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Speaker 1: tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone,
Speaker 1: Welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Poulette. I'm
Speaker 1: an editor at how stuff works dot com. Sitting across
Speaker 1: from me as always a senior writer, Jonathan Strickland's laughed.
Speaker 1: Just a game, makeups the rules as it turns out. Yes,
Speaker 1: yes it is. We're going to talk about gamification today,
Speaker 1: which is kind of a buzz word right now. It's
Speaker 1: been a buzzword for a couple of years, particularly in
Speaker 1: the tech industry, but it extends beyond just the tech industry.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, this is Uh, it's funny because it's
Speaker 1: it's not really a tech topic in a way, because uh,
Speaker 1: this is a this is a human engineering or you know,
Speaker 1: cognitive engineering. Short, it's not it's not so much related
Speaker 1: to specific type of technology, but I think in a
Speaker 1: lot of ways it can be traced back to technology. Yeah,
Speaker 1: basically what gamification is and you can probably figure it
Speaker 1: out just based on the word. It's applying game thinking
Speaker 1: and game mechanics to tasks in order to kind of
Speaker 1: create an extra layer on top of those tasks. And
Speaker 1: there are a lot of different examples. In fact, we've
Speaker 1: talked about some of them already. We have indeed sure
Speaker 1: like um like geo cashing. Geo cashing, i would argue,
Speaker 1: is a kind of gamification. You take a basic basic activity,
Speaker 1: which in in geo cashing you could call it either
Speaker 1: hiking or if you wanted to, even exploring, and then
Speaker 1: you add a game element on top of it. In
Speaker 1: this case, it might be things like the you know,
Speaker 1: you have a set of coordinates and you follow it,
Speaker 1: and then when you get there, there's a little cash
Speaker 1: of of goodies that's inside a box at that particular location,
Speaker 1: and then you get to take something, and maybe you
Speaker 1: leave something behind as well, and that's the game element
Speaker 1: to it. And as you continue to geo cash, you
Speaker 1: accumulate these little tokens or whatever, and you leave your
Speaker 1: own possibly personalized calling card behind at these various geo cashes,
Speaker 1: so that other people who are following they may say, Hell, hey,
Speaker 1: this guy, I've seen this guy's stuff before, this guy
Speaker 1: was at this other geo cash before. I don't know
Speaker 1: who he is or or I don't know who she is.
Speaker 1: But I know that they always leave, you know whatever,
Speaker 1: like a smurf figurine. You know. So that's that's an
Speaker 1: example of gamification. It's adding this element of gameplay on
Speaker 1: top of another activity. Yes see, I I blame Mary Poppins.
Speaker 1: She did say that in every job there must be done,
Speaker 1: there is an element of fun. You find the fun
Speaker 1: and snap, the job's a game. Well, actually that was
Speaker 1: pretty wise because it's it's everywhere these days. It's easy
Speaker 1: to see, uh, in games, you know, and a lot
Speaker 1: of our listeners are very serious video play, video game players,
Speaker 1: video play gamers, um. But sometimes I would not put
Speaker 1: it past them. But yeah, all those achievements that you unlock, um,
Speaker 1: you know, you unlock a new character in the game,
Speaker 1: you unlock a new scenario, you get a badge for
Speaker 1: running fifty missions. Yeah, that's all that stuff is gamification.
