1st run with Runkeeper

I've been using Nike + running shizzle for some time now, but a friend said I really had to start running with Runkeeper and I must say, I think it beats the hell out of Nike +...

Here's my first run!

Running Activity 6.26 km | RunKeeper


Gamification is ON!

GetGlue - Gamification or just Badges...?

Do you guys know GetGlue? I saw a friend of mine was using it (on Facebook). It's another example of 'gamification' or rather 'badgification'. This tool rewards you for sites you visit, books and movies you buy, etc. It's a pity most gamification concepts don't come across just rewarding people with points and badges. They forget that in a game people also have to make sacrifices and put effort in to things before actually being rewarded. They have to put lives at stake (!) to achieve their goals, for instance saving the princess from a barrel-throwing monkey, with only 2 lives left...

In Foursquare they recently changed the ruleset which totally made the concept redundant. You can now check in from where ever you are into what ever place you want!? Wasn't the fun in Foursquare that you actually had to 'be there'...? In that case being able to see 'who else was there'...?

My best friend (you know who you are!) recently stole the mayor badge of my OWN HOUSE off me, checking in every day from HIS house, which is about 30 kilometers from my house... I have never felt so bad and I never checked in anywhere else afterwards. One lesson that the developers of Foursquare (and other so-called gamification concept developers) need to learn is that your ruleset has to be realistic, righteous and consequent (consistent in English I guess).

The feedback system is not the only element of a game, there is also goals, variables to achieve your goals, rules to limit your options and a reward - or - feedback system.

So please - when you are developing a good gamification concept, bare in mind these things. Use the basic drivers people have to develop your concept, then look at specific context-related behavior and activitites that consumers display. You can read more about our vision on Gamification HERE. It's one of my earlier posts.

Or for a good concept send an email to Bart at BrandNewGame ;-)

Mobile Gaming Report - Thanks to Distimo

Our friends at Distimo, a research company in Utrecht - The Netherlands, just released a 27 pages report about the mobile gaming market. These slides are the highlights, in my opinion. 

The major findings are:

• Games are still the most popular downloads for Phones, whether paid or free 

• The average selling price of games declined by 28% over the last year, while the revenue generated by the most successful freemium games increased tenfold during this period in the Apple App Store for iPhone.

• The presence of virtual currencies within games is one of the main reasons behind the popularity and monetization success of in-app purchases. 35% of the 300 most popular free games in June use some sort of virtual currencies to monetize in the Apple App Store for iPhone.

• Looking at the 300 most popular paid for applications, 72% of downloads are

generated by games while the remaining 28% of downloads are generated by

applications other than games in the Apple App Store for iPhone.

• The total revenue generated by top grossing games increased by 79% year-on-year in the Apple App Store for iPhone.

• A small number of publishers dominate total game downloads: ten publishers

account for more than half of all downloads among the 300 most popular paid

games in the Apple App Store for iPhone.

• Notwithstanding the popularity of games, the growth rate of the number of

applications other than games is higher than the growth rate of the number of

games in most stores. The number of games has increased faster than other apps only in the Apple App Store for iPhone, the Apple App Store for iPad and GetJar, but the growth rate for games in other stores is lower than for other applications.

It's interesting to see that more and more games (and apps) are using the freemium model and use 'micro-transactions / ingame-transactions' (as described in my book 'A Brand New Playground') to make money. It's a trend that is apparently evident if you look at the data. 


For more mobile research and consultancy, please visit Distimo's website: http://www.distimo.com

German Gaming Market grows 6% to 4,6 billion euros!

Thanks to Peter Warman from Newzoo, an update on the German Market in just 1 infographic, for all my American and English readers. ;-) The US market declined somewhat last year (3%) as did the UK Market (1%).

Thanks for the additional information to Gamasutra!

Angry Birds Cinematic Trailer

For people that never wondered why the birds are angry ... here's the trailer of the original game... A movie is in the making, so that should add even more emotion to the gameplay experience ;-)

Diesel Island National Anthem

Diesel is starting their own Island to create a better world. The first 'real' place they will actually start their new country is within the world of PlayStation Home - the virtual social network of Sony PlayStation.

This is what Diesel believes:

“We, at Diesel, have a stupid dream. What would it be like to start a nation from scratch? To take what is great from the countries we know and ditch what is bad. To re-write the laws. To right social wrongs. A country for only the brave. A nation in which all you future citizens of Diesel Island have the chance of being Stupid Pioneers. The first nation that truly cares about what you like and dislike. Hop on the plane from 21st July, boarding through our updated store in the PlayStation Home Shopping Centre. New Look, New Stuff – some of it free. Welcome to Diesel Island. Land of the Stupid and Home of the Brave.”

So the 'island' seems to be a virtual place within Home, but in the beginning is just a new clothing line that is being sold at the 'in-game Diesel store' in the shopping mall of PlayStation Home. Don;t let that withhold you from getting the latest, coolest fashion items! - Diesel rules!

More information on the PlayStation weblog

iPad 2 AirPlay Mirroring Hands On WalkThrough By AppleNApps.com

Apple TV meets Wii-U controller functionalities through iPad...

I found this out today, through a friend of mine at Crossmarks (thanks Marc).

