Gamification | Page 4

Gamification Universities

An example of game-based curriculum

From a Chronicle of Higher Education blog, see Reacting to the Past: An Open Game Based Pedagogy Workshop at Duke, January 19-20:

I was not in a time machine. I was at the Reacting to the Past Institute at Barnard College, one of the most exhilarating new methods of revolutionizing higher education that I have experienced. Reacting to the Past (RTTP) is a series of elaborate games, set in the past, where students take on the roles of historical characters, and through arguments and gameplay, have the potential to reshape history. In order for students to “win” the game, they have to thoroughly master literary and historical texts for their games’ time period, and to be able to fight against their in-game opponents through a series of oral presentations and written work. In other words, students in Reacting to the Past have to basically do everything their professors want them to do in a college class—read and analyze texts, learn about historical contexts, learn how to construct forceful and convincing arguments—but in the guise of a game. I played two characters in two games—a follower of the Ming Confucian extremist Hai Rui in Confucianism and the Crisis of the Wanli Emperor , set in 1587, and an undiscovered, young Walt Whitman in 1845 in Frederick Douglass and Abolition .

This reminds me of “role playing” in the old Dungeons & Dragons sense, but also the psychology-based trick to foster empathy.

Gamification

Gamification for business

In its Schumpeter colums, The Economist this weeks presents Gamificatiln, through a new book published on the subject:

As video games have grown from an obscure hobby to a $67 billion industry, management theorists have begun to return the favour. Video games now have the dubious honour of having inspired their own management craze. Called “gamification”, it aims to take principles from video games and apply them to serious tasks. The latest book on the subject, “For the Win”, comes from Kevin Werbach and Dan Hunter, from the Wharton Business School and the New York Law School respectively.

Gamification proceeds from the observation that, to non-players, a lot of what gamers do looks suspiciously like hard work. Improving a character in “World of Warcraft”, an online fantasy game, is a never-ending treadmill. The most dedicated players sign up for weekly sessions with two dozen other players which can last for several hours—vital if they wish to defeat the toughest monsters. Jokes about the game being a second job are common. Other gamers will spend hours trying to shave fractions of a second from a record lap time in a driving game or chasing a high score in “Angry Birds”.

The authors of the book have launched a website, featuring a business gamification symposium.

Also of interest, TED talks, like these on the theme of Gaming (not quite the same as gamification though).

Gamification Information literacy

Angry Birds and an InfoLit Game

I enjoyed reading this post on a Chronicle of Higher Education blog, called: What Can Angry Birds Teach Us About Universal Design for Instruction? It gives a simple checklist of what makes this mobile game such a success:

Angry Birds involves practice without penalty.
Angry Birds offers the opportunity for constant feedback.
Angry Birds inherently teaches that different tools have different purposes.
Angry Birds has a built in mechanism for knowledge transfer.
Angry Birds rewards perseverance.
Angry Birds gives no time limit.

Also of interest is this post on an event taking place December 10th in Leeds, UK, called Making Games for Libraries, hosted by Andrew Walsh, who has written on active learning. He also is working on an <a href="http://www.indiegogo.com/infolit-gamese" called SEEK!

Digital media & ecommerce Gamification

Independent video games short bibliography

Here are short bibliographies generated from Library sources.

EBSCO’s Business Source Complete from peer-reviewed journals. The search query was simply for the terms “video games” industry. I picked the most interesting that touched upon “indie games” or labour issues for the past 5 years, 7 articles from about the first 40 hits.

Title: Under the radar: Industry entry by user entrepreneurs.
Authors: Haefliger, Stefan shaefliger@ethz.ch; Jäger, Peter pejaeger@ethz.ch; von Krogh, Georg gvkrogh@ethz.ch
Source: Research Policy; Nov2010, Vol. 39 Issue 9, p1198-1213, 16p

Title: User Communities and Social Software in the Video Game Industry.
Authors: Burger-Helmchen, Thierry, Cohendet, Patrick
Source: Long Range Planning; Oct2011, Vol. 44 Issue 5/6, p317-343, 27p

Title: The orchestrating firm: value creation in the video game industry.
Authors: Mikael Gidhagen; Oscar Persson Ridell; David Sörhammar
Source: Managing Service Quality; Jul2011, Vol. 21 Issue 4, p392-409, 18p

Title: Computer Hobbyists and the Gaming Industry in Finland.
Authors: Saarikoski, Petri1 petri.saarikoski@utu.fi; Suominen, Jaakko1 jaakko.suominen@utu.fi
Source: IEEE Annals of the History of Computing; Jul-Sep2009, Vol. 31 Issue 3, p20-33, 14p

Title: The business of playing games: players as developers and entrepreneurs.
Authors: Chazerand, Patrice1 patrice.chazerand@isfe.eu; Geeroms, Catherine1 catherine.geeroms@isfe.eu
Source: Digital Creativity; Sep2008, Vol. 19 Issue 3, p185-193, 9p, 1 Chart, 3 Graphs

Title: Work and Employment in Creative Industries: The Video Games Industry in Germany, Sweden and Poland.
Authors: Teipen, Christina1
Source: Economic & Industrial Democracy; Aug2008, Vol. 29 Issue

Title: Digital Consumer Networks and Producer–Consumer Collaboration: Innovation and Product Development in the Video Game Industry.
Authors: ARAKJI, REINA Y.1; LANG, KARL R.2,3,4
Source: Journal of Management Information Systems; Fall2007, Vol. 24 Issue 2, p195-219, 25p, 1 Diagram, 1 Chart, 1 Graph

Books from CLUES, Concordia University Catalogue, search on “Cultural Economy”:

>Creativity, innovation and the cultural economy [electronic resource] / edited by Andy C. Pratt and Paul Jeffcutt : Creativity, innovation and the cultural economy [electronic resource] / edited by Andy C. Pratt and Paul Jeffcutt

The cultural economy edited by Helmut K. Anheier, Yudhishthir Raj Isar ; Annie Paul, associate editor ; Stuart Cunningham, guest editor : The cultural economy / edited by Helmut K. Anheier, Yudhishthir Raj Isar ; Annie Paul, associate editor ; Stuart Cunningham, guest editor

The Blackwell cultural economy reader edited by Ash Amin and Nigel Thrift : The Blackwell cultural economy reader / edited by Ash Amin and Nigel Thrift

Gamification K-12

Gamification in France – la “ludification”

The French blog OWNI proposes an interesting summary of the state of gamification in schools ( in French, bien sûr).

This post starts off with a mention of the report, submitted on April 3rd, by a member of parliament, Yvelines Jean-Michel Fourgous, called “Apprendre autrement à l’ère du numérique” – note that gamification in French is “ludification” – this kind of detail is important to this Montrealer 😉

This same MP (Jean-Michel Fourgous) penned a report 2 years ago entitled “Réussir l’école numérique” calling for an increase in computers in classrooms.

Also mentioned is the BBC game Angler, where a robot traverses a digital universe based on a player’s understanding of geometry, as well as the US-based schools Quest to Learn and finally the consultancy Ludoscience