Speaker 1: And that's and it's weird to think of gamification on
Speaker 1: top of games, but it is adding another element for example,
Speaker 1: and the purpose in technology generally tends to be one
Speaker 1: of two things. You're either trying to teach a concept
Speaker 1: and you're using gamification to entice people to learn about
Speaker 1: that concept by by creating a sort of a reward
Speaker 1: system really for them to participate, and the reward system
Speaker 1: keeps them going. And the other related idea is in engagement. Now,
Speaker 1: engagement is one of those terms you're gonna hear a
Speaker 1: lot in technology companies. Engagement is this elusive thing everyone's
Speaker 1: going after, and that is not just attracting an audience,
Speaker 1: but keeping that audience and keeping them coming back to
Speaker 1: you and and to have them invested in your product
Speaker 1: over a long term. Because if someone just comes to
Speaker 1: you once and then they never come back, then you know,
Speaker 1: you only benefit from that relationship the one time. So
Speaker 1: what you really want to do is you want to
Speaker 1: create an experience or a product that has people coming
Speaker 1: back to you over and over again. And uh, this
Speaker 1: can be hardware, it can be software, it can be
Speaker 1: a service, it can be an activity. Like I said
Speaker 1: with geo cashing. Letter Boxing is another great example. Letter
Speaker 1: Boxing again is treasure hunting, and there's a whole range
Speaker 1: of game systems that are put on top of letter
Speaker 1: boxing that that make it really an engaging activity for
Speaker 1: people who get into it. And so gamification, it's it's
Speaker 1: something that people have been doing for centuries. I mean
Speaker 1: they've been throwing games on top of stuff for as
Speaker 1: long as there have been games, really, but it's only
Speaker 1: been in the last couple of years that that's kind
Speaker 1: of become a buzzword where people are concentrating on ways
Speaker 1: to create game elements on top of whatever it is
Speaker 1: they're offering in order to get that level of engagement
Speaker 1: they're looking for. Um yeah, and they're they're all kinds
Speaker 1: of applications for this. I mean, um, some of you
Speaker 1: who have mobile devices like to check in on things
Speaker 1: like go Wala or four square or Scavenger if you like,
Speaker 1: and Scavenger. Well, yeah, let's let's start with four square
Speaker 1: and then move to Scavenger because Scavenger is kind of
Speaker 1: like a very specific twist on four Square. Well it's
Speaker 1: funny because um, these these I don't know, they're really
Speaker 1: not technically games. Um, their badges that you can earn
Speaker 1: in four square for example, Yeah, that and and uh
Speaker 1: that would be I would say the oldest of the
Speaker 1: three four Square. You know, once you account create an
Speaker 1: account on four square and you have a GPS enabled phone, Um,
Speaker 1: basically you're asked to check in where when you go
Speaker 1: to someplace, so you know, you get to work Um,
Speaker 1: you say, okay, I'm here at work, um, and it
Speaker 1: will tell you, for example, how many of your how
Speaker 1: many people are there, and how many people possibly who
Speaker 1: they are? Yeah, if you if you're friends with them,
Speaker 1: will tell you if your friends are there. It may
Speaker 1: even tell you if your friends are nearby. If they're
Speaker 1: not like right where you are, but they're in the area,
Speaker 1: it might tell you that. It gives you an opportunity
Speaker 1: to share that on Facebook and Twitter. It gives you
Speaker 1: opportunity over time to become the mayor of a location.
Speaker 1: So that's the first layer of gamification right there, is
Speaker 1: becoming the mayor, because then you have status. You have
Speaker 1: attached a status to this service, and status is really
Speaker 1: important to people. People like having high status. It's good
Speaker 1: to be the king. Yeah, it makes you feel important, right,
Speaker 1: I mean it's it's we all get this like it
Speaker 1: it just if it feels good. So the mayor idea
Speaker 1: makes perfect sense, you know it. You could argue, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just it just means that you have a smartphone
Speaker 1: and you've been here a lot. That doesn't that's all
Speaker 1: it means. But you could say, yeah, but you know,
Speaker 1: I've achieved something. I am a mayor here, and then
Speaker 1: then they have these badges that they have on four
Speaker 1: Square that you get you You earn these badges by
Speaker 1: checking into specific types of locations, or perhaps the location
Speaker 1: you're checking into has a particular feature, like there's one
Speaker 1: that if you've you've checked into at least three places
Speaker 1: that have a photo booth, you get a certain badge. Um,
Speaker 1: there are there are badges where if you check into
Speaker 1: a place that has a lot of other people, they
Speaker 1: have swarm badges, and they have different levels of swarm.
Speaker 1: So the more people who are there, the the Like
Speaker 1: if you have like two hundred or five hundred or
Speaker 1: a thousand people, you'll get a different level of swarm
Speaker 1: badge for checking in. So if you guys want swarm badges,
Speaker 1: here's where you gotta go. You have to go to
Speaker 1: either south By Southwest or c E S. And I
Speaker 1: guarantee you because that's where all the tech people are
Speaker 1: and they all love to use these things. That's where
Speaker 1: you're gonna get the best chance to really earn one
Speaker 1: of those badges. You can also earn them an other
Speaker 1: like really popular places like say disney World or Disneyland. Yeah,
Speaker 1: actually that's that's a good point. Go Wala has a
Speaker 1: feature on it that allows you that where in which
Speaker 1: they have certain tours where you collect if you go
Speaker 1: to someplace like uh Disney World, um, you're supposed to
Speaker 1: if you go to all the different places, they'll have
Speaker 1: like a subset of badges there and it's sort of
Speaker 1: like a can you collect all twelve of these locations?