It's quite amazing how the iPad can be used as a controller for all your Apple content, especially for games (then scroll / fast-forward to 2:28 minutes in the video).

iPlay Mirroring offers great opportunities for innovation! Now go check out the video!

SmartGate - the Game 2 just launched...

I still discovered some bugs, but SmartGate the Game 2 has been released. After almost 16 months of talking, looking for the main problems around air cargo and in the offices of all stakeholders, IJsfontein delivered game 2 and my job as a consultant is done!
The first game was all about transporting cargo from shipper to airplane. Game 2 of the SmartGate project takes this a little bit further and brings more detail to the playing field. It let's you experience the possible effects of your actions in a virtual logistic air cargo game.
My first thoughts at the time where that the 'final' game of the SmartGate project would be a sort of RUSE / Sim City / Logistic Tycoon in an air cargo environment where the player needs to build up a solid business (like the game 'Jones', if people remember the 90's).
The main purpose of the game is to manage your air cargo business in a efficient, safe and reliable way. This means that, depending on the sort of cargo, it's destination and the reputation of the trucker, you make decisions to either do the job or don't and if there is a risk involved, that you manage that risk to your best ability (e.g. either employing specialist staff or having each shipment checked by Customs).

We also enclosed some minigames in the so-called 'e-learning' section where we challenge players on specific knowledge about exceptional situations and dilemma's.

Besides this, we also included a badges system. The more efficient you are (planes leave the airport 100% full) or if you always check your cargo, you will receive badges and upgrades. The best thing to have in Air Cargo is an AEO status (Authorized Economic Operator) which means you are a reliable party within the chain.

And of course there is a leader board where you can check your score.

I challenge everyone to play the game and let me know what you think!

You can play it here: http://www.smartgatethegame.nl/game2/

RESULTS GAME 1 

The results of the first game where quite impressive by the way. There are about 2.000 people active in the Air Cargo sector around Schiphol airport and almost 1.300 of them played the game! That's almost two-third of all people in the sector.

Apart from that we had 3.700 visits in four months time and a total of 184.000 page views!

Dirt Devil-The Exorcist

Just because it's fantastic...

Slide stairs at train station playful lifestyle

What a great way to gamify physical surroundings. A train station in The Netherlands build a slide next to stairs. Go visit Station Overvecht in Utrecht and experience it for yourself!

This is where life should be going! ;-)

Gamification - Playful Lifestyle - A Slide!

Check out this great slide next to the stairs of a train station in The Netherlands (Utrecht Overvecht to be precise)... I will slide down later today, but it was wet when I was checking it out today and I did'n want to have a wet tush at the start of my day... hahaha. More 2 Come!

Online Schools | State of the Internet 2011

Online Schools | State of the Internet 2011

One of the coolest infographics I have seen, about the state of (social) internet... and it's Dynamic!

Created by: Online Schools

Twelevision = TV + Twitter

Will this be the future of social TV? - Sharing stuff we say about our favorite shows? Why not switching on Facetime or Skype while watching TV? I use Skype when I play multiplayer games with my friends...

HealthSeeker: Engaging and Motivating with a Facebook Game

A game to improve your level of 'healty lifestyle!' on Facebook. I haven't played it yet, but hey - I eat my vegetables and fruit every day, run 5 km every week and at least cycle once a week... ;-) Go check it out if you ...like...

www.healthseekergame.org 

BrandNewGame on Gamification

Brand New Game on gamification

View more presentations from Bart Hufen [BrandNewGame]

Steam (the iTunes store for epic games) offers Free Games!

Steam - the online store for all 'epic' games like Call of Duty, R.U.S.E. and really many, many more will offer five F2P (Free to Play) Launch Titles Offering Exclusive Content to Celebrate Launch

Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Counter-Strike, Half-Life, Left 4 Dead, Portal, and Team Fortress) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today introduced support for Free to Play (F2P) Games on Steam with the launch of five F2P games.

Available immediately, the launch titles are Spiral Knights, Forsaken Worlds, Champions Online: Free for All, Global Agenda: Free Agent, and Alliance of Valliant Arms (AVA). 

Beginning tomorrow (Weds) with Spiral Knights and concluding Sunday with AVA, each of the five launch titles will offer exclusive in-game content to those who try the "F2P game of the day" on Steam. In game transactions in all of the titles will be supported by Steam's micro-transaction backend system that is available to Steamworks partners and currently used in Valve's Team Fortress 2. 

"The introduction of Free to Play games is another example of the constant evolution of Steam," said Jason Holtman, director of business development at Valve. "Free to Play games offer new game genres and game experiences for customers, while offering developers and publishers new revenue opportunities and the ability to reach customers in areas of the world where the traditional packaged goods model is less popular than F2P." 

Specific details on the F2P games of the day and their exclusive in-game content will be made available in the coming days.

Steam is a leading platform for PC & Mac games and digital entertainment serving over 1,500 games to over 30 million active accounts worldwide. For more information, please visit www.steamgames.com

Gameful design & Gamification - an extensive presentation

Only 177 slides by a German called Sebastian Deterding from London...? ;-)

Enjoy!

Don't Play Games With Me! Promises and Pitfalls of Gameful Design

View more presentations from Sebastian Deterding