about them in the comments section below.

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 it's engaging people with a charity or with a new brand of shoes.

To that end, it's easy to look towards Foursquare and FarmVille for clues on how to proceed, but it's also worth a look at some of the mainstream console and PC games that are racking up not only impressive sales ($400 million for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 in its opening day), but also incredible amounts of user engagement.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 The key takeaway from this year's installment of this popular franchise is not simple the massive levels of engagement, with millions of players taking part in live war games simultaneously, it's how the brand has grown beyond the console into areas that much more closely resemble social media.

The key new additional is Call of Duty: Elite, a companion subscription service that works hand-in-hand with not only Modern Warfare 3 but also other Call of Duty games. It's a web-based experience (with a console version as well) that not only tracks your in-game statistics, but also different interest groups you can join, additional downloadable content for games, daily contests, and an encyclopedic help section.

Interestingly, Elite has a freemium model. It's free to join, but only paying members, at $49 per year, get access to the best content, or a chance to win real-world prizes.

Halo: Combat Evolved: Anniversary Edition The idea here is simple -- take a 10-year-old game everyone loves (or at least has fond nostalgic feelings for), and dress it up with a new coat of virtual paint, so it won't look painfully out of place on today's Xbox 360.

This recycling of content is a smart idea, and there have been several other examples of it in games recently. If you have some older gamification content, there's nothing wrong with re-purposing it for a new audience, or bringing up to speed with, for example, the latest ideas in Facebook games. (The Facebook version of The Sims does an excellent job of this, the Facebook version of Civilization, less so).

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim This game, an unlikely crossover hit considering it involves dragons and elves, is so ambitious you could literally throw a dart at a list of its many features and come up with a good idea.

Players can ignore the main storyline for a long time, or skip it entirely, and instead spend dozens of hours collecting pants and ingredients and learning how to synthesize them into useful potions. Or hunting animals for their hides, which you then turn into leather and eventually clothing. Or you can just wander dozens of square miles of countryside, engaging in conversations with the farmers and merchants you meet along the way (the ones that aren't trying to kill you, of course -- it's always important to watch out for bandits).

The key takeaway here is to not focus exclusively on getting people to play your game in the way that you want to to. Consumers will take the tools you give them, and discover their own way to interact, and if you encourage that kind of freedom, you may be rewarded with a very loyal, engaged audience.

That's just a few ideas we've taken away from some of the hot holiday video game titles hitting stores right now, further emphasizing our point that games and gamification are more than distant cousins, and each side has much to learn from the other.

If you've seen features in mainstream console, PC, or mobile games that could inspire or add to a gamification project, let us know in the comments section below.

The two most recent big gadget announcements have the potential to introduce new audiences to both traditional games and the social and gamification experiences we're particularly interested in here. One is the Amazon Kindle Fire, the first tablet that has a real chance of competing with the iPad, and the other is Apple's just-announced iPhone 4S, a fairly significant upgrade (despite what some may say) to the iPhone platform. Now that we've had a week or so to digest the spec lists of each device, here's why we're excited (or not) about each device:

Amazon Kindle Fire: While it shares the same Kindle name as the popular black-and-white e-book readers, the new Kindle Fire is a wholly different animal. It's basically a 7-inch Android tablet, but taking a cue from Apple, it's wrapped in what is essentially a curated experience. Android is covered with a custom touch interface, Amazon provides its own app store, and the system is priced to almost be an impulse purchase.

Amazon knows that embracing game makers is key (an conclusion that Apple took far too many years to embrace), and even the original e-ink Kindle has Scrabble and a few other basic games. But at the Kindle Fire launch, one of the biggest bullet points was its support for games such as Angry Birds and Plants vs. Zombies.

The Kindle Fire has some serious limits, however. The Amazon app store won't have access to nearly as many apps as the Android Marketplace, and this fragmentation of Android app stores makes it harder make sure your game or gamification app is in all the right app stores for all the different devices you want to reach people on.

And even with some level of Flash support, we can't imagine any web-based games will play particularly well on the Kindle Fire, if you want to use a Facebook or web-based game.

Apple iPhone 4S The iPhone is already a great gaming platform, with access to a huge app store (albeit one with a rather high barrier to entry) and the kind of always-on location features that make check-ins easy and a built-in game platform in the underused Apple Game Center. That Game Center platform is getting some new updates in the form of iOS5, which we'll talk about in a future post. Adding to the appeal is the new dual-core processor in the iPhone 4S, almost as powerful as the one in the iPad 2, which we would read as a win for game makers.

On the other hand, the iPhone has had a dedicated Facebook app for a long time (with an iPad version just joining it this week), but that app lacks the gaming features that we're interested in using. And so much has been written about the platform's lack of Flash support that we mention it only in passing.

If you're a game maker or a marketer interested in adding gamification features, we ask: Are you planning to specifically target either of these two platforms? If so, why or why not? Is platform fragmentation a danger to the ubiquity of gamification, which needs to be easy to use above all else?

Most of the news seems fairly positive, especially around how game updates can be handled. While social game updates are considered by some to be an annoying part of the social media stream, that doesn't mean we should only have an all-or-none set of options. So now, instead of being forced to choose between seeing game updates in your main news feed or not at all, they can now be safely relegated to the ticker, a real-time stream of new updates, including both ones you and Facebook consider important, as well as more granular updates (such challenges won, comments left on other posts, etc.). Game updates can now go in this new ticker feed, located in the far right corner of the Facebook window, so they can be seen and perhaps acted upon, without needlessly spamming everyone's main news feed.

At the F8 conference last week, the main example used to demonstrate this new functionality was a game of Words With Friends from Zynga. Not only will games between your friends show up in the Ticker stream, but you can hover over the update to get a live view of what the current word being played is, and even click on the thumbnail to watch the game in a larger window.

We're already seeing interesting new Facebook implementations from media companies such as Spotify and Netflix, and being able to watch or join someone's social game experience right from the real-time ticker can only lead to good things for games looking to penetrate into the friends lists of current players. The Sims Social, for example, seems like a perfect example of a game that could benefit from this kind of sharing (not that a already very popular game really needs any additional help).

What do you think? Will the latest version of Open Graph and Facebook's other new features significantly help game makers? Or, if not, what does Facebook need to do to keep its game-playing audience, and game-making partners, happy?