Need help choosing that perfect gift for that special person on your list, I got you. Games make fantastic gifts as you are actually gifting an experience. Take a peek, I have something on here for everyone.
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Games are purely meant for entertainment. We don’t have to play them. Therefore, studying games that hook people for hours, days, months, or even years are highly relevant case studies for designers to draw upon. Games live and die by how well their design engages users.
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One of my oldest memories is sitting around a game board with my great-grandpa playing checkers on Christmas. I used to always look forward to those visits during the holidays. Games are an amazing gift to give because you are gifting an experience. They also make a perfect gift for those people on your list that have everything. Sitting together and playing creates a shared experience that has the potential to create lasting memories that will be cherished for a lifetime.
With the holidays in full swing, I’m publishing a gift guide of my top picks for 2020. These are all table top games and are all readily available. There is something for everyone on your list!
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Secret Sauce is what makes the magic happen at your company or with your product. When we say secret sauce, what do we mean specifically? If you asked my 4 year old, she would assume secret sauce was some magical concoction of chocolate, marshmallows, and strawberry bits probably with glitter that could make you invisible. But if you ask a business exec, they would give you an entirely different definition about the secret combination that makes their business offering the best one out there.
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‘Unleash your inner superhero!’ is a slogan I hear throughout the online learning sphere. I get it, Marvel has dominated the box office for the past decade and with all those Supers, Mutants, Avengers, and Guardians running around it makes us want to join them on their Quest to protect the galaxy, and rid the world of evildoers.
But the average Jo does not (unfortunately) have a giant S under his/her business shirt. However, what they do have, and I would argue is just as powerful, is the desire for Epic Meaning in their life.
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“OMG, the other team is capping top!” “I need heals, now!” “You go mid and soak XP, I’ll take top.”
If you’ve never played a MOBA (Massive Online Battle Arena) these terms will likely leave you scratching your head or make you roll your eyes and click away from this post, but wait! Before you click away because you think, “Erin, there is no way in any shape or form that a MOBA can help my professional life.” I challenge you to hear me out.
MOBAs teach epic teamwork. They motivate players to hone their personal skills for the good of the team and the objective at hand. They also teach that putting others’ needs first is often best for the overall objective, and when that objective is hit, everyone wins.
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With Valentine’s Day approaching, I’ve been scrambling to get the perfect gift for that special someone. My husband and I have this little tradition where we buy a big box of chocolates from the specialty chocolate store down the street. These chocolates are DELICIOUS! Like worth everything calorie kind of good. We take turns choosing one, trying it, discussing why or why we don’t like it. However, every year the same thing happens. About 3 or 4 chocolates in my tongue goes into sugar overload. These delicately crafted gems of goodness all start tasting very similar and we stop enjoying the activity. At this point we will bust out the wine, take a break and come back later for round 2 when our taste buds have rallied the troops and all systems are go.
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Super Bowl LII is nearly upon us. This can mean only one thing...I’m going to Costco this weekend for epic game-day samples! But seriously, have you ever been to Costco on Super Bowl weekend? It is a mad-house! So while the Eagles and Patriots dream of the end zone, I’m getting into my zone to take on the crowds, but first I want to talk to you about the most important zone of them all: The Zone of Proximal Development.
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I’m a Killer at heart. That is I enjoy winning. I enjoy competition that pits me directly against others. I find it thrilling. Am I actually a killer? No, unless you count the spiders (deceased) that I find in my house. But as far as a player type, I’m a Killer.
What?
Let’s talk about Bartle’s Taxonomy of 4 player types. When designing game-based learning it’s important to think about your audience and what type of players you may have. Also, what type of players will your game appeal to?
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The holidays are over, budgets and plans for 2018 are rolling out. Initiatives are underway to implement systems for improving team collaboration and stronger project progress. Some of these goals will be answered with the implementation of a software that promises to make processes and structures run leaner and meaner.
It’s perfect, software solves all the problems!
That is until it’s time to deploy the programs, build out the back end, train the admins, teach all the users what in the world is going on, get the company buy-in, the list goes on. And by the way, this all needs to be done by the end of Q2, what?!
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Gamification is a popular buzzword. But what is it really? Is it making your way through a maze of levels on a gaming console? Or maybe it's candy crush on your phone. Perhaps it's collecting points to save up for a cup of coffee at your favorite coffee house. Or it could be a game of Jeopardy to review the content in your your final day of on-boarding.
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