Two weeks ago, the team at Gamedojo presented Gamification Lab to a band of marketing professionals. G-Lab is a two half day workshop which provides an introduction to the why and how of Gamification. In it, participants worked on applying Gamification principles to their real-life marketing campaigns; focussing on how to increase engagement, customer loyalty and retention. Here’s some recent stats illustrating just how quickly this trend is growing: The market for gamification will grow to $1.6 billion in 2015, from $100 million in 2011 (eMarketer) The average growth rate for gamification for the next two years is 150% (M2 Research) More than a quarter of the online population now plays at least one game per month on a social network and the industry is expected to hit the $1B mark this year (M2 Research) More than 70% of Global 2000 organizations will have at least one gamified application, by...

Community is a powerful force, speaking to something fundmental about us as human beings. We like to belong. And, we like to feel we belong to something with other people who are like us. It is within the places and groups that we choose to belong to that we strengthen our sense of who we are – and that is something that makes us feel really, really good. As marketers, helping our customers to feel good is what we could call ‘the marketing love-train’. If customers associate your brand with a sense of belonging and feel-good-ness, you’re defintely kicking some marketing ass. It’s also the approach that many video games use to foster community and loyalty, and can be applied equally to brands. Building community is one of gamification’s strengths. Harnessing our core human motivations At its fundamental level, gamification appeals to core human motivation such as the need to: 1...

There is increasing evidence of the positive impact ‘serious games’ can have on health outcomes.  A recent report by the PM’s Chief Science Advisor Sir Peter said there is increasing evidence that e-therapies are as effective as face-to-face therapies in mild and moderate mental disorders, and a new mental health strategy will feature social media and e-health therapies. A pioneer in this field is the SPARX videogame, created by NZ reseachers to tackle teenage depression using cognitive behavioral therapy, packaged in a fun and appealing way. Metia Interactive, an Auckland based game development studio partnered with the Ministry of Health and Auckland University to create SPARX. The British Medical Journal has recently released the results, which show that SPARX delivers on its promise. 44% of those who played SPARX recovered completely from depression, compared with 26% of those in regular treatment, a significant difference. The study follows up two smaller trials of...

Back in 2007 while studying Software Engineering at Auckland University, Danushka Abeysuriya set the wheels in motion for what is now Rush Digital Interactive (RDI). RDI’s break came in 2010, when Ray Thomson from ICE Angels invested and massively accelerated their growth. Today RDI is a three-person operation based in the award-winning Ironbank Building on Auckland’s iconic Karangahape Rd. One of their most interesting creations is a smart phone game creation framework – “IgnitionWare”  – which is designed to make it easier to create video games! They’ve used this to produce some truly cool games on the platform (and assist on production of others). They’ve let this early success go to their heads and have dreams of world domination firmly in their sights. As you do. The most notable game titles they’ve been involved with in the last 12 months would have to be their in-house title Drift Legends, and...