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Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.

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Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With

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Speaker 1: tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone,

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Speaker 1: Welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Poulette. I'm

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Speaker 1: an editor at how stuff works dot com. Sitting across

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Speaker 1: from me as always a senior writer, Jonathan Strickland's laughed.

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Speaker 1: Just a game, makeups the rules as it turns out. Yes,

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Speaker 1: yes it is. We're going to talk about gamification today,

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Speaker 1: which is kind of a buzz word right now. It's

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Speaker 1: been a buzzword for a couple of years, particularly in

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Speaker 1: the tech industry, but it extends beyond just the tech industry.

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, this is Uh, it's funny because it's

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Speaker 1: it's not really a tech topic in a way, because uh,

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Speaker 1: this is a this is a human engineering or you know,

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Speaker 1: cognitive engineering. Short, it's not it's not so much related

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Speaker 1: to specific type of technology, but I think in a

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Speaker 1: lot of ways it can be traced back to technology. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: basically what gamification is and you can probably figure it

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Speaker 1: out just based on the word. It's applying game thinking

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Speaker 1: and game mechanics to tasks in order to kind of

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Speaker 1: create an extra layer on top of those tasks. And

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Speaker 1: there are a lot of different examples. In fact, we've

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Speaker 1: talked about some of them already. We have indeed sure

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Speaker 1: like um like geo cashing. Geo cashing, i would argue,

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Speaker 1: is a kind of gamification. You take a basic basic activity,

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Speaker 1: which in in geo cashing you could call it either

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Speaker 1: hiking or if you wanted to, even exploring, and then

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Speaker 1: you add a game element on top of it. In

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Speaker 1: this case, it might be things like the you know,

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Speaker 1: you have a set of coordinates and you follow it,

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Speaker 1: and then when you get there, there's a little cash

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Speaker 1: of of goodies that's inside a box at that particular location,

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Speaker 1: and then you get to take something, and maybe you

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Speaker 1: leave something behind as well, and that's the game element

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Speaker 1: to it. And as you continue to geo cash, you

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Speaker 1: accumulate these little tokens or whatever, and you leave your

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Speaker 1: own possibly personalized calling card behind at these various geo cashes,

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Speaker 1: so that other people who are following they may say, Hell, hey,

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Speaker 1: this guy, I've seen this guy's stuff before, this guy

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Speaker 1: was at this other geo cash before. I don't know

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Speaker 1: who he is or or I don't know who she is.

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Speaker 1: But I know that they always leave, you know whatever,

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Speaker 1: like a smurf figurine. You know. So that's that's an

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Speaker 1: example of gamification. It's adding this element of gameplay on

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Speaker 1: top of another activity. Yes see, I I blame Mary Poppins.

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Speaker 1: She did say that in every job there must be done,

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Speaker 1: there is an element of fun. You find the fun

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Speaker 1: and snap, the job's a game. Well, actually that was

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Speaker 1: pretty wise because it's it's everywhere these days. It's easy

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Speaker 1: to see, uh, in games, you know, and a lot

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Speaker 1: of our listeners are very serious video play, video game players,

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Speaker 1: video play gamers, um. But sometimes I would not put

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Speaker 1: it past them. But yeah, all those achievements that you unlock, um,

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Speaker 1: you know, you unlock a new character in the game,

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Speaker 1: you unlock a new scenario, you get a badge for

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Speaker 1: running fifty missions. Yeah, that's all that stuff is gamification.

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Speaker 1: And that's and it's weird to think of gamification on

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Speaker 1: top of games, but it is adding another element for example,

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Speaker 1: and the purpose in technology generally tends to be one

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Speaker 1: of two things. You're either trying to teach a concept

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Speaker 1: and you're using gamification to entice people to learn about

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Speaker 1: that concept by by creating a sort of a reward

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Speaker 1: system really for them to participate, and the reward system

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Speaker 1: keeps them going. And the other related idea is in engagement. Now,

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Speaker 1: engagement is one of those terms you're gonna hear a

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Speaker 1: lot in technology companies. Engagement is this elusive thing everyone's

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Speaker 1: going after, and that is not just attracting an audience,

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Speaker 1: but keeping that audience and keeping them coming back to

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Speaker 1: you and and to have them invested in your product

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Speaker 1: over a long term. Because if someone just comes to

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Speaker 1: you once and then they never come back, then you know,

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Speaker 1: you only benefit from that relationship the one time. So

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Speaker 1: what you really want to do is you want to

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Speaker 1: create an experience or a product that has people coming

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Speaker 1: back to you over and over again. And uh, this

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Speaker 1: can be hardware, it can be software, it can be

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Speaker 1: a service, it can be an activity. Like I said

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Speaker 1: with geo cashing. Letter Boxing is another great example. Letter

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Speaker 1: Boxing again is treasure hunting, and there's a whole range

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Speaker 1: of game systems that are put on top of letter

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Speaker 1: boxing that that make it really an engaging activity for

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Speaker 1: people who get into it. And so gamification, it's it's

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Speaker 1: something that people have been doing for centuries. I mean

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Speaker 1: they've been throwing games on top of stuff for as

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Speaker 1: long as there have been games, really, but it's only

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Speaker 1: been in the last couple of years that that's kind

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Speaker 1: of become a buzzword where people are concentrating on ways

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Speaker 1: to create game elements on top of whatever it is

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Speaker 1: they're offering in order to get that level of engagement

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Speaker 1: they're looking for. Um yeah, and they're they're all kinds

