Gamification: The story of a stupid buzzword

Gamification: The story of a stupid buzzword Jeff DeChambeau July 4, 2012

Hi, I’m Jeff. Philosophy at Western 5 years with Don Tapscott Now at T4G Limited Writing Stop Wasting Money on Advertising Inventor of Judgmint.org

What’s a game?

A set of rules within which you try to beat an opponent.

Video games

It was all going well until…

…meanwhile…

Then, someone realized that like games, all this stuff is

digital, interactive systems, and asked…

What if we apply achievements to stuff that’s

completely and totally pointless?

Three examples:

Reward schedules Appointments

Status

Reward schedules

Appointments

Status

But the fact is that on their own

these are all just cheap tricks.

What really matters is the story.

You

Need

Go

Search

Find

Change

Take

Return

All these tricks push the story forwards

or show how far along it is but never substitute for it.

Don’t “gamify.” That’s stupid.

Help your customer through their story.

Game designers understand how to non-coercively lead a

customer through a very complex experience.

The backlash.

Games today.

@jeffdechambeau jeffdechambeau.com

t4g.com