veghita's review
3.0
A good synthesis of theories and examples. Not many ideas of his own, but a very direct writing that can help with understanding the basis.
lobna's review
4.0
As a researcher of gamification reading a non-academic book on gamification, i was surprised that this book is pretty rounded. It does simplify core concepts in gamification but it does not oversimplify them. Most importantly, it does not have a superficial understanding of gamification as just sugar-coating some system with points and badges. The book gives many examples to showcase different gamification implementations and they were interesting to read. The one drawback, if we can call it that, is that, at least to me as a researcher in this field, the book provides unnecessarily lengthy, repetitive discussions that it feels that the book could have been shorter and more effective. it made me get bored sometimes and put it down to get back to it later after a few months. But I will attribute this effect mainly to my familiarity of the concepts the book is discussing more than to a fault of the book itself.
jo_king's review
4.0
“Gamification can play an important role in implementing change by defining a clear transformation path with simple steps and encouragement along the way ... [using] goal setting, triggers, and baby steps to help people change behaviors. [It} helps people repeat behaviors until they become habits, keep the process fresh, and develop change over time. ("Gamify", pg 58)”
tony's review
3.0
If this book had been “Gamification: You're Doing it Wrong!” it could have been excellent. Burke does a great job of providing a catalogue of mistakes organisations regularly make in adding gamification to their products or services, and in distilling key reasons such processes regularly fail:
• Thinking gamification is about fun. (“Fun is the primary currency of games. Things are the primary currency of rewards programs. Self-esteem and social capital are the primary rewards of gamified solutions.”)
• Failing to distinguish between emotional engagement and transactional engagement. (“Games primarily engage players on a whimsical level to entertain them. Rewards programs primarily engage players on a transactional level to compensate them. Gamification engages players on an emotional level to motivate them.”)
• Trying to motivate people to achieve your organisational goals, rather their personal ones. (“Don’t mistake business goals for player goals. The organization’s goals are a by-product. If the player’s goals are aligned with the organization’s goals, then the organizational goals will be achieved as a consequence of the player achieving her goals.”)
But when it comes to showing examples of doing it well, the book falls short. (Deciding whether that's down to poor writing or an undersupply of good examples to write about can be left as an exercise for the reader...) And so we're given a supply of seeming success stories, but where the gamification aspect actually has very little to do with it — such as Khan Academy, where almost all the key positives listed are to do with the core structure of their teaching approach, rather than the later addition of "energy points" and badges), or Barclaycard Ring, where the implementation of a customer-chosen late-fee policy has less to do with any gamification elements than simply seeking customer input to the process.
Similarly, the extended fictionalised walk-through of a player-centric design process was largely uncompelling — though it does provide a handy chart of the key continuum-based parameters that should be carefully considered for each approach:
The book ends with the author's vision of what effects gamification might have during the remainder of the decade — including in public policy, giving examples in participatory budgeting and Citizens Initiative lawmaking.
Again, however, the author seems to be over-enthusiastic in conflating the concepts:
I'm all for meaningful, engaged, participation. And gamification might indeed be one way to achieve that. But not all such participation is gamification, and the case for making gamification a key component of government is far from made.
• Thinking gamification is about fun. (“Fun is the primary currency of games. Things are the primary currency of rewards programs. Self-esteem and social capital are the primary rewards of gamified solutions.”)
• Failing to distinguish between emotional engagement and transactional engagement. (“Games primarily engage players on a whimsical level to entertain them. Rewards programs primarily engage players on a transactional level to compensate them. Gamification engages players on an emotional level to motivate them.”)
• Trying to motivate people to achieve your organisational goals, rather their personal ones. (“Don’t mistake business goals for player goals. The organization’s goals are a by-product. If the player’s goals are aligned with the organization’s goals, then the organizational goals will be achieved as a consequence of the player achieving her goals.”)
But when it comes to showing examples of doing it well, the book falls short. (Deciding whether that's down to poor writing or an undersupply of good examples to write about can be left as an exercise for the reader...) And so we're given a supply of seeming success stories, but where the gamification aspect actually has very little to do with it — such as Khan Academy, where almost all the key positives listed are to do with the core structure of their teaching approach, rather than the later addition of "energy points" and badges), or Barclaycard Ring, where the implementation of a customer-chosen late-fee policy has less to do with any gamification elements than simply seeking customer input to the process.
Similarly, the extended fictionalised walk-through of a player-centric design process was largely uncompelling — though it does provide a handy chart of the key continuum-based parameters that should be carefully considered for each approach:
The book ends with the author's vision of what effects gamification might have during the remainder of the decade — including in public policy, giving examples in participatory budgeting and Citizens Initiative lawmaking.
Again, however, the author seems to be over-enthusiastic in conflating the concepts:
Recently, government have been devolving some of the decision-making power to the people they represent. The moves are small ... and it is moving in the right direction, but more can be done. Governments still maintain full control over citizen participation. Public servants need to recognize that it’s not their government. The role of government must be to facilitate the development of public policy by the stakeholders and citizens. This is where gamification can play a role in addressing wicked problems. Rather than having government design policy solutions to wicked problems, it needs to design gamified solutions that will enable policy development by the stakeholders and citizens. Only then will collaborative solutions for wicked problems emerge with the broad support of stakeholders and citizens, thus ensuring that public support is in place for politicians to risk supporting legislative change.
I'm all for meaningful, engaged, participation. And gamification might indeed be one way to achieve that. But not all such participation is gamification, and the case for making gamification a key component of government is far from made.
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