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Speaker 1: of applications for this. I mean, um, some of you

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Speaker 1: who have mobile devices like to check in on things

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Speaker 1: like go Wala or four square or Scavenger if you like,

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Speaker 1: and Scavenger. Well, yeah, let's let's start with four square

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Speaker 1: and then move to Scavenger because Scavenger is kind of

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Speaker 1: like a very specific twist on four Square. Well it's

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Speaker 1: funny because um, these these I don't know, they're really

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Speaker 1: not technically games. Um, their badges that you can earn

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Speaker 1: in four square for example, Yeah, that and and uh

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Speaker 1: that would be I would say the oldest of the

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Speaker 1: three four Square. You know, once you account create an

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Speaker 1: account on four square and you have a GPS enabled phone, Um,

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Speaker 1: basically you're asked to check in where when you go

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Speaker 1: to someplace, so you know, you get to work Um,

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Speaker 1: you say, okay, I'm here at work, um, and it

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Speaker 1: will tell you, for example, how many of your how

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Speaker 1: many people are there, and how many people possibly who

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Speaker 1: they are? Yeah, if you if you're friends with them,

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Speaker 1: will tell you if your friends are there. It may

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Speaker 1: even tell you if your friends are nearby. If they're

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Speaker 1: not like right where you are, but they're in the area,

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Speaker 1: it might tell you that. It gives you an opportunity

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Speaker 1: to share that on Facebook and Twitter. It gives you

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Speaker 1: opportunity over time to become the mayor of a location.

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Speaker 1: So that's the first layer of gamification right there, is

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Speaker 1: becoming the mayor, because then you have status. You have

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Speaker 1: attached a status to this service, and status is really

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Speaker 1: important to people. People like having high status. It's good

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Speaker 1: to be the king. Yeah, it makes you feel important, right,

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Speaker 1: I mean it's it's we all get this like it

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Speaker 1: it just if it feels good. So the mayor idea

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Speaker 1: makes perfect sense, you know it. You could argue, yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's just it just means that you have a smartphone

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Speaker 1: and you've been here a lot. That doesn't that's all

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Speaker 1: it means. But you could say, yeah, but you know,

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Speaker 1: I've achieved something. I am a mayor here, and then

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Speaker 1: then they have these badges that they have on four

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Speaker 1: Square that you get you You earn these badges by

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Speaker 1: checking into specific types of locations, or perhaps the location

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Speaker 1: you're checking into has a particular feature, like there's one

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Speaker 1: that if you've you've checked into at least three places

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Speaker 1: that have a photo booth, you get a certain badge. Um,

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Speaker 1: there are there are badges where if you check into

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Speaker 1: a place that has a lot of other people, they

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Speaker 1: have swarm badges, and they have different levels of swarm.

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Speaker 1: So the more people who are there, the the Like

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Speaker 1: if you have like two hundred or five hundred or

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Speaker 1: a thousand people, you'll get a different level of swarm

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Speaker 1: badge for checking in. So if you guys want swarm badges,

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Speaker 1: here's where you gotta go. You have to go to

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Speaker 1: either south By Southwest or c E S. And I

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Speaker 1: guarantee you because that's where all the tech people are

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Speaker 1: and they all love to use these things. That's where

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Speaker 1: you're gonna get the best chance to really earn one

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Speaker 1: of those badges. You can also earn them an other

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Speaker 1: like really popular places like say disney World or Disneyland. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: actually that's that's a good point. Go Wala has a

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Speaker 1: feature on it that allows you that where in which

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Speaker 1: they have certain tours where you collect if you go

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Speaker 1: to someplace like uh Disney World, um, you're supposed to

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Speaker 1: if you go to all the different places, they'll have

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Speaker 1: like a subset of badges there and it's sort of

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Speaker 1: like a can you collect all twelve of these locations?

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Speaker 1: You know, see if you can check in at all

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Speaker 1: these different spots, um and then and that really can

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Speaker 1: do that. Yeah, it really drives engagement. Like we said,

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Speaker 1: like if four Square did not have the badges and

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Speaker 1: did not have the mayor element to it, then there

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Speaker 1: would be I'm sure there would be a significant drop

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Speaker 1: off of the number of people who would use the

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Speaker 1: service a couple of times and then we'll just never

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Speaker 1: come back to it. There would be a lot more

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Speaker 1: of those people, right, and they're there already, are those people.

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Speaker 1: And it's not like we're saying that these things make

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Speaker 1: you stay, but they are incentives for certain people to

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Speaker 1: keep trying to use this this uh UM service. I know,

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Speaker 1: as as mayor of how stuff works. As of the

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Speaker 1: recording of this podcast, I get really really cheesed off

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Speaker 1: when Brian Steals my mayorship. And that's gone back and

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Speaker 1: forth between the two of us at least five times already.

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Speaker 1: It's impressive. Brian and I we tend to steal this.

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Speaker 1: I become mayor, then like a week later, he's the mayor,

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Speaker 1: and then I'm the mayor again. And I mean there

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Speaker 1: is a there's a definitely competitive element to now you

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Speaker 1: want to become the mayor, Like there's a there's a

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Speaker 1: certain level satisfaction of stealing the mayor from someone else.

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Speaker 1: UM and uh Goala also offers something, a little something

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Speaker 1: that Fourth Square doesn't that I think is kind of cool. UM.

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Speaker 1: The company that makes uh Goala is called Alamo Fire.

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Speaker 1: They're based in Texas, and they have a They also

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Speaker 1: if you've ever played the Facebook electing game pack Rat,

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Speaker 1: they also do that. They have some pretty cool art.

