GAMIFICATION & SERIOUS GAMES IN HEALTH by PHARMAGEEK

This is the best article I’ve read about why the Gartner all gamification will fail post is stupid AND gamification is harder than you realize.

The post takes 3 myths and patiently and completely explains the TRUTH of gamification - that is highly effective but neither easy or plug and play.

Myth 1:

Points, badges and leaderboards encourage competition and enhance performance

Marty - I agree. Leaderboards managed badly become disincentives. This is why Scoop. Its "horse race leaderboard" called MyCommunity is so brilliant as it only shows the horses running immediately behind and in front of me.

Myth 2:

Gamification is simple – assign points and badges, and you are done!

Marty - If you think about what we are doing you know "simple" doesn't apply. We are applying game theory to web marketing. Simple? Not at all, but what Internet marketing ever starts as "simple"? None that I've ever come across.

Myth 3:

Gamification increases participation and productivity of employees in boring, mechanical tasks

"Boring mechanical tasks are boring. Visiting a website is rarely either boring or mechanical, so I don't see this issue as important as it is for those attempting to adopt gamification for HR and other team building applications.

From conclusion: "Gamification holds tremendous promise .... but an over-simplified engagement strategy focusing only on points, badges and leaderboards, can do tremendous harm to the organization."

Gamificaiton is an effective strategy, but getting it right is challening too. Don't be put off by that Gartner report saying 80% of gamificaiton will fail by 2015. 80% of everything fails, but do read this post to figure out how to gamify right or fix a stalled effort. 

This deck loses something in translation. Sure it was more dynamic when presented (and am going to look for notes). I wanted to Scoop.it to rant about Gartner. 

Gartner is playing both sides of the #gamification trend. They promote it on the one hand saying everyone is doing it and then tear it down with their famous 80% will fail study. 

Newsflash Gartner 80% of all Internet marketing fails. How do I know this? 7 Years as a Director of Ecommerce taught me the immutable truth of Pareto's distribution otherwise known as the 80/20 rule. 

On any website 20% of anything will control 80% of anything (sales, clicks, shares, whatever). Congratulations Gartner your study discovered the 80/20 rule and then presented it as if was news (hey whatever it takes I guess). 

Don't be fooled by idiots, Internet marketing is a gamification engine. Even if you use very LOW LEVEL gamification such as a simple loyalty program or a contest or a game (with a leaderboard) you know games work online and don't let anyone tell you different.  

Ma cos'è la gamification? Lo spiega tramite una serie di slide Karl Kapp, insegnante, scrittore ed esperto della convergenza dell'insegnamento, della tecnologia e delle operazioni di business, professore di "Instructional technology" e "Instructional Game Design" all'università di Bloomsburg. Ha scritto "The Gamification of learning and Instruction".