BlogSat

After Jane McGonigal 's talk at the gamification conference , I had the same thought that I had as I was reading Tim Ferriss' 4-hour work week earlier today. Some observations from these sources, general self-help lore, and logic: Eustress (the opposite of distress) is a good thing. Its the "good" stress that you experience during gaming that makes you focussed, motivated, alert, determined, persistent etc.. The more often you can get yourself in this state (especially while doing things in the real world that have an impact on your own life) the better. One of the reasons (only one, mind you) we're able to do so well in this state is that we're less scared of the consequences of failure in a game and so more willing to be...well.. heroic. In life, we tend to over-estimate the negative consequences of taking risks or deferring tasks or doing anything unconventional, which leads to stress and makes us less likely to get to "hero" situations. So som...

I attended the Gamification Summit 2011 a couple of weeks ago in San Francisco. I couldn’t stay through the whole thing because of a couple of things that came up, but I enjoyed what I could attend. Summary: The goal was to try and put some structure around gaming design and techniques, and review techniques, applications, successes and failures. Some interesting, and not-very-interesting, insights from practitioners. Great afternoon keynote by Jane McGonigal about trying to understand what makes a great game (going beyond obvious gaming tactics) - i.e. “Can we replicate the spirit of game, not just the technique?” Panel on Gamification in the Real World: Location, Commerce and User Experience: Well-moderated by Jenn Van Grove Blake Scholl, CEO, Kima Labs (Barcode Hero) A game layer is the face of our reputation system. Expert status is the motivation to share more and get more reputations What’s the usage like? Very few people actually capture their opinions and recommendations. We...

TechCrunch warned me about this months ago, yet today I finally got around to taking a look. I started playing Desktop Tower Defense , and suddenly it was 1.5 hours later. :):( The continued success and playing of relatively simple games like Tetris and Snake shows that there's something about simple, relatively low-strategy games that still appeals to us. The success of games like Tower Defense, shows that there's plenty of room still available to innovate in this space.

Zodiac : Caught this last week (or maybe the week before.) Pretty good movie! Works as a thriller, works as the multiple character studies. The cast is pretty awesome and you're riveted all through. Thumbs up! Pan's Laybrinth : Caught this one today. I loved it! Every single minute! Wow! I realized at the end of the movie, I'd been so into it, I'd even forgotten to drink my soda.:) In different places the movie leaves you smiling, cringing, looking away in horror and/or disgust, and by the end of it all, genuinely feeling for almost every single character in the movie. It strikes just that right balance between a fairy tale and a grim reality, leaving you never quite sure what you believe or want to believe.It bears repeating: Wow! Time Crisis 3 : Since, I spent almost half as much playing this game as I did on the movie (both times), it deserves a review too.:) Pretty awesome! Huge upgrade on the original. You get multiple weapon options and the action scenes are a v...