Speaker 1: You know, see if you can check in at all
Speaker 1: these different spots, um and then and that really can
Speaker 1: do that. Yeah, it really drives engagement. Like we said,
Speaker 1: like if four Square did not have the badges and
Speaker 1: did not have the mayor element to it, then there
Speaker 1: would be I'm sure there would be a significant drop
Speaker 1: off of the number of people who would use the
Speaker 1: service a couple of times and then we'll just never
Speaker 1: come back to it. There would be a lot more
Speaker 1: of those people, right, and they're there already, are those people.
Speaker 1: And it's not like we're saying that these things make
Speaker 1: you stay, but they are incentives for certain people to
Speaker 1: keep trying to use this this uh UM service. I know,
Speaker 1: as as mayor of how stuff works. As of the
Speaker 1: recording of this podcast, I get really really cheesed off
Speaker 1: when Brian Steals my mayorship. And that's gone back and
Speaker 1: forth between the two of us at least five times already.
Speaker 1: It's impressive. Brian and I we tend to steal this.
Speaker 1: I become mayor, then like a week later, he's the mayor,
Speaker 1: and then I'm the mayor again. And I mean there
Speaker 1: is a there's a definitely competitive element to now you
Speaker 1: want to become the mayor, Like there's a there's a
Speaker 1: certain level satisfaction of stealing the mayor from someone else.
Speaker 1: UM and uh Goala also offers something, a little something
Speaker 1: that Fourth Square doesn't that I think is kind of cool. UM.
Speaker 1: The company that makes uh Goala is called Alamo Fire.
Speaker 1: They're based in Texas, and they have a They also
Speaker 1: if you've ever played the Facebook electing game pack Rat,
Speaker 1: they also do that. They have some pretty cool art.
Speaker 1: And that's one of those things that's really neat because
Speaker 1: they come up with UM badges for certain locations, certain
Speaker 1: stores and other places. So it's kind of fun to
Speaker 1: collect those stickers because they may be sort of unique.
Speaker 1: And you like geo cash and you drop and pick
Speaker 1: up items when you go places. You might if you
Speaker 1: go to a bookstore, you might get a typewriter or
Speaker 1: what they call a page turner a book. Um, and
Speaker 1: it has a collector's number on their number, you know,
Speaker 1: one thousand and fifty four. Um, so you know when
Speaker 1: they launched that particular item, and so you uh, that
Speaker 1: kind of keeps you going because you go, okay, well
Speaker 1: I've gotten these things, or hey, look at that they
Speaker 1: made a new one for for this station. Um. You
Speaker 1: might say, though, what's in this? Why why would anybody
Speaker 1: do this? Well, companies, uh, these stores for example, have
Speaker 1: realized that they can offer people using these services a
Speaker 1: little something extra. You might find if you're using four square,
Speaker 1: uh a coupon. Yeah. Uh you know they go to
Speaker 1: this hotel and tell us that you saw this special
Speaker 1: on four Square and we'll give you ten percent off
Speaker 1: your stay. Yeah we Um. I went to a restaurant
Speaker 1: at Universal, uh the Universal Islands of Adventure properties, and um,
Speaker 1: they had it where if you showed that you checked
Speaker 1: in on four Square, that you would get a free cocktail,
Speaker 1: free my tie, and yeah, I don't drink for for
Speaker 1: folks listening to the podcast, I'm not a drinker at all.
Speaker 1: So my wife got to my ties and because she
Speaker 1: checked into fourth Square and I checked into Fourth Square
Speaker 1: and my wife was very happy. At the end of
Speaker 1: the dinner, she said it was the best dinner ever. Um,
Speaker 1: getting around the fountain was a bit of a challenge,
Speaker 1: but no, I'm joking. I'm joking. I love you, Rebecca anyway. So, um, yeah,
Speaker 1: the the So there's there's this element of tempting people
Speaker 1: to come into places by having this this special deal. Right,
Speaker 1: that's one way you can you you as a as
Speaker 1: a vendor, as a as a retail operator or restaurant operator.