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Speaker 1: And that's one of those things that's really neat because

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Speaker 1: they come up with UM badges for certain locations, certain

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Speaker 1: stores and other places. So it's kind of fun to

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Speaker 1: collect those stickers because they may be sort of unique.

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Speaker 1: And you like geo cash and you drop and pick

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Speaker 1: up items when you go places. You might if you

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Speaker 1: go to a bookstore, you might get a typewriter or

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Speaker 1: what they call a page turner a book. Um, and

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Speaker 1: it has a collector's number on their number, you know,

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Speaker 1: one thousand and fifty four. Um, so you know when

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Speaker 1: they launched that particular item, and so you uh, that

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Speaker 1: kind of keeps you going because you go, okay, well

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Speaker 1: I've gotten these things, or hey, look at that they

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Speaker 1: made a new one for for this station. Um. You

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Speaker 1: might say, though, what's in this? Why why would anybody

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Speaker 1: do this? Well, companies, uh, these stores for example, have

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Speaker 1: realized that they can offer people using these services a

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Speaker 1: little something extra. You might find if you're using four square,

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Speaker 1: uh a coupon. Yeah. Uh you know they go to

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Speaker 1: this hotel and tell us that you saw this special

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Speaker 1: on four Square and we'll give you ten percent off

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Speaker 1: your stay. Yeah we Um. I went to a restaurant

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Speaker 1: at Universal, uh the Universal Islands of Adventure properties, and um,

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Speaker 1: they had it where if you showed that you checked

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Speaker 1: in on four Square, that you would get a free cocktail,

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Speaker 1: free my tie, and yeah, I don't drink for for

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Speaker 1: folks listening to the podcast, I'm not a drinker at all.

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Speaker 1: So my wife got to my ties and because she

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Speaker 1: checked into fourth Square and I checked into Fourth Square

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Speaker 1: and my wife was very happy. At the end of

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Speaker 1: the dinner, she said it was the best dinner ever. Um,

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Speaker 1: getting around the fountain was a bit of a challenge,

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Speaker 1: but no, I'm joking. I'm joking. I love you, Rebecca anyway. So, um, yeah,

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Speaker 1: the the So there's there's this element of tempting people

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Speaker 1: to come into places by having this this special deal. Right,

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Speaker 1: that's one way you can you you as a as

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Speaker 1: a vendor, as a as a retail operator or restaurant operator.

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Speaker 1: That's one way you would you might want to leverage

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Speaker 1: these services or that this gamification is that it's a

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Speaker 1: way to lure people into your your place. Uh, Scavenger,

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Speaker 1: like you were saying, Scavenger is kind of an interesting

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Speaker 1: thing and that it adds another level level of gameplay

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Speaker 1: to to checking into locations. I first started using Scavenger

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Speaker 1: at c e S so this past the e S

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Speaker 1: as of the recording of this podcast. And you would

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Speaker 1: go to a booth and you would you know, I

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Speaker 1: went to a booth and they had me sign up

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Speaker 1: for Scavenger and they said, all right, now walk around

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Speaker 1: the booth and you're gonna see different tasks that you

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Speaker 1: need to complete in order to win points, and then

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Speaker 1: at the end of the day there's gonna be a

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Speaker 1: drawing for a prize, and the number of times you're

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Speaker 1: entered into the prize will be dependent upon how many

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Speaker 1: points you burned, So the more points you are and

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Speaker 1: the more chances you have to win. And it was

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Speaker 1: things like, uh, find out how many uh, how far

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Speaker 1: down this waterproof watch can go before before it's no

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Speaker 1: longer rated for that depth, stuff like that, where it

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Speaker 1: is John Cameron Swayze when you need him right, So

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Speaker 1: you would have to go over to that part of

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Speaker 1: the booth and find that device and learn. You might

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Speaker 1: even have to talk to one of the one of

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Speaker 1: the representatives there to get the information. Then you have

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Speaker 1: to go into the app and text that information in

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Speaker 1: for it to be verified so that you would get

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Speaker 1: those points. Or it might be get a picture of

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Speaker 1: this one gadget uh that's located somewhere in the booth,

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Speaker 1: and you would have to go through the booth and

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Speaker 1: find it. Well for those people, the people at these booths,

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Speaker 1: every time you're going through and completing one of these tasks,

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Speaker 1: now in your mind you're thinking, I need more points.

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Speaker 1: I need to get more points because then I can win. Uh.

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Speaker 1: What they're thinking is by making you go to all

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Speaker 1: these different sections of the booth, you are building more

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Speaker 1: awareness of their brand and that you might not be

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Speaker 1: very conscious about it, but that you're gonna take home

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Speaker 1: this experience and you're gonna think, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: that that laptop. I remember I saw it at such

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Speaker 1: and such booth because I played that game. And for them,

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Speaker 1: that's where it pays off. It's like marketing, right. It's

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Speaker 1: a way to build awareness. And they didn't have to

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Speaker 1: buy a commercial. All they did was put this stuff

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Speaker 1: into an app and they let you do all the work.

