Continuing from this post… so many to mention but I will pull this off.

Toby Beresford taught me many things in one night. What we are doing MATTERS. Not that I didn’t believe in it, but he showed us numbers that show the size of the impact we are achieving. He can easily steer the world of social media with so much expertise we all have lots to learn.

Melinda Jacobs kicked my ass in inspiration talks. She put my brain back in place with one phrase on the last day which I’m grateful for, but her straight-forwardness is something we all need to learn to have when facing clients. Don’t let your guard down, and keep fighting no matter what comes forth. Believe in it with all your might. At least that’s how it sounds in my head.

Andrzej Marczewski has to be one of the experts with most experience in the industry, plus he knows Dave, another expert with even a book published, whose stories made us all cry tears of laughter but, overall, learn from our own mistakes and failures and keep moving forward even if we can’t design a game and save the world. He can definitely design #gamification systems with ease and simplicity.

Michael Wu should teach us how to keep track of the #gamification data and how to analyze it. He is truly an expert at putting everything into numbers, just like most stakeholders like it. His formula on the linear increment progression for accurate (near optimal) level design will solve the system-design side of the problem instantly.

Roberto Alvarez most definitely should keep track of all of us making sure we answer to what the community wants to know. His Podcast Professor Game is helping all of us learn who is doing what and how each of us are impacting the industry. Still a long way to go, he only has interviewed the top 10 gamification experts already.

This list should continue as I meet more experts. If I didn’t mention you, don’t worry, I’ll keep posting on this subject. You keep doing what you are doing.

Always after such a huge event filled with all experts from around the world, keeping the momentum of such a trend as #gamification, #engagement can’t be one of those things missing.

This post is dedicated to all those I met, I know and I want to be working with. I believe, the one thing we are missing as #gamification experts is to truly gamify the conference.

So here is my idea on what we can all offer using our #gamification superpowers.

Michiel Van Eunen should be making ANY and EVERY icebreaker event on the planet. An escape room brings people together in ways most won’t expect. Oh, and the level of production he invested was amazing. I do think everyone MUST learn from him how a great strategy isn’t about the budget.

Marigo Raftopoulus must be selecting the projects. She made VERY clear what we all must be focusing on and how powerful #gamification is. We really need to pay attention and try to use this for the good of the planet and humankind. Quoting Ben Parker: With great power, comes great responsibility.

An Coppens should be leading a team on systematic failure supervision and prevention. She is one of the few people who has seen far enough to run THREE levels of her own framework to deploy #gamification solutions and one of the people with most experience with bad clients in the industry. Her skills are unprecedented and her perseverance a huge example for us to follow.

Sylvester Arnab IS in charge of raising funds. He is without a doubt someone who inspire me to keep going. He is making a difference for the industry in the numbers impacting world-wide solutions with his hybrid thinking. Be Co-everything. He always teaches me we can accomplish a lot more and there is a lot of people willing to help.

Pete Jenkins and Vasilis Gkogkidis should stay running the Gamification Federation and we should all join. They were the most amazing hosts proving their social connection skills are what the world and the industry needs to follow a great cause. They managed to pull the conference with success in only 2 months notice and 2 weeks of preparation. They @#%$ rock.

Keep reading here… still many more to thank.

The core idea of gamification is take from games the best concepts and use them in real-life/non-game contexts.

Learning from games is the best thing we can do as experts, as we cannot hope to reveal all the secrets on EVERY single game or think we can possibly build one super game that covers everything, we must take a good look into others and constantly analyze them and take the best ideas from them.

I’vee been playing Diablo III for a while and it is fantastic. I believe that the part that caught my attention the most is the balance of the system.

Despite what many will mention in forums and several discussions around, the game is incredibly well balanced. Now, this is NOT a game review so let’s first get started there: What do I mean with balance?

Balancing game systems is not about a great story vs graphics vs gameplay.

It refers specifically on how well every type of character in the game can perform. Meaning that it doesn’t matter if you are a wizard or a barbarian, both type of players must be EQUAL.

This is one of the core components in gamification success. A balanced system will let all players feel they are treated fairly while the other hand might have them feel the system is against them.

So, how does Diablo III balances all player classes?

It’s actually complex in a mathematical way but incredibly simple from a game designer point of view.

The key lies within the stats of the player. There are SO MANY stats that it becomes absurd trying to learn each of them by heart knowing how much damage your wizard can make against undead which will change completely right after you pick up that brand new wand.

Having MANY stats allow the mathematical balancing of the players be a lot easier because you have room for all player types to perform and experiment with different abilities.

Here’s a quick example:

Characters have 4 basic attributes: Strength (STR), Dexterity(DEX), Intelligence (INT) and Vitality (VIT). The easy way is to create 4 classes that depend primarily on each attribute: Barbarian, Demon Hunter, Wizard and Crusader. You realte each of them with an attribute and you get certain balance. Think of it as rock, paper scissors.

