Harnessing Behavioral Motivation And Game Dynamics For Fun And Profit

Lying in bed with a bad head cold, and as usual, my sickbed pastime involves watching web videos with a strong learning component. Which usually means, at least one or two TED videos will cross my viewscreen.

Today's TED revelation involves how the future of the Web, and of learning more generally, might just hinge on game dynamics. I watched Seth Priebatsch give a talk about creating a "game layer" on top of reality, and Jesse Schell talk about how games are extending from the screen into the real world.

Both these guys are extremely driven and already quite skilled at manipulating human behavior through game design -- and they both point out that game design has a place to play in enterprise digital strategy, talent management, learning, application development, customer relationship-building and management, and any number of other areas that we don't normally think of as being amenable to the concept of "game playing".

However -- they both also use the example of a University of Indiana professor who -- instead of using the usual grading system -- is using experience points to encourage his students to participate in the normal run of classroom activities. By recasting these well-known activities -- attending class, taking quizzes, taking tests, turning appointments in on time -- into game activities, he's seen metrics rise across the board.

I'd strongly suggest anyone involved in digital strategy, web design, enterprise learning or -- more generally, mentoring or managing the "gaming generation" -- give these two talks the benefit of your time.

Seth Priebatsch's talk:

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Jesse Schell's talk:

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