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Speaker 1: And because there's that reward system, because there's points involved

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Speaker 1: and there's a competition, everybody really comes out of winner

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Speaker 1: because the user gets the feeling of accomplishment as they

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Speaker 1: build points, and the vendor gets the feeling of hey,

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Speaker 1: we've got a successful marketing campaign. It's not like one

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Speaker 1: of those things where you know, you feel I wouldn't

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Speaker 1: think that as a user. I would feel like I

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Speaker 1: was quote unquote used right because I got something else

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Speaker 1: out of it. It wasn't just you know, having to

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Speaker 1: walk around I was doing it voluntarily because it meant

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Speaker 1: that I was earning points and that's a lot of

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Speaker 1: that's that's one side of gamification is really you know,

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Speaker 1: you've designed this this level of games to to reward

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Speaker 1: people but also to keep them coming back to you.

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Speaker 1: But there's another level of gamification too, there's a problem

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Speaker 1: solving and learning side of gamification. Oh, absolutely, absolutely, UM.

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Speaker 1: The In fact, there have been some projects that have

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Speaker 1: been using gamification as a way to and as an

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Speaker 1: incentive for other people to participate. We've talked about crowdsourcing

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Speaker 1: some on the on the show UM where basically, look,

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Speaker 1: I've got a lot of stuff to do. For example,

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Speaker 1: the SETI at Home project, as as an example we've

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Speaker 1: used before where UM scientists were collecting a mountain of

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Speaker 1: information through radio telescopes and they just didn't have the

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Speaker 1: computing power to process it all in a timely manner

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Speaker 1: to see if there was any kind of discernible signal

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Speaker 1: in all the noise they were getting from space. UM,

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Speaker 1: so they enlisted the help of many many people. Hey,

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Speaker 1: look we've got a little application that you can install

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Speaker 1: on your computer. It will help us crunch the numbers

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Speaker 1: that we're getting back from space. And in the background

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Speaker 1: you don't have to do anything. Yeah, and and it

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Speaker 1: was a pretty cool screen saver as well. Um, so

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Speaker 1: it looks like it's doing something really cool. And basically

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Speaker 1: you're when you share the information back with them, it's

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Speaker 1: it comes to them in a form that they can

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Speaker 1: use and quickly scan to see if there's any value

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Speaker 1: in it. Um. Also, hey, a little bit of gamification

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Speaker 1: before gamification was a word. Um, I think, Uh, they

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Speaker 1: offered you the chance. They said, hey, look, if we

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Speaker 1: find somebody out there, Uh, you know, you'll have some

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Speaker 1: credit for that. So you you do get a little something.

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Speaker 1: You get a share in the prize. It's I guess

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Speaker 1: it's not a prize. Essentially, your name is associated with

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Speaker 1: what could arguably be the biggest scientific discovery since ever. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: but they're doing that with all kinds of other projects

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Speaker 1: now too, where they offer you the opportunity to participate

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Speaker 1: in the project and they'll give you a badge for

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Speaker 1: getting a certain number of units turned in and and uh,

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Speaker 1: you know other kinds of things like that. And there's

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Speaker 1: talk of even turning using gamification in designing educational courses.

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Speaker 1: So you know, you create a game playing element in learning,

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Speaker 1: and you have created a new way to encourage students

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Speaker 1: to learn. So, you know, one of the big challenges

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Speaker 1: of being a teacher, and there are many, Being a

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Speaker 1: teacher is an incredibly challenging and so I'm sure many

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Speaker 1: people would argue a very rewarding occupation. I certainly am

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Speaker 1: very thankful that both of my parents are teachers because

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Speaker 1: they they taught me a lot as by extension, but

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Speaker 1: uh yeah, there there's this this idea of throwing game

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Speaker 1: elements into education and turning education into more of a

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Speaker 1: game so that students are are enthusiastic about learning. They're

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Speaker 1: eager to learn because it means that they get points,

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Speaker 1: they get to move ahead. It's it's it's kind of

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Speaker 1: just taking the whole concept of grades and turning it

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Speaker 1: into more of a a game. And you could you know,

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Speaker 1: we've been doing this, like I said, for decades. I mean,

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Speaker 1: you know, when I was a kid, and you did

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Speaker 1: something really well, you'd get a gold star, Like you know,

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Speaker 1: that's that's a level of gamification. It's a reward system

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Speaker 1: that's kind of like a game. Like you did well

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Speaker 1: on this test, you get a gold star. Um, it's

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Speaker 1: just taking that and and making it a little more

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Speaker 1: sophisticated and a little more integrated into the educational system.

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Speaker 1: And it's still very early days for that kind of

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Speaker 1: of widespread use of gamification, but uh, there are a

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Speaker 1: lot of people who are really interested to see if

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Speaker 1: this will pay off in the long run. UM and

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Speaker 1: I actually have an interesting kind of example of this

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Speaker 1: that I would like to talk about just for a second,

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Speaker 1: if I might have you heard of a man named

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Speaker 1: John Hunter. John Hunter. John Hunter is a teacher in

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Speaker 1: UH in Virginia, and he came up with a game

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Speaker 1: that he calls the World Peace Game. And there's a

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Speaker 1: documentary film about this. It's called World Peace Game and

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Speaker 1: Other fourth Grade Achievements, which is a great title. Right.

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Speaker 1: So yeah, he has he teaches fourth graders and he's

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Speaker 1: a he teaches gifted students. So it's a it's a

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Speaker 1: specific program here. The kids are given an interesting task.

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Speaker 1: They have a UM a map that has four layers

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Speaker 1: to it. It's actually like, uh, levels of of plexiglass

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Speaker 1: and plywood, all right, So you've got the top level

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Speaker 1: is space. That kind of represents space. So it's it's

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Speaker 1: where satellites are, it's where spacecraft are. That's the top level.

