Wednesday 29 December 2010

Interested in real, human, intense generation of value?

According to the UK video games trade body UKIE, interactive games were the gift of choice this Christmas – they were certainly popular with the lloydmasters team and their children.

So with more than one in three people considering themselves gamers, video games and interactive entertainment really are part of everyone’s everyday lives and this got us to thinking – can gaming help the business word?

Tom Chatfield, a Gaming Theorist, thinks gaming has potentially huge implications for personal and collective engagement in business, education and government. His talk '7 way games reward the brain'  gives great insights about learning, collaboration, motivation, and rewards and incentives.

Key messages:
  • Experience bars measuring progress – don’t grade performance incrementally, count and recognise all the small increments on the way
  • Multiple long and short-term aims – set up many calibrated complimentary targets that can be done in parallel, instead of one endless boring slog
  • Rewards for effort – give credit for trying and reward failure, using small reinforcing rewards keeps people engaged and willing to keep trying
  • Rapid, frequent, clear feedback – it’s hard to learn if you can’t link outcomes to actions
  • An element of uncertainly – a neurological goldmine, transforming engagement when you’re guaranteed some kind reward and know it might be a big one!
  • Windows of enhanced attention – memorable moments, ‘nuggets’ that build memory and confidence
  • Other people – how people motivate each other to achieve bigger collaborative objectives – it takes a lot of people to kill a dragon

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