0 XP. (experience points).

I’m starting “graphically”. Slideshare is a social network that allows its users to share presentations. Pure altruism, where knowledge is not only enhanced and shared but also generates visibility and status. Quid pro quo.

A few weeks ago I got an email from this service, through which I have uploaded six or seven presentations, and it really made my day. I was informed that one of my presentations had been consulted by a hundred, or a thousand people (I don’t remember exactly) and they congratulated me on it, attaching a kind of voucher that could be used if I subscribed as a Premium user or something like that.

In short: a powerful intrinsic motivator that connected with my values ??and which was also unexpected, like a kiss! (the news that X number of people had accessed my presentation because they had supposedly found it interesting) followed by a small and less original extrinsic motivator (the voucher) with which I was invited to continue enjoying their services for less money. I was delighted with the first. I forgot about the second. Welcome to serious games and gamification.

50 XP.

On February 5 I was reading a story in a newspaper that said something like: “The company, Esilex Games, in collaboration with the Catalan Society of Family and Community Medicine (CAMFiC), has launched a game designed to help quit smoking, available for mobile phones and tablets “.

And the truth is that I loved finding out about another initiative, and there are now lots of them, which are again committed to the application of game dynamics in order to achieve something relevant and weighty. 125 XP and unlocked the trophy for “curiosity”.

If the stunning Knewton (The Gamification of Education Infographic) or BigDoor (Gamification Goes Mainstream) infographics are anything to go by, they say that in 2015 the world will gamified. And the truth is that it certainly looks that way. But what exactly is gamification and Serious Games? Is it an underground current that has very little to do with the day to day of users (players) and companies (Game Masters)… or is it just the opposite and exudes seriousness and science? I would say the latter.

And if you’d like to find out why, I invite you to join me in the coming weeks in this series of articles revolving around gamification.

Read I gamify, you gamify: Preamble and Definitions (II)

 

This text is part of the article Mission: I gamify, you gamify, she gamifies… published by Dr. Oscar García Pañella, Senior Gamification Consultant at Cookie Box, for the magazine, CatEconòmica nº515. (in Spanish)