August 2011
12 posts
WatchGabe Newell talks about how games can be used to educate and how games can be used for good. A really interesting point Newell raises is why educational games suck and “good” games like Portal 2 and Minecraft find uses in the classroom and beyond.
He also answers an audience member’s question about Episode 3.
The A-Bit-Shorter Journey
The page on GOG.com for The Longest Journey promised
A truly epic story and gameplay with more than 50 hours of play time
and while the first part is inevitably true, the game fell quite short on the promise beat the 41 hours I poured on Mass Effect 2 and I was done with Stark and Arcadia in less than 20.
Granted, I did use a walkthrough to solve a couple of the puzzles that perfectly...
The Lure of the Starter Editions
The crack dealers of gaming, Blizzard, changed their marketing tactics with its two games, World of Warcraft and Stracraft II. Instead of the 15-day trial, the WOW Starter Edition allows players to freely play with some limits to level 20. The 3 level demo without multiplayer for Starcraft II is likewise expanded into 4 level Starter Edition with multiplayer.
The first hit is always free. I had...
I Don't Want To Be a Superhero →
Another article, a bit older, from the Slate about making reality more fun. A bit different aspect as in the other articles, but focuses on how selling a fantasy world isn’t all fun and games, and how there’s a difference between “a game” and “play”.
But gamification advocates do not preach the beauty and power of play. Perhaps without knowing it,...
Gamification, Behaviorism and Bullshit →
The title is a bit repetitive, but has really interesting commentary on the subject.
There’s a great deal to be learned by businesses, designers and marketers by games. This concept has come to be known by the unfortunate term gamification. The problem is that gamificiation is generally caught-up in one of the game industry’s overarching myths—the idea that games are nothing more than Skinner...
Soviet Gamification →
[…] a problem a certain Vladimir Lenin was facing in 1917: How do we motivate workers, without resorting to paying them based on their work? […] Borrowing a symbolic-motivation strategy long used by armies, particularly productive factories or workers might be awarded a medal like the “Order of the Red Banner of Labor”.
If this sounds familiar, it’s because this...
Gamification is bullshit →
Ian Bogost goes further than exploitationware and calls gamification bullshit.
I’m not being flip or glib or provocative. I’m speaking philosophically.
It’s interesting how the gaming side vilifies the term and practice because it demeans games, but it would be interesting to see how people from psychology and economics side could step up and also call bullshit on...
Gamification is not about games
As neologism go, I have a thing for “gamification”. Not only is term totally misleading, it also acts as a vague umbrella for all kinds of ethically questionable practices. The buzzword bingo is strong with this article from MIT’s Technology Review, which goes and overextends the term to pretty much everything, including the Internet. Because, after all, what doesn’t...