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Speaker 1: The next level is airspace, so we're talking like clouds,

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Speaker 1: weather patterns, planes, that sort of stuff. The base level

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Speaker 1: is ground and sea level. That's where all your your

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Speaker 1: land based in water based units are. And the level

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Speaker 1: below that is under the sea, so it's things like

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Speaker 1: submarines and uh, undersea oil drilling, that kind of stuff.

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Speaker 1: And there's this The purpose of the game is that

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Speaker 1: the they have I think it's four nations that are

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Speaker 1: not representative of any particular real world counterparts phoe nations,

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Speaker 1: and the students even get to to name the nations

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Speaker 1: that they belong to. Each nation, the teacher comes up

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Speaker 1: to students that he thinks would be particularly well suited

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Speaker 1: for the role and approaches them and said offers them

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Speaker 1: a chance to become prime minister of one of those nations.

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Speaker 1: The prime minister in turn gets to a point from

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Speaker 1: the class uh different cabinet level positions, and these fourth

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Speaker 1: graders end up taking over these nations that all have

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Speaker 1: various economic powers, military powers, they have various complicated relationships

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Speaker 1: with one another. Um there's a whole element of of

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Speaker 1: competition for resources. There are differing political ideologies, and the

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Speaker 1: goal of the class is to go through this program

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Speaker 1: and by the end of the program achieve world peace

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Speaker 1: while dealing with all the other issues that nations in

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Speaker 1: the world have to deal with. So there could be

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Speaker 1: uh he has I think it's I think it's a

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Speaker 1: thirteen page uh document that has all these different elements

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Speaker 1: to it, all of which are are somewhat interconnected. So

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Speaker 1: if something changes on one, it's gonna change everything else too,

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Speaker 1: and and so things like there may be various crises

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Speaker 1: like ethnic disputes between different groups. Uh, there may be

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Speaker 1: m a resource shortage, there may be environmental disasters. Uh,

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Speaker 1: there may be um like a massive storm takes out

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Speaker 1: resources in one part of the world, and the students

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Speaker 1: have to keep working together to work through these problems

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Speaker 1: in order to achieve world peace. Well, this is gamification

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Speaker 1: of a of lots of different issues, things like every

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Speaker 1: he tackles stuff like global warming, you know, political science, um,

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Speaker 1: environmental concerns. I mean, there's all these different elements that

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Speaker 1: go into this game. And the the amazing thing is

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Speaker 1: that I think he I think his classes have a

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Speaker 1: perfect record of reaching world peace by the end of

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Speaker 1: the program. And he's been doing this since I think

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Speaker 1: ninete so uh, it's a pretty phenomenal uh lesson there

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Speaker 1: and he and he actually says he has a talk,

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Speaker 1: Ted Talk that you I would recommend looking this up,

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Speaker 1: the Ted Talk and there's also the documentary film as well.

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Speaker 1: Both of them are are great. I do recommend them. Um.

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Speaker 1: But he he talks about how at the very beginning

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Speaker 1: of the project, he admits to the students, I don't

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Speaker 1: have the answers. I don't know how to fix the world.

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Speaker 1: That what you have to do, and here's the game. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: but that's the thing is that it gets these kids

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Speaker 1: thinking because it's in a game format, it gets these

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Speaker 1: kids thinking in a way of how do I solve

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Speaker 1: this this obstacle, how do I how do I get

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Speaker 1: around this obstacle to achieve my goal? And then the hope,

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Speaker 1: of course is that they'll carry that experience with them

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Speaker 1: to actually apply the lessons they learned in that that

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Speaker 1: game in real life, which is again pretty phenomenal. We

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Speaker 1: should see if we could get an interview with Ian

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Speaker 1: Bogosts from Georgia Tech, the Georgia Institute of Technology, who

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Speaker 1: uh uh also has a um, I don't know if

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Speaker 1: you'd call it a company, but he also has a

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Speaker 1: book called Persuasive Games and the website based on it

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Speaker 1: and the idea he he has a number of games

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Speaker 1: that look at social and political topics. Um. Basically, how

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Speaker 1: you can generate a discourse around our discussion around these

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Speaker 1: topics through using games, and how you can investigate that.

428
00:24:03,040 --> 00:24:05,720
Speaker 1: That's sort of a side topic to gamification, because I mean,

429
00:24:05,760 --> 00:24:09,200
Speaker 1: it's it is gamification, but it's kind of not. Um. Also,

430
00:24:09,280 --> 00:24:15,320
Speaker 1: Budget Hero on Marketplace, uh, the public radio program marketplace

431
00:24:15,359 --> 00:24:16,960
Speaker 1: dot org. You can find the budget Hero game. I

432
00:24:17,000 --> 00:24:20,080
Speaker 1: think I posted it to our Facebook page a long,

433
00:24:20,240 --> 00:24:23,960
Speaker 1: long long time ago. But yeah, basically it's a way

434
00:24:24,000 --> 00:24:27,399
Speaker 1: to balance the budget or um. Actually, I don't know

435
00:24:27,440 --> 00:24:29,720
Speaker 1: if you had these, but when I was in junior

436
00:24:29,760 --> 00:24:34,080
Speaker 1: high school, we had the stock market game where they

437
00:24:34,119 --> 00:24:37,080
Speaker 1: were trying to teach us about economics. But what they

438
00:24:37,080 --> 00:24:39,400
Speaker 1: would do is say, Okay, we're gonna as a class,

439
00:24:39,440 --> 00:24:45,119
Speaker 1: everybody gets two fake dollars to invest in the stock market.