STR > DEX > INT > VIT > STR

That way you have a Barbarian beating a Demon Hunter beating a Wizard beating a Crusader beating a Barbarian loop.

Now, as you can see, mathematically it will be complex when you get to 9,803 DEX points, however, understanding that DEX beats INT, all you need to do is a simple equation:

IF (DEX ATTACK > INT DEFENSE) { Damage Wizard = DEX ATTACK – INT DEFENSE }

It may seem a bit to “cody” for some, but it really is a simple question followed by basic math.

Now, how does all this round up against a gamified system.

In #gamification you will be dealing with many personalities. In Diablo you think of them as Character Classes. In your office or classroom they’ll manifest in very different ways.

Since you can’t measure emotion or learning, you need to build up standard abilities of your players based on their preference and styles. Close the system down to 4 types (usually the most accepted amount in EVERY brain study ever) and make sure that there is the same type of loop.

Reward growth of each ability based on what challenge the player faces: The four types are BLUE, RED, GREEN and YELLOW. If you finish a RED mission, you get BLUE points, you finish a GREEN one, you get RED points. Based on the same principles as before: BLUE > RED > GREEN > YELLOW > BLUE. That way, people will be free to choose their own style and then GROW and PROGRESS based on such style.

Hope I’m not too overboard with explanations here… Hope you like it.

#Gamification IS about analyzing games and making great systems. If you can play ANY game and figure out the mechanics they use and how to take advantage of the rules, you are already a #gamifier.

The core idea of gamification is take from games the best concepts and use them in real-life/non-game contexts.

Learning from games is the best thing we can do as experts, as we cannot hope to reveal all the secrets on EVERY single game or think we can possibly build one super game that covers everything, we must take a good look into others and constantly analyze them and take the best ideas from them.

I'vee been playing Diablo III for a while and it is fantastic. I believe that the part that caught my attention the most is the balance of the system.

Despite what many will mention in forums and several discussions around, the game is incredibly well balanced. Now, this is NOT a game review so let's first get started there: What do I mean with balance?

Balancing game systems is not about a great story vs graphics vs gameplay.

It refers specifically on how well every type of character in the game can perform. Meaning that it doesn't matter if you are a wizard or a barbarian, both type of players must be EQUAL.

This is one of the core components in gamification success. A balanced system will let all players feel they are treated fairly while the other hand might have them feel the system is against them.

So, how does Diablo III balances all player classes?

It's actually complex in a mathematical way but incredibly simple from a game designer point of view.

The key lies within the stats of the player. There are SO MANY stats that it becomes absurd trying to learn each of them by heart knowing how much damage your wizard can make against undead which will change completely right after you pick up that brand new wand.

Having MANY stats allow the mathematical balancing of the players be a lot easier because you have room for all player types to perform and experiment with different abilities.

Here's a quick example:

Characters have 4 basic attributes: Strength (STR), Dexterity(DEX), Intelligence (INT) and Vitality (VIT). The easy way is to create 4 classes that depend primarily on each attribute: Barbarian, Demon Hunter, Wizard and Crusader. You realte each of them with an attribute and you get certain balance. Think of it as rock, paper scissors.

STR > DEX > INT > VIT > STR

That way you have a Barbarian beating a Demon Hunter beating a Wizard beating a Crusader beating a Barbarian loop.

Now, as you can see, mathematically it will be complex when you get to 9,803 DEX points, however, understanding that DEX beats INT, all you need to do is a simple equation:

IF (DEX ATTACK > INT DEFENSE) { Damage Wizard = DEX ATTACK - INT DEFENSE }

It may seem a bit to "cody" for some, but it really is a simple question followed by basic math.

Now, how does all this round up against a gamified system.

In #gamification you will be dealing with many personalities. In Diablo you think of them as Character Classes. In your office or classroom they'll manifest in very different ways.

Since you can't measure emotion or learning, you need to build up standard abilities of your players based on their preference and styles. Close the system down to 4 types (usually the most accepted amount in EVERY brain study ever) and make sure that there is the same type of loop.

Reward growth of each ability based on what challenge the player faces: The four types are BLUE, RED, GREEN and YELLOW. If you finish a RED mission, you get BLUE points, you finish a GREEN one, you get RED points. Based on the same principles as before: BLUE > RED > GREEN > YELLOW > BLUE. That way, people will be free to choose their own style and then GROW and PROGRESS based on such style.

Hope I'm not too overboard with explanations here... Hope you like it.

#Gamification IS about analyzing games and making great systems. If you can play ANY game and figure out the mechanics they use and how to take advantage of the rules, you are already a #gamifier.