**Please use W-A-S-D keys to move through this post, mouse to look around, space bar to jump and left-click to fire. And be sure to check-in and maybe you can become Mayor of this post. (In the picture, they're mechanics, get it? Like game mechanics. You get it right?)**  **Update at end of post.... I have a problem with tabs. Seriously. Its an issue. I usually keep about 100 or so of them open at a time. I know. I see myself ending up on some browser-based version of Hoarders. There is a method to my madness here. I collect all these tabs and then start to sort them to see what shakes out - what is common and and what is different - kinda like panning for gold but without the backache. So it turns out I've been looking a lot of sites and articles about using game dynamics outside the magic circle of games. Now I want to run down the tabs that I have open but I also wanted to say that there is something troubling to me about the use of game mechanics or this trend of gamificiation. I don't know exactly what it is but maybe it smells to me a bit like how "e" was gonna change everything in the learning/training field. Maybe its the idea that what I see is not only the use of game mechanics outside of games but outside of game design as well. That bothers me. Its like watching teenagers drive without the benefit of experience. They can go fast but the potential there for doing serious damage is great as well. Maybe its this leftover bitter taste I have in my mouth from last year's GDC in which it seemed every other presentation was how to 'Monetize User Behavior Through Game Mechanics' or any number of sessions that I remember as being titled 'How to be the Next Farmville in 3 Easy Steps.'  There is a quote by Gary Gygax (and no, I'm not putting a link to his bio or anything. If you're interested in games or game mechanics and you don't know who he is - get thee to Google and hang your head as you do) at the start of one of the essays in Eric Zimmerman and Katie Salen's amazing book, The Game Design Reader: "Knowing the rules of a game is not nearly as simple as committing the relevant passages to memory, because memorization does not bring understanding. It is not only important to know what is written in the rules but also to perceive how the parts of the rules fit together and work in harmony with each other. The latter task is certainly achievable but it is not easy." Maybe that's it. Its that even if you can separate out certain game mechanics from true games, you still need to know how they all work together to create a compelling user experience. Maybe I'm wrong. But first, to the tabs... The first tab that I have open is a post from Gabe Zichermann and is entitled "Game Thinking is the Core of Gamification" (damn. looks like I took too long to write this post and I can't find that post any more, well we'll plunge ahead anyway)...sounds like a good start place right? Looks like Gabe has a vested interest in this dynamic (not that that's a bad thing, just is what it is). He also runs the Gamification blog (which looks like it used to be the funware blog), its associated GamificationCo and is producing the Gamification Summit (January 2011, in SFO, brrrrr). I note that Amy Jo Kim (you should watch this video of Amy Jo Kim - one of my favs) is now listed here as a "gamification guru" - I guess that's when you know you've arrived as a new niche - when you have your first gurus. Its also worth noting that Jane McGonigal is also keynoting at the Gamification Summit (you should probably watch this TED video of Jane talking about how Gaming Can Change the World and maybe even take a look at Urgent Evoke or World without Oil) - I think that while Amy Jo Kim may fit into the gamification dynamic, I think that Jane is talking about not severing individual dynamics of games but about stretching the magic circle of a game to cover not only new dynamics but new content material as well.  There is also a TEDBoston presentation from Seth Priebatsch on the "game layer" or game dynamics that can be used in the 'real world.' Things like the Appointment Dynamic, The Influence and Status Dynamic, the Progression dynamic and the Communal Discovery Dynamic. Its a good talk and makes some interesting points.  One tab was a blog post by Alex Manchester - that while I sense was written with good intentions, continues a common problem that I wanted to mention if only in an effort help clear it up. Game Theory - the subject of A Beautiful Mind and a discussion of which Alex includes at the start of his post - really has nothing to do with game design or game mechanics although it very well has something to do with behavioral economics (all of which was pointed out in a comment by Simon Bostock. If you are still interested in game theory though, you can actually take/audit/whatever you call it the course on this from Yale (its actually really good). Speaking of behavioral economics (don't hear that every day do ya?) - there is this very fine presentation (PDF) on the relationship between game mechanics and user behavior from Bunchball Nitro.   