Speaker 1: That's one way you would you might want to leverage
Speaker 1: these services or that this gamification is that it's a
Speaker 1: way to lure people into your your place. Uh, Scavenger,
Speaker 1: like you were saying, Scavenger is kind of an interesting
Speaker 1: thing and that it adds another level level of gameplay
Speaker 1: to to checking into locations. I first started using Scavenger
Speaker 1: at c e S so this past the e S
Speaker 1: as of the recording of this podcast. And you would
Speaker 1: go to a booth and you would you know, I
Speaker 1: went to a booth and they had me sign up
Speaker 1: for Scavenger and they said, all right, now walk around
Speaker 1: the booth and you're gonna see different tasks that you
Speaker 1: need to complete in order to win points, and then
Speaker 1: at the end of the day there's gonna be a
Speaker 1: drawing for a prize, and the number of times you're
Speaker 1: entered into the prize will be dependent upon how many
Speaker 1: points you burned, So the more points you are and
Speaker 1: the more chances you have to win. And it was
Speaker 1: things like, uh, find out how many uh, how far
Speaker 1: down this waterproof watch can go before before it's no
Speaker 1: longer rated for that depth, stuff like that, where it
Speaker 1: is John Cameron Swayze when you need him right, So
Speaker 1: you would have to go over to that part of
Speaker 1: the booth and find that device and learn. You might
Speaker 1: even have to talk to one of the one of
Speaker 1: the representatives there to get the information. Then you have
Speaker 1: to go into the app and text that information in
Speaker 1: for it to be verified so that you would get
Speaker 1: those points. Or it might be get a picture of
Speaker 1: this one gadget uh that's located somewhere in the booth,
Speaker 1: and you would have to go through the booth and
Speaker 1: find it. Well for those people, the people at these booths,
Speaker 1: every time you're going through and completing one of these tasks,
Speaker 1: now in your mind you're thinking, I need more points.
Speaker 1: I need to get more points because then I can win. Uh.
Speaker 1: What they're thinking is by making you go to all
Speaker 1: these different sections of the booth, you are building more
Speaker 1: awareness of their brand and that you might not be
Speaker 1: very conscious about it, but that you're gonna take home
Speaker 1: this experience and you're gonna think, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that that laptop. I remember I saw it at such
Speaker 1: and such booth because I played that game. And for them,
Speaker 1: that's where it pays off. It's like marketing, right. It's
Speaker 1: a way to build awareness. And they didn't have to
Speaker 1: buy a commercial. All they did was put this stuff
Speaker 1: into an app and they let you do all the work.
Speaker 1: And because there's that reward system, because there's points involved
Speaker 1: and there's a competition, everybody really comes out of winner
Speaker 1: because the user gets the feeling of accomplishment as they
Speaker 1: build points, and the vendor gets the feeling of hey,
Speaker 1: we've got a successful marketing campaign. It's not like one
Speaker 1: of those things where you know, you feel I wouldn't
Speaker 1: think that as a user. I would feel like I
Speaker 1: was quote unquote used right because I got something else
Speaker 1: out of it. It wasn't just you know, having to
Speaker 1: walk around I was doing it voluntarily because it meant
Speaker 1: that I was earning points and that's a lot of
Speaker 1: that's that's one side of gamification is really you know,
Speaker 1: you've designed this this level of games to to reward
Speaker 1: people but also to keep them coming back to you.
Speaker 1: But there's another level of gamification too, there's a problem
Speaker 1: solving and learning side of gamification. Oh, absolutely, absolutely, UM.
