My year of blogging 2012

2012 draws to and end and so I present a summary of my blogs for the year!

2012 was a heck of a year for my self discovery. I had not realised until now just how many blogs I had written, covering subjects from video games to social media to gamificaiton and Harry Potter. I was also interesting to see that my switch from heavily blogging about Social Media in 2011 to blogging about Gamificaiton was almost total! Not all of it was good, some was plain wrong, but this synopsis of 2012 really shows my journey through a field that is new and exciting to me and many others. Have a great Christmas, thanks for reading my stuff and I look forward to creating loads of new content in 2013. The year will start with a great interview with Richard Bartle – I can’t wait to publish that!!

Rewards and Reward Schedules in Gamification

Posted on December 17, 2012
Reward schedule 100x100 My year of blogging 2012Anyone who has read a few of my blogs will, by now, be under the impression that I am not the biggest fan of rewards. Well, that is not entirely how I feel. Those that have read earlier blogs may remember something I said – “Rewards should recognise achievement, not be the achievement”. I also… More…

Posted in Gamification


Harry Potter and the Gamification of School

Posted on December 10, 2012
1326285 97973871 100x100 My year of blogging 2012When I was a kid a school (long before Harry Potter had been thought of – and gamification for that matter…), teaching methods generally sucked. A teach stood at the front of the class, dictated out ancient notes and you had to write them down in your exercise book. If you didn’t pay attention or… More…
Posted in Gamification, Opinion


Flow, Player Journey and Employee Satisfaction

Posted on November 30, 2012
Slide3 100x100 My year of blogging 2012What follows is an exploration of what happens when you start to map player journeys in games onto Flow theory and then try to bring that into the workplace. Just for fun! It was inspired by Mr Scott Golas after seeing last weeks post on relatedness. It may or may not have any worth, but…More…
Posted in Gamification, Opinion


Relatedness: The Often Ignored Glue of Gamification

Posted on November 26, 2012
1118 BatmanArkhamCity 277 BMInterro3 100x100 My year of blogging 2012Another great conversation with my friend Scott Sinclair and another batch of inspiration for a blog. This time about why social is really the key to gamification. Let us look at one of my favourite video games of all time, Batman: Arkham City. Without going into too much detail, you are Batman and you have… More…
Posted in Gamification, Gaming, Technology


What the NHS has just taught me about poor user experience.

Posted on November 19, 2012
Docs 100x100 My year of blogging 2012Whilst I normally blog about Gamification and finding the benefits in understanding the psychology of people, this post is of a deeply personal nature. It also shows how important user experience is. I hope though, you will retweet this far and wide. Oh – and it is a bit of a rant. This was to…More…
Posted in Rants


Driving the wrong behaviours with rewards.

Posted on November 12, 2012
875413 47541979 100x100 My year of blogging 2012I have written about this whole thing quite a lot already, but I have some new insights based on things I have witnessed recently. We know that extrinsic rewards are meant to demotivate people when doing anything that is even slightly creative. So why do we keep seeing them being used in gamification and marketing.… More…
Posted in Gamification, Technology


The danger of extrinsic rewards on motivation – What I learned from my 5 year old

Posted on November 7, 2012
20120211 085538 150x150 My year of blogging 2012Another quick one, prompted by an interesting behaviour exhibited by my daughter today that taught me rather a lot about extrinsic rewards. I have mentioned before the research that has been done on motivation in the past by the likes of Edward Deci and the writing of Dan Pink and more. All of them point… More…
Posted in Gamification, Opinion


A Question of Motivation

Posted on November 3, 2012
Red pill blue pill1 100x100 My year of blogging 2012A very quick blog this week, whilst I work on a few deeper ones (possibly) An argument that is pretty constant in Gamification, is that of Extrinsic vs Intrinsic motivation / rewards. Things like badges, points and even money vs altruism, autonomy, status and more. The general consensus, based on the works of people like… More…
Posted in Gamification, Technology


A Question of Ethics with a little nod to Gamification

Posted on October 29, 2012
1210112 37589817 100x100 My year of blogging 2012Hello all and a very happy Monday to you. As ever, I am blown away by your reactions to my blogs. The Gamification Framework and Resources posts seemed to go down very well. As such, I have added them as menu options with the Evangelist page! I would really plead with you to get into…More…
Posted in Gamification, Opinion, Rants, Technology


Is Gamification a benign form of manipulation and does it matter?