440
00:24:45,119 --> 00:24:46,879
Speaker 1: Now you guys have to go look at the market

441
00:24:47,000 --> 00:24:50,640
Speaker 1: and based on what you know of these companies, make

442
00:24:50,760 --> 00:24:54,320
Speaker 1: some fake investments, and by the end of this, we'll

443
00:24:54,359 --> 00:24:57,000
Speaker 1: see who has the most money and who has the least. Yeah,

444
00:24:57,000 --> 00:25:01,040
Speaker 1: I actually won that, I actually failed. Miserable. I want it,

445
00:25:01,119 --> 00:25:04,320
Speaker 1: and I gotta tell you my team used the throw

446
00:25:04,359 --> 00:25:07,320
Speaker 1: a dart at it strategy. I mean, that's that works

447
00:25:07,320 --> 00:25:09,480
Speaker 1: for people in real life. That's the sad thing is

448
00:25:09,480 --> 00:25:12,600
Speaker 1: that that was a case where gamification did not teach me.

449
00:25:13,359 --> 00:25:16,760
Speaker 1: But there are different levels of gamification, sure, and you

450
00:25:16,800 --> 00:25:20,399
Speaker 1: can and you can use it in your daily life too. Um.

451
00:25:20,640 --> 00:25:22,880
Speaker 1: I was while while Jonathan was talking a minute ago,

452
00:25:22,920 --> 00:25:28,960
Speaker 1: was frantically looking at um I prefer molten peanut butter.

453
00:25:30,720 --> 00:25:36,760
Speaker 1: The um iPhone an iPod app um epic Win. Have

454
00:25:36,880 --> 00:25:39,800
Speaker 1: you heard of this. It's a it's a really cool

455
00:25:39,800 --> 00:25:43,399
Speaker 1: little app um and it's uh, it's not free. I

456
00:25:43,440 --> 00:25:46,640
Speaker 1: think it's two in the app store as of right now.

457
00:25:46,680 --> 00:25:48,240
Speaker 1: When I happened to be looking at it. I learned

458
00:25:48,240 --> 00:25:51,160
Speaker 1: about it a few months ago. Um. But yeah, it's

459
00:25:51,160 --> 00:25:55,040
Speaker 1: a it's a to do list and so you write

460
00:25:55,080 --> 00:25:58,040
Speaker 1: down the stuff you have to do, and they give

461
00:25:58,080 --> 00:26:00,119
Speaker 1: you little badges and things when you actually checked of

462
00:26:00,119 --> 00:26:02,440
Speaker 1: off your list, and you level up after a certain

463
00:26:02,480 --> 00:26:05,400
Speaker 1: amount of time, and there are new characters and things.

464
00:26:05,400 --> 00:26:09,040
Speaker 1: So it's um uh. It's gotten mixed reviews. I would

465
00:26:09,040 --> 00:26:11,639
Speaker 1: say mostly positive. I've heard people talking about it in

466
00:26:11,680 --> 00:26:13,800
Speaker 1: a in a kind of cool way, and um, there

467
00:26:13,800 --> 00:26:17,040
Speaker 1: are other forms of gamification too for companies now when

468
00:26:17,040 --> 00:26:21,440
Speaker 1: they're trying to encourage human resources people to sign everybody

469
00:26:21,440 --> 00:26:24,320
Speaker 1: at your company up and uh. It allows people to

470
00:26:24,359 --> 00:26:27,440
Speaker 1: give other people a pat on the back in a game.

471
00:26:27,560 --> 00:26:29,840
Speaker 1: In the game say hey, you want to badge because

472
00:26:29,960 --> 00:26:32,160
Speaker 1: you really turn that job around from me really quickly,

473
00:26:32,200 --> 00:26:34,120
Speaker 1: and I appreciate it. And you know, there there are

474
00:26:34,119 --> 00:26:36,840
Speaker 1: elements of gamification that have been in the workplace for

475
00:26:36,880 --> 00:26:39,640
Speaker 1: a while to like, um, like, whenever you have those

476
00:26:39,640 --> 00:26:43,399
Speaker 1: team building retreats, that's kind of a gamification thing because

477
00:26:43,440 --> 00:26:46,280
Speaker 1: again you're you're you're doing the team building so that

478
00:26:46,400 --> 00:26:49,560
Speaker 1: you can, in theory, at any rate, apply those team

479
00:26:49,600 --> 00:26:53,879
Speaker 1: building skills you you you learn on these retreats to

480
00:26:54,320 --> 00:26:57,600
Speaker 1: actual work in the office. But in the case of

481
00:26:57,600 --> 00:27:00,320
Speaker 1: the retreats, it's to build a team to do things

482
00:27:00,359 --> 00:27:03,919
Speaker 1: like get across a a an obstacle course, you know

483
00:27:04,000 --> 00:27:07,840
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff, or you know, everyone is linked

484
00:27:07,880 --> 00:27:10,199
Speaker 1: together by this one rope and you have to find

485
00:27:10,520 --> 00:27:13,440
Speaker 1: how to get free of the rope in the smallest

486
00:27:13,520 --> 00:27:16,040
Speaker 1: number the fewest number of moves possible. That kind of thing,

487
00:27:16,600 --> 00:27:20,400
Speaker 1: and it's all problem solving skills and teamwork that are

488
00:27:20,480 --> 00:27:23,600
Speaker 1: part of it. But uh, you know, the the goal

489
00:27:23,720 --> 00:27:25,919
Speaker 1: isn't just to have a good time and and you know,

490
00:27:25,960 --> 00:27:28,840
Speaker 1: to get across an obstacle course. The goal is to

491
00:27:29,000 --> 00:27:32,920
Speaker 1: build the skills that you're going to need to successfully

492
00:27:33,400 --> 00:27:37,040
Speaker 1: work your way in that office. So uh yeah, I

493
00:27:37,040 --> 00:27:38,960
Speaker 1: mean that kind of gamification has been around for for

494
00:27:39,080 --> 00:27:41,359
Speaker 1: ages and ages, and it's just now we're getting to

495
00:27:41,359 --> 00:27:46,560
Speaker 1: a point where it the layer is more obvious. It's

496
00:27:46,600 --> 00:27:49,879
Speaker 1: it's more incorporated directly into whatever it is we're doing.