Speaker 1: The In fact, there have been some projects that have
Speaker 1: been using gamification as a way to and as an
Speaker 1: incentive for other people to participate. We've talked about crowdsourcing
Speaker 1: some on the on the show UM where basically, look,
Speaker 1: I've got a lot of stuff to do. For example,
Speaker 1: the SETI at Home project, as as an example we've
Speaker 1: used before where UM scientists were collecting a mountain of
Speaker 1: information through radio telescopes and they just didn't have the
Speaker 1: computing power to process it all in a timely manner
Speaker 1: to see if there was any kind of discernible signal
Speaker 1: in all the noise they were getting from space. UM,
Speaker 1: so they enlisted the help of many many people. Hey,
Speaker 1: look we've got a little application that you can install
Speaker 1: on your computer. It will help us crunch the numbers
Speaker 1: that we're getting back from space. And in the background
Speaker 1: you don't have to do anything. Yeah, and and it
Speaker 1: was a pretty cool screen saver as well. Um, so
Speaker 1: it looks like it's doing something really cool. And basically
Speaker 1: you're when you share the information back with them, it's
Speaker 1: it comes to them in a form that they can
Speaker 1: use and quickly scan to see if there's any value
Speaker 1: in it. Um. Also, hey, a little bit of gamification
Speaker 1: before gamification was a word. Um, I think, Uh, they
Speaker 1: offered you the chance. They said, hey, look, if we
Speaker 1: find somebody out there, Uh, you know, you'll have some
Speaker 1: credit for that. So you you do get a little something.
Speaker 1: You get a share in the prize. It's I guess
Speaker 1: it's not a prize. Essentially, your name is associated with
Speaker 1: what could arguably be the biggest scientific discovery since ever. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but they're doing that with all kinds of other projects
Speaker 1: now too, where they offer you the opportunity to participate
Speaker 1: in the project and they'll give you a badge for
Speaker 1: getting a certain number of units turned in and and uh,
Speaker 1: you know other kinds of things like that. And there's
Speaker 1: talk of even turning using gamification in designing educational courses.
Speaker 1: So you know, you create a game playing element in learning,
Speaker 1: and you have created a new way to encourage students
Speaker 1: to learn. So, you know, one of the big challenges
Speaker 1: of being a teacher, and there are many, Being a
Speaker 1: teacher is an incredibly challenging and so I'm sure many
Speaker 1: people would argue a very rewarding occupation. I certainly am
Speaker 1: very thankful that both of my parents are teachers because
Speaker 1: they they taught me a lot as by extension, but
Speaker 1: uh yeah, there there's this this idea of throwing game
Speaker 1: elements into education and turning education into more of a
Speaker 1: game so that students are are enthusiastic about learning. They're
Speaker 1: eager to learn because it means that they get points,
Speaker 1: they get to move ahead. It's it's it's kind of
Speaker 1: just taking the whole concept of grades and turning it
Speaker 1: into more of a a game. And you could you know,
Speaker 1: we've been doing this, like I said, for decades. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, when I was a kid, and you did
Speaker 1: something really well, you'd get a gold star, Like you know,
Speaker 1: that's that's a level of gamification. It's a reward system
Speaker 1: that's kind of like a game. Like you did well
Speaker 1: on this test, you get a gold star. Um, it's
Speaker 1: just taking that and and making it a little more
Speaker 1: sophisticated and a little more integrated into the educational system.
Speaker 1: And it's still very early days for that kind of
Speaker 1: of widespread use of gamification, but uh, there are a
Speaker 1: lot of people who are really interested to see if
Speaker 1: this will pay off in the long run. UM and
Speaker 1: I actually have an interesting kind of example of this
Speaker 1: that I would like to talk about just for a second,
Speaker 1: if I might have you heard of a man named
Speaker 1: John Hunter. John Hunter. John Hunter is a teacher in
Speaker 1: UH in Virginia, and he came up with a game
Speaker 1: that he calls the World Peace Game. And there's a
Speaker 1: documentary film about this. It's called World Peace Game and
Speaker 1: Other fourth Grade Achievements, which is a great title. Right.
Speaker 1: So yeah, he has he teaches fourth graders and he's
Speaker 1: a he teaches gifted students. So it's a it's a
Speaker 1: specific program here. The kids are given an interesting task.
Speaker 1: They have a UM a map that has four layers
Speaker 1: to it. It's actually like, uh, levels of of plexiglass
Speaker 1: and plywood, all right, So you've got the top level
Speaker 1: is space. That kind of represents space. So it's it's
Speaker 1: where satellites are, it's where spacecraft are. That's the top level.
Speaker 1: The next level is airspace, so we're talking like clouds,
Speaker 1: weather patterns, planes, that sort of stuff. The base level
Speaker 1: is ground and sea level. That's where all your your
Speaker 1: land based in water based units are. And the level
Speaker 1: below that is under the sea, so it's things like
Speaker 1: submarines and uh, undersea oil drilling, that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: And there's this The purpose of the game is that
Speaker 1: the they have I think it's four nations that are
Speaker 1: not representative of any particular real world counterparts phoe nations,
Speaker 1: and the students even get to to name the nations
Speaker 1: that they belong to. Each nation, the teacher comes up
Speaker 1: to students that he thinks would be particularly well suited
Speaker 1: for the role and approaches them and said offers them
Speaker 1: a chance to become prime minister of one of those nations.
