My personal aggregation of pertinent points made at the Gamification World Congress 2015 as well as my first ever professional presentation/slideshare upload. Comments regarding content and presentation design are most welcomed.

1. Brighton Gamification
Meetup
Cool stuff from GWC15
25th November 2015
by Joshua Wong

2. • Stop me at any time if you have questions by waving your hands.
• My interpretation might not be totally accurate and are open to
editions and corrections.
• Approach: Starting with my key personal insight from GWC before
branching out to as many presentations as I can.
• Extremely sorry I couldn't squeeze in everyone T.T
• (edited) I am aware that it’s quite wordy for a presentation (even if
it was for 40 minutes). I was hoping this will be useful for a slide
deck and hope the amount of content was a good balance.
Things to note for a great presentation!

3. Introduction : Joshua Wong
• Gamification (Public Policy) Researcher
@ LSE
• Business Development Associate
@ GlobalHRU
• Singapore, WOW, MUN, many interests…

4. Plot Twist
• Credits to Andrzej Marczewski

5. People found “Dancification” cool..

6. • Pete wanted me to give a
presentation about personal
reflections + people's
presentations.
• Good idea for anchoring theme
• A) It's personal to me.
• B) Pete said I should really do this.
• C) It’s nice to have a thing.
Inspiration!

7. • "As a happiness lesson, nothing
could be more straightforward: if
you get a chance to dance in a
circle, get up out of your chair
and do it" (Jennifer Michael
Hecht, The Happiness Myth)
• "Dancer's high : Endorphins +
Oxytocin + Vagus Nerve" (Jane
McGonigal, Reality is Broken)
• An Coppens @ GWC14
Dance has benefits!

8. What lessons can we draw from the gurus to
motivate people to get this benefit from dance?

9. • Background : Me and my friends often
discuss how we can encourage dance,
and I found our ideas validated by the
gurus’ wisdom!
• Wow! Social dancing aka “clubbing”
are forms of gamified movement!
(Horst Streck of Dutch Games
Association)
• Understanding principles of
gamification can help us to better
motivate people to dance socially.
Insights!

10. What is a game? (Bernard Suits)
• Playing a game is the voluntary attempt
to overcome unnecessary obstacles.
• No one is asking you explicitly to move
in such potentially cheesy ways. But...
• It can be challenging
• It is engaging with flow
• It is definitely fun if "designed right"
• To me, that’s definitely clubbing!

11. People are motivated to do things for
different reasons. (Yukai Chou of Octalysis)
• Octalysis: A systematic way to think
through different motivations and
how to design solutions.
• Previously uncomprehensive, unclear.
• Default sentiment: "I can't dance! I
lack coordination."
• Too much focus on Development and
Accomplishment!
• It crowds out all other motivations!

12. People are motivated to do things for
different reasons. (Yukai Chou of Octalysis)
• To the Group: "Dance is something
special! Happiness hacking!"
• More Epic Meaning and Calling
• To Skilled Dancers, "Dance WITH
people, not FOR them“. Get people
into the circle’s middle!
• More Social Influence &
Relatedness
• More Ownership and Possession

13. People are motivated to do things for
different reasons. (Yukai Chou of Octalysis)
• To New Dancers: "Dance to EXPRESS,
not IMPRESS“. Just dance!
• Less Development and Accomplishment
(Dance).
• More Empowerment of Creativity and
Feedback.
• More Development and Accomplishment
(Confidence).

14. Barely scratched the
surface. Go get the book.

15. Motivational needs changes as skill improves!
Gamification Spectrum (Michael Wu of Lithium)
• Recognise that people change. Nurture their motivations and
encourage responsibilities accordingly as seen previously.
• P.S Keep an
eye out for
the recently
patented
“Gamification
Spectrum”!
(Science of
Social)

16. It needs to in order to keep people
engaged! (Mikhail Csikszentmihalyi)
• Make sure people know how to develop
themselves. (especially for beginners!)
• "base-variation" – Something simple to fall
back on to keep dancing before moving to
something complex.
• "musicality“ – Get the feel of the music
rather than attempting to copying /
coordinating every dance move.

17. Anchoring Premise for GWC Analysis
Beyond dance, we can thus see gamification is about
giving us the frameworks to understand how society is
designed (which in turn allows us to improve on it).

18. Theme 1: There are largely no limits to what we can
do in the long run.
To gamify something is to adapt the fundamental
dynamics of human motivation and engagement
that underpins all things.

19. Gamification and Sports (Thijs de
Vries of the Playful Company)
• Sports is a Game (Back to Basics) - An often
physical, competitive activity involving physical
exertion/skill + rules.
• You can always design a better game!
• Gamified running? Soccer!
• Gamified Soccer? Smartball!
• Aka a "sportier sporty experience".
• Gamification is not discovering something
new, it's a perspective to examine things.