Posted on October 23, 2012
1242969 93675797 100x100 My year of blogging 2012Let me expand on this. A discussion started on twitter when I mentioned in passing to a couple of gamification people, that really gamification is often a benign form of manipulation. It became an interesting chat, fast. I suppose I expected that! However, when you look at the definition of manipulation in the Oxford English… More…
Posted in Gamification, Gaming, Technology


Gamification Resources that I Like

Posted on October 20, 2012
Gamification and stuff 100x100 My year of blogging 2012Here is a list of resources I go back to time and time again. There are many more and if you want to be included, please leave a comment!! Blogs and Websites Badgeville Blog Bunchball Blog Enterprise Gamification – Run by Mario Herger from SAP Gamification.org – Brilliant Wiki, now owned by Badgeville Gamified Enterprise… More…
Posted in Gamification, Technology


When is gamification not gamification?

Posted on October 18, 2012
1389645 14492518 100x100 My year of blogging 2012A few different conversations this last week have triggered a little built of thinking. This usually leads to me brain dumping a blog – and this is no exception. Don’t expect to find any answers here! The first questions was – should you tell people that they are using a gamified system? Straight off the… More…
Posted in Gamification, Gaming, Technology


Gamification: Some More Views

Posted on October 15, 2012
Gamification 150x150 My year of blogging 2012First of all, thanks to everyone who has viewed or downloaded my Gamification presentation. It has had over 600 views on Slideshare, which is fantastic! Looking forward to my next chance to do the talk (hint hint people!!!) Also, check out this short interview I did with the Association for Interactive Media & Entertainment 5Qs… More…
Posted in Uncategorized


Simple Gamification Framework

Posted on October 9, 2012
Andrzejs Gamification Framework 100x100 My year of blogging 2012Well, this week was going to be some thoughts around a conversation with Ian Bogost. However, that will have to wait until I have more time to actually formulate a decent set of arguments 🙂 In the mean time, I wanted to put out the little “framework” I proposed in the presentation so many of…More…
Posted in Gamification, Technology


Plea to the Games Industry to Embrace Gamification and Get Involved

Posted on October 1, 2012
Mario chart 150x150 My year of blogging 2012With Eurogamer already fading into the deepest recesses of my mind, there is one thing that has stood out. Just how much the games industry dislikes gamification. The general feeling was that everyone doing gamification is getting it wrong. They do not understand games and therefore think that it is fine to just add the… More…
Posted in Gamification, Gaming, Technology


Gamification and Stuff: Presentation for the Gamifier Meetup

Posted on September 26, 2012
Gamification and stuff 100x100 My year of blogging 2012Well, as promised to those wonderful people who came to listen to me preach about Gamificaiton, here is the slide deck – all wrapped up in a pretty slide share thingy. Download the presentation to get the full notes – I have written the talk out long hand – well how it was meant to… More…
Posted in Gamification, Technology


Web design, when did the rules change?

Posted on September 19, 2012When I first started in web design things were different. We only need to worry about HTML 4 and 2 browsers. We concentrated on quality of the content as that was pretty much all there easy. Content was front an centre. Then flash came along. Suddenly we had a way to integrate really rich media… More…
Posted in Rants, Technology


Gamification: Questions that keep me awake at night!

Posted on September 18, 2012
1389645 14492518 100x100 My year of blogging 2012This week there is no real blog post for you I’m afraid. I am in the middle of trying to produce a talk for next week and enjoying the Coursera Gamification course. Instead, here are some questions that I have spinning in my head that I would love to answer. Can any of you amazing… More…
Posted in Gamification, Technology


Gamification: What the Experts Think

Posted on September 10, 2012
Gamification 150x150 My year of blogging 2012A few weeks ago, I sent out a short survey to about 15 people in the Gamification world. The idea was to get a some simple answers to questions I have pondered over time. I thought it would be fun to get them all to give answers to the exact same questions. Here are the… More…
Posted in Gamification, Technology


Where has the Courage gone in the Games Industry?

Posted on September 5, 2012
Big y My year of blogging 2012As we begin to enter the world of the next gen of games consoles, I was reminded of a post I wrote for my games site Yet Another Review Site in November last year and thought it was worth a repost! People often ask where the innovation has gone in the games industry. I have… More…
Posted in Gaming, Opinion


Does fun have a place in Gamification – Video Blog

Posted on September 3, 2012
Gamification 150x150 My year of blogging 2012Hi all. Well, this is my first try at a video blog. It took far to many goes and as you can see, the version I had to go with has terrible lighting and a really bad angle. (This is due to a lack of Malteser boxes to balance the iPhone on – true story!).… More…
Posted in Gamification, Technology


One-Click Sharing and conversations. How I use and manage Twitter

Posted on August 28, 2012
One-Click Sharing and conversations. How I use and manage TwitterContinuing my mix of gamification and social media articles (as I need a break from writing about gamification for a week!), I thought I would write down the tools and methods I use to manage Twitter and share articles. Not the most interesting bit of writing I will ever do, but I have been asked…More…
Posted in Social Media, Technology


Gamification: Adding the unusual to the usual to create benefit.