Speaker 1: The prime minister in turn gets to a point from
Speaker 1: the class uh different cabinet level positions, and these fourth
Speaker 1: graders end up taking over these nations that all have
Speaker 1: various economic powers, military powers, they have various complicated relationships
Speaker 1: with one another. Um there's a whole element of of
Speaker 1: competition for resources. There are differing political ideologies, and the
Speaker 1: goal of the class is to go through this program
Speaker 1: and by the end of the program achieve world peace
Speaker 1: while dealing with all the other issues that nations in
Speaker 1: the world have to deal with. So there could be
Speaker 1: uh he has I think it's I think it's a
Speaker 1: thirteen page uh document that has all these different elements
Speaker 1: to it, all of which are are somewhat interconnected. So
Speaker 1: if something changes on one, it's gonna change everything else too,
Speaker 1: and and so things like there may be various crises
Speaker 1: like ethnic disputes between different groups. Uh, there may be
Speaker 1: m a resource shortage, there may be environmental disasters. Uh,
Speaker 1: there may be um like a massive storm takes out
Speaker 1: resources in one part of the world, and the students
Speaker 1: have to keep working together to work through these problems
Speaker 1: in order to achieve world peace. Well, this is gamification
Speaker 1: of a of lots of different issues, things like every
Speaker 1: he tackles stuff like global warming, you know, political science, um,
Speaker 1: environmental concerns. I mean, there's all these different elements that
Speaker 1: go into this game. And the the amazing thing is
Speaker 1: that I think he I think his classes have a
Speaker 1: perfect record of reaching world peace by the end of
Speaker 1: the program. And he's been doing this since I think
Speaker 1: ninete so uh, it's a pretty phenomenal uh lesson there
Speaker 1: and he and he actually says he has a talk,
Speaker 1: Ted Talk that you I would recommend looking this up,
Speaker 1: the Ted Talk and there's also the documentary film as well.
Speaker 1: Both of them are are great. I do recommend them. Um.
Speaker 1: But he he talks about how at the very beginning
Speaker 1: of the project, he admits to the students, I don't
Speaker 1: have the answers. I don't know how to fix the world.
Speaker 1: That what you have to do, and here's the game. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but that's the thing is that it gets these kids
Speaker 1: thinking because it's in a game format, it gets these
Speaker 1: kids thinking in a way of how do I solve
Speaker 1: this this obstacle, how do I how do I get
Speaker 1: around this obstacle to achieve my goal? And then the hope,
Speaker 1: of course is that they'll carry that experience with them
Speaker 1: to actually apply the lessons they learned in that that
Speaker 1: game in real life, which is again pretty phenomenal. We
Speaker 1: should see if we could get an interview with Ian
Speaker 1: Bogosts from Georgia Tech, the Georgia Institute of Technology, who
Speaker 1: uh uh also has a um, I don't know if
Speaker 1: you'd call it a company, but he also has a
Speaker 1: book called Persuasive Games and the website based on it
Speaker 1: and the idea he he has a number of games
Speaker 1: that look at social and political topics. Um. Basically, how
Speaker 1: you can generate a discourse around our discussion around these
Speaker 1: topics through using games, and how you can investigate that.
Speaker 1: That's sort of a side topic to gamification, because I mean,
Speaker 1: it's it is gamification, but it's kind of not. Um. Also,
Speaker 1: Budget Hero on Marketplace, uh, the public radio program marketplace
Speaker 1: dot org. You can find the budget Hero game. I
Speaker 1: think I posted it to our Facebook page a long,
Speaker 1: long long time ago. But yeah, basically it's a way
Speaker 1: to balance the budget or um. Actually, I don't know
Speaker 1: if you had these, but when I was in junior
Speaker 1: high school, we had the stock market game where they
Speaker 1: were trying to teach us about economics. But what they
Speaker 1: would do is say, Okay, we're gonna as a class,
Speaker 1: everybody gets two fake dollars to invest in the stock market.