20. Gamification and the Future (Gabe
Zichermann of Gamification Co &
Dopamine Inc)
• That’s why Gamification is here to stay. Our
value is no longer a question, it's a given. We
are no longer the hot girl on the block. Now
we need to normalise and be accepted.
• (Joshua) We are wife material! Steady lah!
• We are in a very primitive stage. There are
MANY things that we can do.

21. Gartner Hype Cycle 2015 : Gamification?

22. Aside: Sight (Eran May-raz and Daniel Lazo)
Werbach’s
Coursera
Course.
• Can you
imagine that?
We need to!
• Have
standards to
reality!
• We will figure
out the how!

23. Philosophy of Gamification (Roman Rackwitz
of EngagingLab)
• Sense of History + Future Vision.
• How will gamification leverage it’s
uniqueness to break from the past?
• Focus on enriching not enslaving
people to business objectives.
• Too much "noise" in the market.
There is more to just money making.
• We need to collectively aspire for the
practice to serve a higher purpose.

24. Future of Gamification (Jeroen Van Mastrigt -
Ide of FutureLabs)
• Why is this new form of new
media is being used to do the
work of the old. (PBL)
• Why are we optimising old
motivations when we can do
more?

25. Gamification’s role in Historical Trends
• Scaling of large people driven system.
Previously, organisations were large-in-
personal or small people driven.
• Homo Economicus vs Homo Ludens.
Extrinsic motivation is more costly to
people over time. Intrinsic motivation is
less or even negatively so.
• Mastery of the system or feel enslaved by
it. (Joshua: Marx ‘s Structural alienation?)

26. Short Run Enterprise Limitations - Technology
(Marigo Raftopoulos of Strategic Games Lab)
"Barriers were primarily with technology. …
vendor solutions are (not) mature enough yet."
• Platform capability – integration into existing
systems.
• Vendor capability – what do the vendors want.
• System integration - how long is the process?
• Data analytics – Not there yet.
P.S Marigo is writing a PHD Enterprise
Gamification. 1.3 MILLION minutes of research.

28. Short Run Consumer Limitations - Technology
• Data Science - adapt algorithms and pick up correlations to abstract
measures e.g. "likability“?
• Artificial Intelligence – recommend actions based on the nuanced and
varied reactions on other person?
• Processing capacity - fit such powerful processing capacity into contact
lens?
• Sensory technology - pick up subtle changes in human beings?

29. Self Imposed Limitations - Too Much
(Bernardo Crespo of Divisadero)
• Overuse of certain mechanics can “jade”
your average user by oversaturating them
with gamified opportunities.
• Limit user’s attention and motivation in the
future making it harder to engage them
where it matters.
• “risk of killing the goose that lays the
golden egg”.
• P.S Part of his 7 deadly sins article. Google
online. #pic
• P.S. Remember Roman! Moving beyond the
hamster wheel model of solely motivation

30. Self Imposed Limitation – Ethics.
• Sight’s “Wingman” App : Give a girl a score?
• Hacking : Very powerful tech companies.
• Oppression : Perverse motivations.
• (e.g Hunger Games)
• Legal Problems : For the Win
• P.S. Andrzej’s Open Code of Ethics @
Gamification Hub (FB Group)!
• P.S. GamFed collaborating as well!

31. Theme 2: We need to be expand our thinking and
prepare to be versatile/multi-disciplinary.
If this logic connects all things, I must know what
force complements it and what fields I can expand
this to.

32. Everyone in their own way can and must dance!
It benefits people from all walks of life!
The Great (Gamification) Journey (Gabe Zichermann)
• "No one has attempted to create community that
focuses on behaviour change over such a diverse
varieties of disciplines and industries."
The Ratatouille Principle (Kevin Werbach)
• "The most successful new gamification efforts will
come from people schooled in "traditional" areas ...
who take the lessons ... and apply them to fields they
understand and know."

33. What complementary
disciplines have we seen so far?
• Sports and traditional games (Thijs de Vries)
• Philosophical / normative (Roman Rackwitz)
• Economic history (Jeroen Van Mastrigt-Ide)
• (Soon) Feminism and gender (An Coppens)

34. Gamification and Art (Chris Solarski)
• Shape differences (Circle, Triangle,
Square)
• Building up (Pacing, Contemplation)
• LOADS affect UX (Environment,
Framing, Responsiveness)
• Rule for all engaging games and
media: Show don't tell.

