Gamification... What Really Motivates Us?

Jan Bidner and I met recently at the Gamification World Congress in Barcelona. We sat together at the first session and became instant friends.

In fact, we had the opportunity to participate in a Gamification Guru Panel, which you can listen to here:

Gamification World Congress - Gurus Panel Part 1

Gamification World Congress - Gurus Panel Part 2

Of course we had a lot of discussion about gamification and gamification design. Gamification is an amplifier of the core activity. Which means you have to know what the core activity loops are. Which also mean that the if the core activity is crap you will amplify crap. It is the core experience that we are designing for. 

That is why gamification won’t work if we use prefab game mechanics without knowing why people would engage with the activity. 

In this episode of Gamification Talk Radio, Jan and I discuss what really motivates us and what can we do in our gamification design to engage our players in the core activity.




About Jan Bidner: Jan lives in Umeå (a university town in northern Sweden with a population of 120 000). He has worked as a stage actor and drama teacher, and has been an IT-professional since 2003.   

Since 2013 he has been with Sogeti, where his role is a project manager and gamification expert. Jan has been developing educational games and pursuing knowledge about learning, pedagogy and motivational design ever since he started his IT studies. Connect with Jan:  @janbidner, www.sogeti.se and www.endigo.se

About Your Host:  A gamification speaker and designer, Monica Cornetti is rated as the #1 Gamification Guru in the World by UK-Based Leaderboarded. She is the Founder and CEO of the Sententia Gamification Consortium and the author of the book Totally Awesome Training Activity Guide: Put Gamification to Work for You. Monica’s niche is gamification used in the corporate environment. Connect with Monica (@monicacornetti) www.monicacornetti.com