June 19, 2012

India's largest online food guide - Gamified!

If you haven't heard of Zomato.com, you need to check it out! As the title says, it is the largest food portal (see numbers below) in the country and soon expanding to Singapore in September 2012.




So, why are we talking about it? The special news is that, as of this week, they have gamified themselves!! Haven't we been telling you gamification is the emerging technology to watch out for?

To know more about this, here's a short interview I managed to conduct with the the co-founder of Zomato, Pankaj Chaddah (yes I have fancy connections :P)

Q1. What motivated Zomato.com to come up with the review leaderboards and badges? 
PC: "We introduced these social features on Zomato to increase user engagement and build a platform which would be more than just information about restaurants. We want to push users to contribute more in terms of actions performed on Zomato (reviews, ratings) than use Zomato as just a website to check out details on restaurants. The perfect way to push more user activity is gratification and there is no greater gratification than featuring on the home page of the website as a leader and having a lot of followers reading and valuing your reviews."

Q2. Are there other game mechanics you have used in your website (apart from reviews) or that you intend to? 
PC: "Right now we are using ratings, reviews and follows are the key user actions. We will create engaging features around sharing pictures, QnA for food experts and check-ins very soon."

Q3. What are your views on gamification in the online business industry? Does it have a real future or is it just fad? Why? 
PC: "Gamification works if it is based on a useful platform as you are leveraging the content of the platform. Gamification is highly replicable and you will never be able to sustain the thrill of the platform for users unless there is useful content (content is king!). We hope to have the right mix of content and gamification."

Zomato.com has seized the opportunity that gamification and social networking provide. Not only will this help expand their user base (network effects) but also keep these users hooked! Despite the replicability of gamification that Pankaj mentions, I think by being one of the firsts and the largest to incorporate it, they are creating high switching costs, which is something anybody would want in this business.

So here's wishing them the best, all the way from Madrid.

PS. Guess who made it to their leaderboard.




June 18, 2012

Farmville has more accounts than Twitter


The title above may surprise many people, but it is actually a information taken from a news dated of march  2010. It was then that the number of active monthly accounts of Farmville surpassed the number of accounts of twitter (83 million against 75 million respectively)1, and, it still has more active accounts  today. But, if we stop and think about this information, what does it really means? Are people more interested in online games than in a powerful communication tool such as twitter?

http://4.mshcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/farmville-v-twitter-260.jpg







 Well the answer is no. Twitter and Farmville are two very distinct products, and a simple comparison can result in a erroneous conclusion. Twitter has a more personal connection to its user, it is a tool of communication that allows a spread of ideas, feeling and thoughts. It is much harder for a twitter user to change to another form of communication, (also due to its network effect) than it is for a Farmville user to play another game. Farmville has a excellent capacity of attracting users, but  it has no strong appeal to maintain its user for a long period of time.
 
The real conclusion we can make from this is that online games such as Farmville have the incredible capacity of attracting millions of users and of transforming a common activity such as watering plants and planting crops into an exciting and challenging game. This actually shows that if applied efficiently, gamification can transform any kind of activity into something captivating and entertaining. That's one of the greatest value that gamification has brought. It seems that Facebook (where Farmville is played) has really grasped this idea and has increased tremendously its games portfolio, attracting more users and keeping them actively checking in everyday, which for Facebook simply means making more revenue.





1. Webtrends, March 8, 2010

June 17, 2012

Recommendations for Education

Is this really the future?

We have given you quite a few articles and posts on gamification within the field of education, but it is now time to tell you what we think of the process overall.  It is good to hear the news regarding it, but as quasi-experts in our field, we'd like to open a discussion based around it.

First, I think we need to break it down into two categories:
1) self-learning
2) classroom learning

The impact that gamification has had on the self-learning is rather remarkable.  Due to the internet, more and more people have access to information about whatever they want.  If I want to become the next expert on underwater basket weaving, there are now places online where I can find information to help me.  However, where does gamification play a role in this?  We have already mentioned how there are places such as busuu.com that are designed to help you learn via the main tenets of gamification.  Similarly, people have designed programs like Epic Win that can help you in general to set and plan for your goals.  Thus, I am not overly worried for the future of gamification in self-learning, since that field is not only growing but showing actual results.

Perhaps here gamification can help

What I am worried about is gamification in the classroom.  As a former teacher, I have seen very few applications of this succeed.  Even if we go back to the old days of Oregon Trail, you can simply determine from most kids that these days were simply days to celebrate thanks to extra rest.  Minor games are of course always welcome and able to help draw the students' attention, but can it really go beyond this?  I am going to argue that at this point, it can't.  Gamification is great for inspiring the whole class temporarily, but given current programs and technology it is nearly impossible to go beyond that.  Does that make it a fad or something inconsequential?

I would argue no.  Elements of gamification are surely applicable to the field as a whole, such as trying to inspire and educate through say leaderboards within the classroom.  Plus, gamifying education has occurred ever since the first Homo Sapien taught another how to throw a weapon.  Even though we are amazed by how quickly and rapidly gamification has changed self-learning opportunities, we need to step back and have appropriate expectations for the field overall.  As long as we do that, we can continue to see minute gains in the classroom while experiencing revolution outside of it.