Now there is this awesome post by Pascal Rettig (and I say awesome not just because my last name used to be Rettig) about the game mechanics hype cycle. I really wish that we had had more writing like this back in ye olde early days of e-learning. One of the great points that Pascal makes is that these elements really aren't game mechanics but are actually "meta-game mechanics" (which is also what I talk about below wrt Kongregate). His point being (I think) that we need to be careful to maintain the focus of these mechanics on the core behavior we're looking to drive and make sure that those mechanics don't become the entire reason for people to engage with whatever content we're focusing on...badges on foursquare are meta to the reason we "play" - finding other people and the location-based tips...let's keep an eye on the social and not just the media.  Pascal points to a presentation by Sachin Agarwall that argues in part that we should look for "viral mechanics" as opposed to game mechanics. I think this is important if you're out there in the commercial sector trying to build to the next F'ville...but I wonder about its importance inside the enterprise..I think we really want to focus on dynamics that drive engagement with the content and not necessarily getting the content to go viral.  Pascal also points (seriously, read Pascal's post, it's crazy loaded w good thoughts and resources) to "Game Mechanics - The New Black" by Jon Carder. Jon makes a nice point that really frequent flyer programs have been using game mechanics for years. He also argues that some of the most common elements in this category include: Must Haves: Action Goal Scoreboard/Feedback Reward Nice-to-Haves: Competition Countdown timer Social Be sure to read his whole post on the topic for greater detail but I think its interesting to watch as people flesh out these dynamics (see earlier mention of Bunchball paper) and along those lines, there is a post by Shane Snow over at Mashable on HOW TO: Use Game Mechanics to Power your Business. I think one of Shane's really important points is to start with your vision and work backwards through Behaviors and then through supporting mechanics.  I guess one of the seminal pieces in this still forming cannon of gamification is Jesse Schell's DICE 2010 talk. Jesse does a great job at describing the "elastic velvet rope" - how WebKinz brought the magical creatures that live inside children's stuffed animals to life and made $12 = $20. One of the important kernels in Jesse's talk is that games like Farmville, Mafia Wars, Club Penguin - are all intruding on our reality - using our real friends and our real money. Imagine linking training to reality - oh shush Mark - now you're just talking crazy.  Now here is where the update comes in. I just spent almost a whole week at DevLearn 2010. In short, if you don't go to DevLearn, you should. Brent Schlenker (the Main Man of the Show), David Holcombe, Heidi Fisk and the rest of the eLearning Guild put on an amazing show. So I did a workshop on social learning and a little Social Learning Camp throughout the conference. The audience was awesome and stayed super-engaged the whole time. As part of that workshop and camp, I talked a lot about one of my fav web sites, Kongregate. If you've known me for longer than 5 minutes, I've probably brought this site up. I want to bring it up here too (shocker).  I think the way Kongregate is architected, offers us a way to think about using game mechanics and a game layer to add some social context to existing content. I think this may be a way for us to get 'feet wet' in terms of gamification without taking a big chomp out of the hype cycle. Go to the site. Click on any game - doesn't matter. Now see where the game is? Imagine your content there. There's a profile w/ an avatar, points for non-game related behavior (think about the dynamics you want to drive in your users/learners), comments, ratings, suggestions for related content and so on. In short, there are a lot of options for us to just take existing content and place it into a social/gaming context. As we do this though, we need to keep Pascal's warning in mind that the layer around the game is a meta-game and maintaining that layer's focus on the behaviors that you wish to reinforce requires serious design thinking.  What I really really hope is that this whole movement isn't born out of a lot of what I saw at last year's GDC - that was endless, repetitive sessions on how to be the next Farmville. Please. I don't care about your farm.  ***Double Update Alert: Look at the answers on Quora to the question: Why are so many game developers opposed to gamification?

