About our Panellists

Marigo Raftopolous - Founder of Strategic Games Lab (Leader in Enterprise gamification) and Executive Producer of Games for Change, and advisor to Gamification startups at Pollenizer and Blue Chilli Technology

Patrick McQuaid - Project Director at NAB, who's currently exploring the implementation of gamified projects at NAB.

Sean Callanan - Founder at SportsGeek    Sports Geek recently launched Sports DP, a sports fan engagement web product built for sports teams at the 2011 NBA Draft with the Minnesota Timberwolves

What is Gamification?

Gamification is the use of game design techniques, game thinking and game mechanics to enhance non-game contexts.

Play + Game Mechanics (can) = Enjoyable Game
Work + Game Mechanics (can) = Employee Engagement

Serious games are games designed for a primary purpose other than pure entertainment – such as war games as a learning tool in the military.

In 2007 Bunchball first started using the term gamification to describe this process, that had been around for decades, but marginalised into the military and educational environments.

Note designing games to promote behavioural change for a commercial gain is generally considered morally wrong and in some countries, eg Japan, it is illegal.

Game Theory is different from Game Mechanics. Its the study of mathematical models of conflict and cooperation between intelligent rational decision-makers

But Specific Game Mechanics from www.gamification.org, include: