Rarely to I listen to lyrics, but these ones are great -

So if I see you again,
Desperate and stoned,
Keep your prison locked up,
And I will leave my gun at home.

So it’s nice when you see things that are a little different. Some great lateral thinking here shows off what the game is all about…

Open in Chrome.

http://killscreendaily.com/articles/reviews/infinity-blade

I tell them I’m trying to give up soap, starting with shampoo. Why?  Because I’m increasingly intolerant of soap. Intolerant of its stupid, eczema inducing ways. You see, I get eczema on my hands, feet, and, now for extra fun, on my scalp. So if I go soap free, no more eczema? Well, I’ve still got a big red angry bit on my wrist, but no scalp nastiness.

Anyone who has eczema will tell you that it is a most tedious of conditions which leaves you terrified of public bathroom soap and addicted to E45 cream. I have cast aside E45, also convinced that it makes things worse, and now use glycerol – cheap as chips and makes you taste like a sugar mouse. And also handily doubles as cough syrup, just in case you have a sore throat as well as dry skin. Winner.

Anyway, back to this hair debacle. My hair is almost bearable, slightly waxy at the roots but no real hint that these mysterious luscious locks are anywhere near arriving. I have taken to gazing longingly at women on tube with their beautifully styled haircuts and their fringes – oh behold! So soft and smooth! I used to have a fringe. You could again, I tell myself angrily. But where is it now? Hidden away, embarrassed in a pony tail, greased back not with hair product from Boots, but literal product from my own idiotic head.

Every morning is a battle to resist the temptation of shampoo. I’ve thrown mine away, but my flatmate’s sit there on the side of the bath, luring me in with promises of soft, shiny, flowery smelling hair. But no, I trudge on every day determined to see this through. It must happen soon! The internet promised thick flowing locks in 2-6 weeks and the internet never lies right?

I’m going to give it another 2 weeks. And if my head persists in shitting its greasy matter all over my hair follicles then I’m back on the shampoo and getting a haircut. I want my fringe back. I looked cool with a fringe.

p.s. most of this has been stolen from the much cleverer Sebastian Deterding and his presentation ‘Pwned. Gamification and its discontent.‘ Please note his beautiful powerpointing too, especially his agenda slide – something else I will steal.

Gamification

A few weeks ago some of us at Dare went along to Playful – a conference loosly based on gaming.  Last year speakers were eulogising about gaming and how most brands haven’t cottened on to the premise that if you make stuff fun, then people will join in.

This year Playful started with an apology. An apology for gamification, ’badge measles’ if you will. Because it seems that there has been a universal misinterpretation for what is meant by ‘fun’. It started with FourSquare where you collect badges and mayorships for ‘checking in’ to places with a leader-board thrown in for added competition. But then things got weird. You started earning badges for ‘checking in’ to a wordpress blog, or for watching a TV show. Health ‘miles’ courtesy of Virgin Health, or perhaps the most bizarre of all  Mindbloom’s Life Game earning point for achieving life goals. Yes, the only reason why you would bother to achieve your live ambitions is to earn some points.

Gaming was once the solace of nerds and losers. Spotty boys with no girlfriends addicted to World of Warcraft. Or so the rest of the world thought. In fact gaming is so pervasive now thanks to the family friendly Wii, commuter friendly iPhone, and perversely popular procrastinator friendly Farmville and brands want a piece of the gaming action. But as  Sebastian Deterding pointed out there appears to be a bit of confusion. Here are some basic things about gaming that everyone should bear in mind:

1. Games are only fun when they are well designed. Like most of the stuff out there, 90% of it is rubbish. Just look at Little Britain – The Video Game for evidence of this fact.

2. Rewards are not achievements. The real achievements is the mastery. Taking the easiest bits to reproduce (points) and applying them to everything just results in stuff with gamey bits

3. Competition is not for everyone. A generalisation but women tend to prefer non competitive and cooperative play. Know your users, and playtest with them.

4. People will always game the system. Try and anticipate the unintended behaviour – is it possible that players of EcoDrive are actually driving more dangerously to try and cheat the system?

5. Whoever must play, cannot play. Design a system where people are free to play their own way, not just collect points through prescribed actions.

So there we go. That was the post. As with all things, people misunderstand stuff and here think that sprinkling points and badges everywhere for everything is the panacea to the ‘engagement’ that they’re so desperately trying to achieve. As my clever boss Nick wrote a while back, why are people obsessed with participation for participation’s sake? And gamification is just one way to get people taking part. What happened to just creating something so beautiful that you make people weep at their own inadequacy?

Try it for yourself. I bet Radiohead are wishing it had been them.

http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com