Posted on August 21, 2012
Gamification: Adding the unusual to the usual to create benefit.Good day and all. Today I am merely rambling to try to either prove or disprove an idea I have. I was thinking about short definitions for Gamification – outside of the usual Add game mechanics to non game tasks The more I look at Gamification, the more unsatisfied I am with that description. There… More…
Posted in Gamification, Technology


OnLive and Communication in the Age of Social Media

Posted on August 18, 2012
OnLive and Communication in the Age of Social MediaWhat can OnLive teach us about communication in the age of Social Media? Last night the gaming Twitterverse went into riot mode (well polite murmurings), as a single tweet from Brian Fargo announced that OnLive was no more effective that day. This was based on an anonymous email he had received that said “I wanted… More…
Posted in Gaming, Social Media, Technology


What the Klout just happened?

Posted on August 15, 2012Klout. My friend my enemy and subject of some of my earliest posts. In October last year I wrote a blog called Treating the Klout. In it I discussed the big change they had just made to their algorithm that had given rise to many complaints from the community. Some had dropped massively in score,… More…
Posted in Opinion, Rants, Social Media, Technology


The Original Gamified Social Networks – History Teaches us about Gamificaiton

Posted on August 12, 2012
The Original Gamified Social Networks - History Teaches us about GamificaitonSeeing the news that Badgeville was to gamify social networks got me thinking about the old days. Social networks are nothing new. Back in “the day”, we all used to use forums (and bulletin boards before that) and chat rooms to be social online. Forums tended to focus on specific topics, with chat rooms just… More…
Posted in Gamification, Social Media, Technology


Adding badgers would be more gamification than badges.

Posted on August 6, 2012
Adding badgers would be more gamification than badges.I had a great little article set up for today about forums, chat rooms and gamified social networks. However, with GsummitX London happening today and considering some of the things I am reading of late, I wanted to rant instead. Buckle in 🙂 Badges and points systems. You know them, and loads of you seems… More…
Posted in Gamification, Rants, Technology


Interview with Andrew Grill CEO of Kred

Posted on July 30, 2012
Interview with Andrew Grill CEO of KredWhen I started this Blog, my actual aim was to talk about social media and influence. My focus shifted, but every now and then an opportunity to talk about it again raises its head. So, I am very excited and pleased to present a Q & A session with Kred CEO Andrew Grill. To… More…
Posted in Social Media, Technology


Playfulness, Seriousness and Gamification

Posted on July 23, 2012
Playfulness, Seriousness and GamificationPeople want gamification to mean certain things to them. They want to take the word and try to bend into whatever they think will sell their next big idea to someone. This tends to lead to people arguing about what it actually is and what constitutes a gamified product. Two such ideas seem to be… More…
Posted in Gamification, Technology


Is Importance the same as Influence.

Posted on July 19, 2012
Is Importance the same as Influence.Stepping away from Gamification just for a week, whilst is search around for inspiration (suggestions in an email please), I want to quickly talk about something else that fascinates me – influence. More specifically, digital influence. After a great “putting the world to rights” session with friend and Gamification whizz Scott Sinclair (@sinclair300584), I had… More…
Posted in Opinion, Rants, Social Media, Technology


Gamification The Next Generation: Introduce, Engage, Retain

Posted on July 9, 2012
Gamification The Next Generation: Introduce, Engage, RetainThe stages of brand engagement I have been thinking about the stages that a person goes through when becoming “involved” with brands or any system that is being gamified. I may be wrong, there may be more too it. However, as I see it there are three distinct phases. Introduction to the brand (or whatever).… More…
Posted in Gamification, Technology


Monopoly: A Fun Example of Gamification

Posted on July 2, 2012
Monopoly: A Fun Example of GamificationThis is a post that I originally wrote for EnGaming – Repoduced with kind permission (go check them out!!) Time for some fun Every now and again I like to just write something for fun. After writing lots and lots of gamification articles, I got to thinking of fun / daft examples. People often quote… More…
Posted in Gamification, Technology


GSummit,Bubbles, Badges and the Future

Posted on June 25, 2012
GSummit,Bubbles, Badges and the FutureI have been catching up on the events of GSummit over the weekend. I was very heartened to hear so many people talking about moving beyond badges and xp systems. They were looking for the next phase of engagement. You just need to look at FourSquare recently ditching its gamified elements to see that we… More…
Posted in Gamification, Technology


Rewarding Failure – Can It Work In Gamification?

