I’ve been travelling and unable to stay on top of my usual weekly gamification news recap. This morning. I spent a bit of time playing catch up on gamification and industry news. Without further delay here are my top gamification news articles of the past week (or so).
Does Gamification Work for a Customer Community? Eloqua 10/7/2012 Skeptics of gamification are often asking for proof that gamification is capable of increasing community engagement. Topliners, an online community, produced some of the data from their gamification implementation in July of this year. The chart shows a 55% lift in community activity after the gamification implementation. They also share some user comments about how the changes affected their activity on site. Congrats to Bunchball for this successful implementation!
The Basics Behind How Gamification Increases Site Conversions and Builds Your Brand Business2Community 10/5/2012 As gamification grows and matures as an industry, people are beginning to understand the core value of gamification, namely building your brand’s user base and engagement. This is a great overview of how gamification can boost your brand, as well as a couple of examples of good and bad gamification.
Coursera makes Penn courses more accessible The Daily Pennsylvanian 10/1/2012 If you have checked out the #Gamification tag on Twitter, you have likely seen numerous people talking about the free Coursera gamification course, taught by Kevin Werbach. The course represents one of the many courses offered free online through Penn’s Coursera program. Participants of the courses range from college students to business executives and participants are located all over the world. These courses are changing the way that learning occurs outside a traditional classroom and will be interesting to watch as they grow more popular.
Social Login Buttons Aren’t Worth It MailChimp Blog 10/2/2012 While many of our clients already have their own login system, some of them have chosen to use Facebook or Twitter authorization instead. At BigDoor we decided to offer integration with both options to provide flexibility but many of the people we talk with are still deciding which direction to go. This is an excellent study on social login versus site specific registration and the benefits/downsides of both.
Plea to the Games Industry to Embrace Gamification and Get Involved Business2Community 10/4/2012 Gamification evangelist Andrzej Marczewski put together this plea asking game industry experts who are critical of gamification to do more than just sit and criticize. The gamification industry could definitely benefit from game designers insight and it is great to see someone trying to bridge the gap.