497
00:27:50,359 --> 00:27:52,760
Speaker 1: And we're gonna see lots of this, I think for

498
00:27:52,800 --> 00:27:55,760
Speaker 1: at least a year, um and if it proves like

499
00:27:56,000 --> 00:27:59,679
Speaker 1: to truly be a success, we're going to see it

500
00:27:59,720 --> 00:28:02,640
Speaker 1: from here on out. If people get bored of it,

501
00:28:02,760 --> 00:28:05,159
Speaker 1: then we'll move on to the next thing. So that,

502
00:28:05,440 --> 00:28:08,720
Speaker 1: I've seen people criticize gamification to say that, well, one,

503
00:28:08,760 --> 00:28:11,960
Speaker 1: it's been around forever, and to it's a fad um

504
00:28:12,080 --> 00:28:15,320
Speaker 1: or a buzzword. But we'll see what is it is

505
00:28:15,359 --> 00:28:18,480
Speaker 1: a buzzword, it's certainly something that people have been studying

506
00:28:19,160 --> 00:28:21,879
Speaker 1: as what it is sort of a hey would you

507
00:28:21,920 --> 00:28:26,720
Speaker 1: look at that, um, and how can I make use

508
00:28:26,760 --> 00:28:31,040
Speaker 1: of this in training or education or you know, getting

509
00:28:31,040 --> 00:28:33,760
Speaker 1: my employees to feel better about themselves or getting more

510
00:28:33,800 --> 00:28:37,080
Speaker 1: customers in the door. Um, you know we have. I

511
00:28:37,119 --> 00:28:39,480
Speaker 1: would be remiss if I didn't mention one of my

512
00:28:39,560 --> 00:28:43,239
Speaker 1: favorite How stuff Works dot com authors, Stephanie Crawford, who

513
00:28:43,320 --> 00:28:45,680
Speaker 1: has an article on the side how Gamification Works that

514
00:28:45,760 --> 00:28:48,600
Speaker 1: highly recommended. It's an excellent article as she mentions people

515
00:28:48,640 --> 00:28:52,240
Speaker 1: who have been influential and sort of creating, you know,

516
00:28:52,360 --> 00:28:55,520
Speaker 1: establishing themselves as experts in the field, like Jane McGonagall. Yeah,

517
00:28:55,560 --> 00:28:58,720
Speaker 1: she gave a keynote presentation itself by south West, which

518
00:28:58,840 --> 00:29:03,840
Speaker 1: I hear was amazing. Yeah. Yeah, um and um oh,

519
00:29:03,880 --> 00:29:05,720
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to find the other person's name. There's

520
00:29:05,720 --> 00:29:08,280
Speaker 1: several other people who have been really uh it was

521
00:29:08,360 --> 00:29:12,400
Speaker 1: Gabe Zickerman who who was I've seen there's a couple

522
00:29:12,840 --> 00:29:16,800
Speaker 1: pieces on O'Riley, the the tech Publisher, Um where you

523
00:29:16,840 --> 00:29:19,680
Speaker 1: can there's i think a webcast and some other things

524
00:29:19,720 --> 00:29:22,680
Speaker 1: that you can go check out if you're interested in it. Um.

525
00:29:22,720 --> 00:29:25,480
Speaker 1: But you know, they're they're really sort of studying this

526
00:29:25,600 --> 00:29:28,880
Speaker 1: now and and finding ways that people can incorporate it.

527
00:29:29,240 --> 00:29:31,520
Speaker 1: So I'm I'm inclined to say. I mean, if it

528
00:29:31,600 --> 00:29:33,760
Speaker 1: makes the stuff that we do every day a little

529
00:29:33,800 --> 00:29:37,480
Speaker 1: less boring, um and makes people more likely to be engaged,

530
00:29:37,520 --> 00:29:39,920
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't see it going away anytime soon.

531
00:29:40,000 --> 00:29:42,440
Speaker 1: I certainly think that it's uh. It certainly works on

532
00:29:42,480 --> 00:29:45,320
Speaker 1: me every time I, uh, you know, get stuck in

533
00:29:45,400 --> 00:29:48,120
Speaker 1: some zinga thing where I have to plant something and

534
00:29:48,160 --> 00:29:52,640
Speaker 1: be back in twenty minutes. Otherwise it fails miserably. I go,

535
00:29:52,880 --> 00:29:56,160
Speaker 1: I am such a sucker. Well, and I mean I'm

536
00:29:56,200 --> 00:29:58,840
Speaker 1: still using board square. Uh, that was one of those

537
00:29:59,680 --> 00:30:01,880
Speaker 1: you know, I first started using Twitter. I've said this,

538
00:30:02,080 --> 00:30:04,040
Speaker 1: told this story several times in the podcast too. When

539
00:30:04,040 --> 00:30:05,680
Speaker 1: I first started using Twitter, I used it for about

540
00:30:05,680 --> 00:30:08,480
Speaker 1: a month and then I stopped, and then about three

541
00:30:08,560 --> 00:30:10,240
Speaker 1: or four months later I picked it up again, and

542
00:30:10,280 --> 00:30:13,240
Speaker 1: then I've been using it ever since. Uh, four square.