Speaker 1: Now you guys have to go look at the market
Speaker 1: and based on what you know of these companies, make
Speaker 1: some fake investments, and by the end of this, we'll
Speaker 1: see who has the most money and who has the least. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I actually won that, I actually failed. Miserable. I want it,
Speaker 1: and I gotta tell you my team used the throw
Speaker 1: a dart at it strategy. I mean, that's that works
Speaker 1: for people in real life. That's the sad thing is
Speaker 1: that that was a case where gamification did not teach me.
Speaker 1: But there are different levels of gamification, sure, and you
Speaker 1: can and you can use it in your daily life too. Um.
Speaker 1: I was while while Jonathan was talking a minute ago,
Speaker 1: was frantically looking at um I prefer molten peanut butter.
Speaker 1: The um iPhone an iPod app um epic Win. Have
Speaker 1: you heard of this. It's a it's a really cool
Speaker 1: little app um and it's uh, it's not free. I
Speaker 1: think it's two in the app store as of right now.
Speaker 1: When I happened to be looking at it. I learned
Speaker 1: about it a few months ago. Um. But yeah, it's
Speaker 1: a it's a to do list and so you write
Speaker 1: down the stuff you have to do, and they give
Speaker 1: you little badges and things when you actually checked of
Speaker 1: off your list, and you level up after a certain
Speaker 1: amount of time, and there are new characters and things.
Speaker 1: So it's um uh. It's gotten mixed reviews. I would
Speaker 1: say mostly positive. I've heard people talking about it in
Speaker 1: a in a kind of cool way, and um, there
Speaker 1: are other forms of gamification too for companies now when
Speaker 1: they're trying to encourage human resources people to sign everybody
Speaker 1: at your company up and uh. It allows people to
Speaker 1: give other people a pat on the back in a game.
Speaker 1: In the game say hey, you want to badge because
Speaker 1: you really turn that job around from me really quickly,
Speaker 1: and I appreciate it. And you know, there there are
Speaker 1: elements of gamification that have been in the workplace for
Speaker 1: a while to like, um, like, whenever you have those
Speaker 1: team building retreats, that's kind of a gamification thing because
Speaker 1: again you're you're you're doing the team building so that
Speaker 1: you can, in theory, at any rate, apply those team
Speaker 1: building skills you you you learn on these retreats to
Speaker 1: actual work in the office. But in the case of
Speaker 1: the retreats, it's to build a team to do things
Speaker 1: like get across a a an obstacle course, you know
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff, or you know, everyone is linked
Speaker 1: together by this one rope and you have to find
Speaker 1: how to get free of the rope in the smallest
Speaker 1: number the fewest number of moves possible. That kind of thing,
Speaker 1: and it's all problem solving skills and teamwork that are
Speaker 1: part of it. But uh, you know, the the goal
Speaker 1: isn't just to have a good time and and you know,
Speaker 1: to get across an obstacle course. The goal is to
Speaker 1: build the skills that you're going to need to successfully
Speaker 1: work your way in that office. So uh yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean that kind of gamification has been around for for
Speaker 1: ages and ages, and it's just now we're getting to
Speaker 1: a point where it the layer is more obvious. It's
Speaker 1: it's more incorporated directly into whatever it is we're doing.
Speaker 1: And we're gonna see lots of this, I think for
Speaker 1: at least a year, um and if it proves like
Speaker 1: to truly be a success, we're going to see it
Speaker 1: from here on out. If people get bored of it,
Speaker 1: then we'll move on to the next thing. So that,
Speaker 1: I've seen people criticize gamification to say that, well, one,
Speaker 1: it's been around forever, and to it's a fad um
Speaker 1: or a buzzword. But we'll see what is it is
Speaker 1: a buzzword, it's certainly something that people have been studying
Speaker 1: as what it is sort of a hey would you
Speaker 1: look at that, um, and how can I make use
Speaker 1: of this in training or education or you know, getting
Speaker 1: my employees to feel better about themselves or getting more
Speaker 1: customers in the door. Um, you know we have. I
Speaker 1: would be remiss if I didn't mention one of my
Speaker 1: favorite How stuff Works dot com authors, Stephanie Crawford, who
Speaker 1: has an article on the side how Gamification Works that
Speaker 1: highly recommended. It's an excellent article as she mentions people
Speaker 1: who have been influential and sort of creating, you know,
Speaker 1: establishing themselves as experts in the field, like Jane McGonagall. Yeah,
Speaker 1: she gave a keynote presentation itself by south West, which
Speaker 1: I hear was amazing. Yeah. Yeah, um and um oh,
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to find the other person's name. There's
Speaker 1: several other people who have been really uh it was
Speaker 1: Gabe Zickerman who who was I've seen there's a couple
Speaker 1: pieces on O'Riley, the the tech Publisher, Um where you
Speaker 1: can there's i think a webcast and some other things
Speaker 1: that you can go check out if you're interested in it. Um.
