Reporting by Ciara Taylor
"Since video games are designed with the primary purpose of entertainment, shouldn't they be able to make other non-game products more enjoyable?"
At Interaction12, Dustin DiTommaso, Experience Design Director of Mad*Pow, discussed this concept during his talk "Beyond Gamification: Architecting Engagement Through Game Design Thinking." DiTommaso shared his unique perspective with attendees and explained how gamification can be utilized as a tool in Interaction Design.
DiTommaso opened by giving attendees some insight into gamification and game design. But before diving in, he shared some common misconceptions of gamification and how it is currently being utilized. He mentioned a comment made by Jared Spool, principal of User Interface Engineering, which seemed to be a common theme throughout the conference. Spool said that gamification is "all that crap people are pushing because we have a generation of people who grew up on games." Now, that's not a surprising remark considering the amount of discourse around gamification. Both gamers and academics have expressed a similar response, as gamification has become a trend. DiTomasso moves forward in his discussion by indentifying the "usual suspects" of gamification as badges, points, leaderboards, and awards.
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