35. P.S. Chris is going to publish/published a book soon!

36. Gamification and Media Studies
• The Refugee Challenge: Can you
break into Fortress Europe?
(Guardian Interactive)
• Understanding that games are
just the next engaging form of
media. Tablets > Paper > Digital
Media > Simulations
• Meetup on the 8th Dec in
London. NewsGames meetup:
UsVsTh3m

37. Gamification and Physiology
• Other states of flow (Dancification)
• Indirect framing of mind (Anna Sort of
PlayBenefit Gamification)
• Aural Psychology (Pete Jenkins of
Gamification+ Ltd)
• More papers from the Health Workshop
• P.s. SuperBetter! 1000 > 500 Papers! (Jane
McGonigal)

38. Gamification with Non-Profits 1
Spread it everywhere! Solve the unsolvable!
• By (Philipp Busch and Volker Lichtenthaeler of the
GIZ)
• Hackathon in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
• Champion team was AfriONE, solving tribal problems.
Necessity is the mother of invention. Some of the most
innovative solutions will come from the places with the
least resources. (Jane McGonigal)

39. Gamification with Non-Profits 2
Recognise the potential it can bring.
• Evoke (World Bank by Pau Puig Gabarro )
• Award winning platform. (G4C + WB)
• Use of local, relatable narratives.
• Questfulness, actionable, industry
demanded knowledge. Real, life changing
skills relevant beyond Africa.
P.S. Remember Roman! The ultimate goal of
gamification is to bring a more fulfilling
existence to all!

40. Gamification with Non-Profits 3
Get it recognised! get it adopted!
• Gamification + Diplomacy? (Joris Beerda
of Octalysis/Netherlands Foreign Service)
• People engagement: Afghanistan,
Bangladesh, Burundi, Congo, Cambodia,
Laos, Pakistan, Rwanda and Thailand.
• “You can discover more about a person in
an hour of play than in a year of
conversation.” (Plato).

41. Theme 3: Persuasion = Communication + Empathy
Beyond industry specific knowledge, we need to
learn how to communicate our niche in general.

42. Clubbing : Contemporary but misperceived.
• How do we reframe it?
• For young, sexy dancers
having a wild time?
• Or something for friends
as well as to bring the
community together?
• Like Gamification, need
to break negative
preconceptions.

43. The Platinum Rule - Empathy in general (Jose
Colunga of Weggu and Carlos Martin of Comarch)
• Golden Rule "Do to others what you would like
them to do to you".
• Platinum Rule "Do to others what they would like
to be done to them".
• We are different! We are early adopters!
• (Yukai Chou) “We are a bunch of happy gamers that
realised, WOW. The world’s actually interested in
what we do.” Now how do we communicate it?

44. Empathy to Women (An Coppens of
Gamification Nation)
• Different motivations in general between
the genders (Female vs Male)
• Balance, respect, intuition, listening, empathy
• Succeed, new initiatives, deadlines, truth, goals
• Actionable: What kind of mechanics
resonate? Have mixed test groups.
• Note: women use more apps than men. It’s
a normative and business argument to be
more inclusive towards women.

45. Empathy to Enterprises (Alberto Tornero of PwC)
• Small Company, (lacking) money, brand
• “They will follow us!”
• Big Company, results / pioneering dream
• “I will fly alone!”
• Actionable : Set expectations and
objectives right, understand risks of
partners to build better relations.
• At the end of the day, it’s not about
mouse startups or elephant corporates,
it’s about people.

46. Making it relatable (Andrzej Marczewski
of Capgemini and Monica Cornetti)
Even Ninja Monkeys like to Play
• Very user friendly, but a lot of punchy stuff. (e.g.
Explaining the history of games / “Lusory Attitude”)
• (Werbach) “Sounding brilliant at cocktail party”. A sense
of deep appreciation of one’s craft.
Totally Awesome Training
• Small business training exercises + Expanded section of
gamification.
• Show how something people already accepted, and how
that can be improved with innovative game elements.

47. General Presentation / Style
• Both are great speakers and presentation style.
(e.g. pauses) Go youtube.
• Both have “swag”. (Important for dancers too!)
• Results: Both of them, together with Yukai
Chou, are the top 3 gurus of gamification,
invited to conduct 3/8 GWC15 workshops.

48. Communicating via Data
Data for Validation
• (Loyalty 3.0 from Bunchball) (Lord Kelvin)
• “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it”
Data for Contrast
• (Jurriaan van Rijswijk of Games for Health
Europe Foundation)
• Entertainment Games (100 billion) vs
Healthcare (6.5 trillion)
Data for Scale
• (Atul Gupta of eMee)
• Gamifying a city of 7 MILLION

49. Themes Roundup
We need to see that eventually all human activities can be "gamified"
• It’s simply improving the motivational/engagement design.
• Should it be gamified is a different, (normative) question.
We see a need to be more multidisciplinary as a result to
• A) have complimentary skillsets to motivation/engagement design.
• B) forge new frontiers and enrich all areas of human society.
We see that we need to make gamification more relatable and relevant.
• By being more empathetic to people different from us.
• By learning to communicate our vision and passions better.

50. Conclusion
• Games can give us the ideals and standard
to aspire to when redesigning.
• By observing of games, we are able to
better design ways that optimise reality.
(Melinda Jacobs of Subatomic).
• It’s just human system design. This is the
secret I discovered when I played World of
Warcraft. This is why I do what I do.

51. Thank you all. We have a long, long way to go.