Speaker 1: But you know, they're they're really sort of studying this
Speaker 1: now and and finding ways that people can incorporate it.
Speaker 1: So I'm I'm inclined to say. I mean, if it
Speaker 1: makes the stuff that we do every day a little
Speaker 1: less boring, um and makes people more likely to be engaged,
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't see it going away anytime soon.
Speaker 1: I certainly think that it's uh. It certainly works on
Speaker 1: me every time I, uh, you know, get stuck in
Speaker 1: some zinga thing where I have to plant something and
Speaker 1: be back in twenty minutes. Otherwise it fails miserably. I go,
Speaker 1: I am such a sucker. Well, and I mean I'm
Speaker 1: still using board square. Uh, that was one of those
Speaker 1: you know, I first started using Twitter. I've said this,
Speaker 1: told this story several times in the podcast too. When
Speaker 1: I first started using Twitter, I used it for about
Speaker 1: a month and then I stopped, and then about three
Speaker 1: or four months later I picked it up again, and
Speaker 1: then I've been using it ever since. Uh, four square.
Speaker 1: There was a good chance that I was going to Yeah,
Speaker 1: I installed it, I used it for a couple of weeks,
Speaker 1: thought it was kind of interesting, and then just sort
Speaker 1: of forgot about it. And it wasn't until I think
Speaker 1: I managed to become mayor of a local theater in
Speaker 1: Atlanta Stage Theater and that's when I the bug bit
Speaker 1: me and UH. It also helps that actors are by
Speaker 1: their nature very competitive, and so I and my fellow actors.
Speaker 1: I do acting occasionally, but I my fellow actors now
Speaker 1: try to become the mayor of various UH stages around town.
Speaker 1: And by the way, this runs the family. My sister
Speaker 1: is the mayor of a local theater in Atlanta too,
Speaker 1: because when I got there to check in, I said, oh,
Speaker 1: she's she's the mayor, and I got a little upset actually,
Speaker 1: because the it was one of those places that had
Speaker 1: a special where you could get a discount off your tickets. Well,
Speaker 1: she was performing in the show. She wasn't buying. She
Speaker 1: couldn't even take advantage of the offer. She was in
Speaker 1: the That's why she had become the mayor, because she
Speaker 1: had been there for all the rehearsals and the performances.
Speaker 1: Yeah I love you, says yeah. Yeah, I have to
Speaker 1: say that all the time. Like I love my wife
Speaker 1: and I love my sister. The women in my life
Speaker 1: are wonderful. I'm I'm very happy with them. Please don't
Speaker 1: beat me up, don't make a game of it. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it's I think it's definitely something that's that's going to
Speaker 1: be around a while, and I'm interested to see where
Speaker 1: it goes next. Yeah, despite the fact that I fall
Speaker 1: for it, find myself falling for it, know what's going on,
Speaker 1: and I'm angry at myself and still do it. Anyway, Well,
Speaker 1: let's wrap this discussion up. Gamification is a pretty cool trend.
Speaker 1: If you have other trends you would like us to
Speaker 1: talk about, particularly ones that are related to the technology,
Speaker 1: that's that is what we do. Let us know. You
Speaker 1: can tell us on Facebook and Twitter are handled. There
Speaker 1: is text stuff h s W or you can send
Speaker 1: us an email that addresses tech stuff at how stuff
Speaker 1: Works dot com and Chris and I will talk to
Speaker 1: you again really soon. Be sure to check out our
Speaker 1: new video podcast, Stuff from the Future. Join how Stuff
Speaker 1: Work staff as we explore the most promising and perplexing
Speaker 1: possibilities of tomorrow. The How Stuff Works iPhone app has arrived.
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