Comments on: Gamification: How Can We Work It?

By: Lenora Tooher

Lenora Tooher — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 17:51:00 +0000

We need to lean on the gaming ‘addiction’ by presenting ads from the NIAID HIV successes and allow the gamers to enjoy their game but at certain ‘game winning moments’, whether that is during the game (ie. you do a double-jump in checkers; you catch a faster ball; you made it to the next level, etc.), before or after the ‘loss’ or ‘win’ of the game at hand, you should put a very small snippet of health data that is just too simple to forget AND too important NOT to know. Sex sells and we all know it. The company needs/should agree to comply with insertion of this ‘factoid’ in order to help the world learn. The ‘dumming down of America’ needs to cease. Weave the ‘factoid’ into a data snippet which is presented to the gamer ie. a picture of the new condom or ‘goop’ or ‘news of the day’ such as ’54 lives were saved in San Francisco today (put their locale here so it is relevant!)’ followed by the new medicine available. A SLOW fade of the ad will make it not so abrupt and annoying to the viewer. It is impact and hopefully knowledge which will be gained regardless of the cognitive state of the game player. Keep it simple! We can do it. For example, I may not care to remember the inane movie I was forced to watch years ago but there was something about those ’3 guys dressed in black, flowing capes who just slowly APPEARED and then strut out of the tall corn field’ that made me PAY ATTENTION. Trust me, I knew those 3 men meant business as should be our efforts to educate in a small way which is still effective. Steal from Hollywood- IF it is legal, of course.
Happy to help.

Professionally yours,

Lenora Tooher, MS, BS, BS Biology, Currently Unemployed and want to work!
Ex-AIDS Researcher with Dr. Kenneth Rand, MD Dir. of Virology Shands Teaching Hospital, Gainesville, FL

By: Adena DeMonte

Adena DeMonte — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 00:22:18 +0000

Great post Cathy! There are so many ways gamification can be used to encourage positive behavior and awareness of issues. I’m excited to present a panel on Gamification for Good at the Badgeville Summit this week (http://summit.badgeville.com) where the panelists — including case studies from sustainability, cancer awareness, health & wellness, and charitable giving will discuss ways gamification can be used to change the world for the better. If you happen to be near SF I’d be happy to extend you and the community an invite to this event.

By: Stephen Baer

Stephen Baer — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 22:06:35 +0000

Great post…

2 weeks ago, my company (The Game Agency) launched Bridge2Care.com, a gamified e-learning platform developed to help healthcare professionals link HIV+ individuals to and retain patients in care. Bridge2Care.com combines traditional e-learning techniques with motivational game mechanics to create a learning environment that empowers healthcare professionals and improves their performance on the job.

Bridge2care.com is the result of collaboration between experts in the fields of public policy, education and game development and was underwritten by pharmaceutical company Merck & Co.

Using the latest technology for seamless interactivity across multiple web-browsers, Bridge2Care.com guides users through five learning modules with a combination of didactic training, video simulations and game mechanics that both engage and evaluate understanding of the material. Within this self-paced, modular program, users receive points for everything they do and can unlock badges for good performance, frequent use and completion activities.