Here I are again, considering extrinsic rewards and their effect on motivation.
Recently I was told that it is obvious that if a person is given more money to do their job, that they will do it better and probably enjoy it more. I stopped myself quoting Deci or Pink, I smiled, politely disagreed and went on with my day. However, it got me thinking. Ignoring the research, I was wondering, what does common sense tell us about that statement.
I am unhappy in my job, will I be happier if I am Read more [...] Money, Motivation and Common Sense
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Here I are again, considering extrinsic rewards and their effect on motivation.
Recently I was told that it is obvious that if a person is given more money to do their job, that they will do it better and probably enjoy it more. I stopped myself quoting Deci or Pink, I smiled, politely disagreed and went on with my day. However, it got me thinking. Ignoring the research, I was wondering, what does common sense tell us about that statement.
I am unhappy in my job, will I be happier if I am Read more [...] 
I am pretty excited about this one.
Gamification User Types
When I created my gamification User Types definitions, it was with a mind to help people consider who is going to be in their gamified systems and what may motivate them. I started with the intrinsic motivation RAMP I keep talking about, Relatedness, Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose. From this I created the Socialiser, Free Spirit, Achiever and Philanthropist user types. That covered the who and the what - who the user may be and what it 
The beginning of June sees not only sunshine, but also a new series of short tutorial / information videos that a few people have asked me to do.
The first video is just a very short introduction to gamification. In it I talk a little about what it is and what it isn't.
The second video takes a look at motivation and introduces RAMP as a concept.
Future videos will include a deeper look at motivation, the extrinsic vs intrinsic argument, user types, leaderboards, feedback loops, mechanics 
A question I get asked a lot is, “Why does gamification fail?”. Gartner said that by 2014, 80% of gamified systems will fail due to poor design. My question is, what is poor design? I had thought that it was really just implementing “thin layer” points, badges and leader boards to a system that was already not working. Whilst that is true, it actually misses out on some important extra factors.
So, with that in mind, here are some reasons that I feel will contribute to gamification not 
Dan Pink and Ryan & Deci are quoted a lot when we talk about motivation - I include myself in that and this is good - they have a lot of research to back up everything they say.
The basic quote usually revolves around. Money is not a good motivator. Mastery, Purpose, Autonomy and in some quoted cases Relatedness are what we need. They are intrinsic motivators, money is not.
True.
There are a few things most fail to mention. One is the fact that this is most true for creative tasks. The 
Last week, some of you may have seen that I created a new page that tried to summarise the differences between gamification, serious games, real games and gameful design.
I posted the following chart to as a quick reference guide.
Anyone who has read my blogs will know that I am a little against the constant arguments about what gamification is and what it isn't, so this may seem a little hypocritical. Here I am defining it after all. Well, things change and whilst I still think that excluding 
Note, when I am talking about user types, I am referring to my classification user types found here!
Status in the realms of gamification is a funny thing. It is something that we all agree is important, but seem divided on its nature. Some talk about it as an intrinsic motivator others extrinsic.
In the animal kingdom status is simple, the higher your status the more good stuff you can get. The Alpha dog gets more food, gets more women and has more chance of their gene pool continuing 
Last week I started to explore my ideas about the different types of users there are likely to be in a gamified system. I have had loads of feedback, mostly very positive. Thanks for that. One question that keeps coming up is "what about the Player user type"? "There must be more too it!". The answer is, of course, yes. There is a lot more.
What I explored last week was really just the intrinsically motivated types of users. Those doing things for purely self related reasons. Helping others, because 
There is rather an important update at the end after Richard Bartle offered me some advice!
It had to happen eventually. I had to look at some kind of “player type” theory. Many people have one, Richard Bartle probably having the most famous and most abused of the player type theories out there.
What’s it all about Richard?
For those that don’t know, Richard Bartle labelled players as one of four types to help him understand how they interacted with each other and their environments 
Leaderboards are an effective way to show a user quickly where they currently stand within a gamified system. A fun example is the Gamification Gurus leaderboard from the company Leaderboarded. Each month they release an update that shows who has been active in the gamification world that month. It is a great example of a leaderboard being used in isolation – without all of the points and badges that are often associated with simple gamification.
Many blogs and websites these days make