Posted on June 18, 2012
Rewarding Failure - Can It Work In Gamification?In a lot of posts, I talk about rewards. My last post discussed the potential dangers of extrinsic rewards when used to try to motivate intrinsic behaviour. So I imagine that most of you think that rewarding failure is a bit of a no brainer. No way. Why would anyone reward anyone for failure? Banks… More…
Posted in Gamification


Thanks, a little housekeeping and other stuff.

Posted on June 16, 2012
Thanks, a little housekeeping and other stuff.Hello all. First of all, thank you so much for making this blog (and its syndication’s) way more successful than I had ever imagined! I would never have thought that people would be interested in what I have to say, so thank you. This is all a big learning adventure for me, one that I…More…
Posted in Gamification, Social Media


Gamification: Why Badges can be Bad – Really Bad

Posted on June 7, 2012
Gamification: Why Badges can be Bad - Really BadLast week I got to go to the Digital Shoreditch Play event. It was a wonderful day, listening to games developers, designers, experts and Gamification gurus all with amazing tales to tell from the coal face of the industry. The audience there were of similar calibre , most being experts in their respective fields. It… More…
Posted in Gamification, Technology


Gamification: Rules Rule, but Shouldn’t Rule Everything.

Posted on May 27, 2012
Gamification: Rules Rule, but Shouldn't Rule Everything.Everything has rules. Life works because of rules. Rules have many names and forms. Laws of physics, algebra, logic, frameworks, instructions and more. Without rules you have chaos. That said, some scientists think even chaos has rules. In games, rules are vital. However free and open a game may seem, there will be a deep… More…
Posted in Gamification


Don’t Love Games? Step Away From the Gamification

Posted on May 21, 2012
Don't Love Games? Step Away From the GamificationGames. I love them. Board games, card games, video games and anything else you can put the word games after. I play them, I write about them, I think about them, I dream about them and from time to time I even try my hand at making them (http://www.fuzzyd.co.uk/robbers). So what does this have to… More…
Posted in Gamification, Gaming, Rants, Technology


Gamification: Seamless Integration

Posted on May 12, 2012
Gamification: Seamless IntegrationContinuing on from last week’s headline grabbing “The Death of Gamification” post, I want to talk about another aspect of gamification that should be kept simple. Integration. In many cases, gamification is meant to add some kind of layer of engagement to a process and possibly even fun. What it is not meant to do… More…
Posted in Gamification, Technology


The Death of Gamification

Posted on May 4, 2012
The Death of GamificationOk, so that may have just been one of those attention-seeking headlines. However, what I want to explore briefly is what will kill gamification if people keep heading the route they are now. The short answer to this is, misguided over complication. As more people jump on the gamification bandwagon, people’s definitions and ideas seem… More…
Posted in Gamification, Gaming, Technology


Gamification Check-lists for Implementation

Posted on April 23, 2012
Gamification Check-lists for Implementation Now that you have all read my little eBook (sorry, could resist the plug) or have at least read my previous blogs, you should have an understanding of what Gamification is and why you may want it. You will also have recently seen my post Gamification Gone Bad, which shows you a few pitfalls. The… More…
Posted in Gamification, Technology


Gamification gone bad

Posted on April 16, 2012
Gamification gone badTo move on I want to look at how you can easily get Gamification very wrong. When it goes bad, it goes really bad. What you think makes something entertaining and engaging can actually have the exact opposite effect. This is especially true with online learning materials, or e-learning. Just because you add pretty graphics… More…
Posted in Gamification, Opinion, Technology


Gamification: Why Aren’t Badges Enough?

Posted on April 11, 2012
Gamification: Why Aren't Badges Enough?Recently I wrote a piece about the fact there was more to gamification than just trophies, but I never really explained why. A few people have asked, so I thought I would have a go at explaining. Just Because You Build It, Doesn’t Mean They Will Come The first reason is simple, but one that…More…
Posted in Gamification, Technology


Gamification: You May Already Be Using It!

Posted on March 30, 2012
Gamification: You May Already Be Using It!Right, so back to gamification. I thought I would take a quick look at a couple of gamification techniques you may already be using on your website or blog, but not realise that’s what it is! Exploration and Engagement First up, that little box that slides out of the corner of the page and says… More…
Posted in Gamification, Technology


Why do you blog?