I was just thinking this morning about "mobile learning" - those of you that know me, know that those are air quotes - I don't consider mobile learning or "e-learning" to exist except as a way to label a product...you're not really selling learning; you're selling performance support or training or an environment...anyway.  Just thinking this morning that we always talk about "mobile learning" from the POV of the end user - they're the ones that are mobile - I don't think I've ever seen a discussion about mobile learning from the production side. I'm just wondering if this is about still thinking about the production of "learning content" coming out of a training department and not as an organizational capability. We want to spread the capability to access content across the org but what about spreading the production of content? That led me to thinking about where do we draw this line between collaboration - which we all give passionate lip service to as being important - I have this impression that collaboration is still seen as going only so far and then it hits the boundary of a training department and then it becomes the production of content...is that an issue of trust? Control?  More to consider here but needed more than 140 characters to get it out....

We're going to leave the debates behind for the moment about is 'gamification' is BS or not - not that they're not important but they're not focused on the end user.  Here is what the end user wants: They want to know what they're supposed to do when. Draw clear lines. If the lines happen to have badges along the way, then fine, just make sure they really point to where I need to be.  They want good UX/UI design. They're busy, they've got three bosses. They're reports are due THIS MORNING. Make life easy on them. Think about the UX/UI design from the perspective of the work they have to accomplish using it  - not about what your design sense tells you in best.  They would not mind a sense of humor. Work is tough. People are busy but your system doesn't have to come across like one of those film strips from middle school. Remember, these folks are humans - talk to them like that - crack a joke - congratulate them - do something that makes them feel like there was a human being on the other end of this system.  Don't underestimate their intelligence. The same company that you work for (or that hired your company) hired these people. Pretty good chance they are smart and savvy. Don't bs them. Don't overlay your goals, levels, badges, leaderboards, etc - on them without understanding them and linking those mechanics to things that actually matter to them.  They want to see their bosses doing it. If your system is for everyone BUT the C Suite, you're just pissing people off. It puts the lie to how important your system is if everyone isn't using it.  I'd love to hear other things that end users want. Maybe just maybe, approaching it from their standpoint can get us to systems that people want to use (or at least don't mind using).  That'd be a win. 

    My friend Jay Cross died this weekend. That's a rough start I know but I didn't want to be cute or clever here. Just not feeling that.     I met Jay years and years ago and just to be clear - for most of the time that I knew Jay, we lived on opposite sides of the country (MD & CA) and my interactions with him were mainly at conferences or online - with the super infrequent visit to his lovely home. That will come across wrong though - Jay interacted so much online, through blogs, video chats, audio blogs and Twitter - that to say "only online" sells short how well Jay understood and embraced the Internet and the Web.      I don't remember if it was the first time I met Jay but early on, he and I were at a conference at Disney. Somehow we ended up hanging out together and I remember being a little star struck that someone of Jay's stature was hanging out with a nobody like me. That was Jay though - infinitely welcoming, friendly and curious.  At one of the events during that conference, Jay won a little stuffed turtle. I think I had mentioned that I had a young son at the time and Jay gave it to me for him. I remember coming home and saying "Jay Cross gave this to me for you, so take care of it." 14 years, 3 moves and 2 states later and my son still has the turtle.       Jay has over 32,000 photos up on Flickr. I used to race to conferences early to get what I called the "Jay Cross shot" - the registration lines ready but with no one in them. Jay took pictures of everything and everyone - he always had that little camera with him. I think that really says something about his boundless curiosity and interest in the world.       I also thank and remember Jay for introducing me to some other folks whose work has been really impactful for me. I got a call when I was working at Booz Allen to gather the smartest people I could to talk about blogs and wikis (yes kids, before Web 2.0 and social media). My first and most important call was to Jay. In short order and with Jay recommending it - we had Marcia Conner, Jerry Michalski, Eugene Eric Kim, Clay Shirky and David Weinberger all sitting in a room talking to analysts from the CIA.      The question is always - how do you remember someone like Jay? Well my recommendation is that you first dedicate yourself to being open to people and new experiences and value curiosity always.  Take lots of pictures and share them. Then find people who are also curious and work with them and find new ways to do things and never be satisfied by the status quo. Put a dent in the universe. Jay would like that.     

"I love winning. I love the fans, but the bottom line is that I still love the game" 2009, July 26, Quotes of the week. The Straits Times, p.30. This quote has all the 3 parts that I always assign to a job: Dedication to work (skills & knowledge) Dedication to clients (service & attitude) Dedication to profession (giving back, adding to the body of knowledge)

Introduction to metadata Tony Gill, Anne J. Gilliland, Maureen Whalen, and Mary S. Woodley Edited by Murtha Baca An online publication devoted to metadata, its types and uses, and how it can improve access to digital resources. I was about to purchase this book when I stumbled upon this online version (free of course). Here is the TOC Introduction Setting the Stage Metadata and the Web Crosswalks, Metadata Harvesting, Federated Searching, Metasearching Rights Metadata Made Simple Practical Principles for Metadata Creation and Maintenance

Nice collection of accessibility and web development tools. "Ever wonder how usable your site appears to someone with a disability, slower connection, or different setup? This list of tools highlights some of the most useful tools and extensions for making your website more usable."

Jakob Nielsen's latest Alertbox "Social software is not a trend that can be ignored. It's affecting fundamental change in how people expect to communicate, both with each other and the companies they do business with. And companies can't just draw a line in the sand and say it's okay for employees to use Web 2.0 to communicate with customers, but it's not okay to use it when communicating with each other."

Donna Spencer has written a simple yet comforting piece on how she thinks through the draft IA for a small website. "When you have made something up - and I don’t care whether you do it on a whiteboard, in a spreadsheet or in your head - then start thinking about whether it will work for the users, and whether it will work for the content. Revise and play with your idea until these things start to fall together."