543
00:30:13,480 --> 00:30:16,960
Speaker 1: There was a good chance that I was going to Yeah,

544
00:30:16,960 --> 00:30:19,120
Speaker 1: I installed it, I used it for a couple of weeks,

545
00:30:19,200 --> 00:30:21,040
Speaker 1: thought it was kind of interesting, and then just sort

546
00:30:21,040 --> 00:30:23,160
Speaker 1: of forgot about it. And it wasn't until I think

547
00:30:23,200 --> 00:30:27,280
Speaker 1: I managed to become mayor of a local theater in

548
00:30:27,320 --> 00:30:32,520
Speaker 1: Atlanta Stage Theater and that's when I the bug bit

549
00:30:32,600 --> 00:30:35,960
Speaker 1: me and UH. It also helps that actors are by

550
00:30:36,000 --> 00:30:40,080
Speaker 1: their nature very competitive, and so I and my fellow actors.

551
00:30:40,080 --> 00:30:42,920
Speaker 1: I do acting occasionally, but I my fellow actors now

552
00:30:43,000 --> 00:30:47,280
Speaker 1: try to become the mayor of various UH stages around town.

553
00:30:47,320 --> 00:30:49,280
Speaker 1: And by the way, this runs the family. My sister

554
00:30:49,400 --> 00:30:52,600
Speaker 1: is the mayor of a local theater in Atlanta too,

555
00:30:53,360 --> 00:30:56,040
Speaker 1: because when I got there to check in, I said, oh,

556
00:30:56,320 --> 00:30:59,200
Speaker 1: she's she's the mayor, and I got a little upset actually,

557
00:30:59,240 --> 00:31:00,840
Speaker 1: because the it was one of those places that had

558
00:31:00,840 --> 00:31:05,760
Speaker 1: a special where you could get a discount off your tickets. Well,

559
00:31:05,800 --> 00:31:09,720
Speaker 1: she was performing in the show. She wasn't buying. She

560
00:31:09,720 --> 00:31:12,680
Speaker 1: couldn't even take advantage of the offer. She was in

561
00:31:12,760 --> 00:31:14,760
Speaker 1: the That's why she had become the mayor, because she

562
00:31:14,800 --> 00:31:17,040
Speaker 1: had been there for all the rehearsals and the performances.

563
00:31:17,200 --> 00:31:21,360
Speaker 1: Yeah I love you, says yeah. Yeah, I have to

564
00:31:21,360 --> 00:31:24,600
Speaker 1: say that all the time. Like I love my wife

565
00:31:24,640 --> 00:31:27,480
Speaker 1: and I love my sister. The women in my life

566
00:31:27,480 --> 00:31:31,880
Speaker 1: are wonderful. I'm I'm very happy with them. Please don't

567
00:31:31,880 --> 00:31:35,840
Speaker 1: beat me up, don't make a game of it. But yeah,

568
00:31:35,920 --> 00:31:38,200
Speaker 1: it's I think it's definitely something that's that's going to

569
00:31:38,320 --> 00:31:40,800
Speaker 1: be around a while, and I'm interested to see where

570
00:31:40,800 --> 00:31:42,920
Speaker 1: it goes next. Yeah, despite the fact that I fall

571
00:31:43,000 --> 00:31:45,400
Speaker 1: for it, find myself falling for it, know what's going on,

572
00:31:45,760 --> 00:31:48,800
Speaker 1: and I'm angry at myself and still do it. Anyway, Well,

573
00:31:48,880 --> 00:31:52,120
Speaker 1: let's wrap this discussion up. Gamification is a pretty cool trend.

574
00:31:52,160 --> 00:31:53,920
Speaker 1: If you have other trends you would like us to

575
00:31:53,960 --> 00:31:57,160
Speaker 1: talk about, particularly ones that are related to the technology,

576
00:31:57,200 --> 00:32:00,080
Speaker 1: that's that is what we do. Let us know. You

577
00:32:00,120 --> 00:32:03,080
Speaker 1: can tell us on Facebook and Twitter are handled. There

578
00:32:03,280 --> 00:32:06,840
Speaker 1: is text stuff h s W or you can send

579
00:32:06,920 --> 00:32:09,800
Speaker 1: us an email that addresses tech stuff at how stuff

580
00:32:09,800 --> 00:32:11,520
Speaker 1: Works dot com and Chris and I will talk to

581
00:32:11,520 --> 00:32:16,760
Speaker 1: you again really soon. Be sure to check out our

582
00:32:16,760 --> 00:32:20,160
Speaker 1: new video podcast, Stuff from the Future. Join how Stuff

583
00:32:20,160 --> 00:32:23,120
Speaker 1: Work staff as we explore the most promising and perplexing

584
00:32:23,160 --> 00:32:27,880
Speaker 1: possibilities of tomorrow. The How Stuff Works iPhone app has arrived.

585
00:32:27,960 --> 00:32:35,120
Speaker 1: Download it today on iTunes, brought to you by the

586
00:32:35,160 --> 00:32:38,480
Speaker 1: reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready. Are you