Posted on March 26, 2012
Why do you blog? I know why I blog. Normally I like to write down the thoughts that are in my head. One day they may be of use to me. If they are of use to others then even better. At times I write because I think what I am writing may help to inform others. When I… More…
Posted in Opinion, Rants


Social Reach: Grains of rice on a chessboard

Posted on March 13, 2012
Social Reach: Grains of rice on a chessboardIn a recent blog post for my company’s blog, Gamification for your company, I made brief mention of evangelists and social reach. The general gist was that in this world of social media, a few enthusiastic supporters or evangelists could be worth more than a mediocre marketing campaign. Social reach can be a much underestimated,… More…
Posted in Gamification, Opinion, Social Media


Why use Gamification and not just Incentives?

Posted on February 28, 2012
Why use Gamification and not just Incentives?It’s not just about money One thing that is often asked when people talk about gamification is why use that and not just offer incentives. Well. My first answer is always “but that is gamification”. That is usually followed with “just very basic and possibly expensive!”. Offering incentives is normally a financial concern. If you… More…
Posted in Gamification, Technology


Gamification: It’s not all about trophies

Posted on February 19, 2012
Gamification: It’s not all about trophiesThere is a lot of talk by those in the know who are getting fed up with people associating gamification with nothing but trophies and badges. Stick a badge on it and it is gamified. Personally I am not sure I am totally with them. For me if it works, use it. However, more often… More…
Posted in Gamification, Technology


Super Nanny and the Gamification of a Generation

Posted on February 11, 2012
Super Nanny and the Gamification of a GenerationWhilst I continue my quest to write a bit more about the less obvious dynamics and mechanics of Gamification, a little thought occurred. In 2004 a lovely lady by the name of Jo Frost appeared on our televisions in a program called Super Nanny. For those who didn’t see it (it is still showing in… More…
Posted in Gamification


The Gamification of Life

Posted on February 3, 2012
The Gamification of LifeOkay, okay, I know this blog is getting a bit Gamification heavy AND I also promised the next post would be a very serious one that went into more detail about non reward like gamification, but it isn’t – yet – so there. The reason for this blog? Well, it is currently about 3am and… More…
Posted in Gamification, Opinion, Technology


The Jobification of Games – A Parody of Gamification

Posted on January 23, 2012
The Jobification of Games - A Parody of Gamification

A Parody of Gamification

I have written at length about Gamification. Some people have even begun to take what I say seriously, which is great. However, time for some fun. What if we flipped the idea on its head. If games worked based on the set of rules many businesses have. How would a jobified game actually play?

A Quest is Born

The day starts with you sitting at your desk. First you boot up your pc and do the morning kitchen dance, as you get your first cup of coffee for the day. After returning to your desk and going through your RSS feeds and non essential emails, it is time for work. Top of your inbox you see an email with a red exclamation mark. More…
Posted in Gamification, Gaming, Technology


The Importance of being Connected

Posted on January 19, 2012
The Importance of being Connected

Networking, Preconceptions and the Truth

When I first started working, I was full of ideals and preconceptions about the professional world. One of those preconceptions was about Networking, as in face to face networking – social networking was still to come. More…
Posted in Social Media, Technology


Redefined by Technology: The words, they are a changing

Posted on January 16, 2012
Redefined by Technology: The words, they are a changingBelow is a very low brow, non expert look at how the technological revolution has changed the definition of words and concepts over the last few years. Social: When I were a lad, socialising meant going ot the local for a few drinks. Now it means something totally different, with the advent of Social Networking. More…
Posted in Rants, Technology


Gamification: you got to play to win

Posted on January 14, 2012
Gamification: you got to play to winA lovely chat with some new friends brought about an interesting thought. Can you really write games or gamify things if you don’t play games? I have rambled at length about my views on gamification. I have explained what I think the basics of game theory boil down to. A task with some kind of reward or incentive offered for completion. More…
Posted in Gamification, Gaming, Technology


The rise and rise of the web developer

Posted on January 11, 2012
The rise and rise of the web developer

In the Beginning there was HTML

When I first started out in web design, things were different. It was like the wild west – small groups of frontiers men still dipping their toe into the waters of what was possible. It was a fairly well established industry at the time, but it was something that the general public didn’t get all that involved in. More…
Posted in Opinion, Social Media, Technology


The “It Should Just Work” Generation

Posted on January 5, 2012
The I was watching a young person with an iPhone the other day. I witnessed, with some amusement, this persons reaction when the phone crashed. The string of expletives that ensued left me to conclude that he had either a. lost an unsaved document he had been writing for 8 months or b. was about to break the world record on Angry Birds. More…
Posted in Opinion, Technology

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