The Engagement Game


Book Description

What if all workplace cultures were as well-crafted as video games? Effective workplaces and popular video games have a lot in common. The things that make employees happier, more motivated, and more productive leverage the same underlying psychology that makes video games engaging, but sometimes the lessons for work are easier to see when presented in the context of play. The Engagement Game is a leadership and management book that shows how organizational culture and leadership can be super-charged by applying the same principles that video game designers apply when creating a new game. This quick, one-hour read will show you how to do this by blending industrial-organizational workplace psychology with insights on good video game design. This will help you become a better leader, manager, coach, and coworker. You don't have to be a hardcore gamer to benefit from this book. It is for anyone looking to create a positive work experience for their team. This book covers topics including: How games lay out their tasks, goals, and challenges so that they motivate people to do amazing things The ways in which games encourage problem solving and growth mindset Why expanding skills, building self-confidence, and finding opportunities to innovate feel so natural to those who play a lot of games How social information is framed in games so as to engender fruitful competition and cooperation What multiplayer games can tell us about building cohesive, high-performing teams How to create shared experiences and values that can craft a great organizational culture and shared expectations for the right kinds of behaviors Which is all to say that you could learn a lot from video games about how to be an effective leader and manager. Ready? Game on.




The Engagement Game


Book Description

Joi-Marie almost has it all; a thriving career, a supportive family, great friends, and an apartment in Manhattan. What she doesn't have is a husband. Ambitious, confident, and successful, Joi-Marie believes she has it all figured out. At 28 years old, she has an enviable job as a producer, covering entertainment in New York City. Her close-knit family is loving and encouraging, and her boyfriend, Adam, is as close to perfect as you can get -- except for the fact that he won't propose. Like most women, Joi-Marie has a checklist of what the perfect life looks like. She has the career, the friends, the apartment, and the lifestyle she has always wanted. But, when the husband she wants doesn't fall into place, she decides to play the game-theengagement game-in order to get Adam to drop down on one knee. After receiving a laundry list of advice on how to secure a proposal -- even researching how to cook "engagement chicken" -- Joi-Marie realizes that, in the process of trying to attain her perfect life, she has slowly become a person she doesn't recognize. With this discovery, she must make a decision: pretend to be someone she's not in order to have the life she envisioned. . .or have the courage to be herself and find her happily ever after in a way she never expected.




The Engagement Game


Book Description

What if all workplace cultures were as well-crafted as video games? Effective workplaces and popular video games have a lot in common. The things that make employees happier, more motivated, and more productive leverage the same underlying psychology that makes video games engaging, but sometimes the lessons for work are easier to see when presented in the context of play. The Engagement Game is a leadership and management book that shows how organizational culture and leadership can be super-charged by applying the same principles that video game designers apply when creating a new game. This quick, one-hour read will show you how to do this by blending industrial-organizational workplace psychology with insights on good video game design. This will help you become a better leader, manager, coach, and coworker. You don't have to be a hardcore gamer to benefit from this book. It is for anyone looking to create a positive work experience for their team. This book covers topics including: How games lay out their tasks, goals, and challenges so that they motivate people to do amazing things The ways in which games encourage problem solving and growth mindset Why expanding skills, building self-confidence, and finding opportunities to innovate feel so natural to those who play a lot of games How social information is framed in games so as to engender fruitful competition and cooperation What multiplayer games can tell us about building cohesive, high-performing teams How to create shared experiences and values that can craft a great organizational culture and shared expectations for the right kinds of behaviors Which is all to say that you could learn a lot from video games about how to be an effective leader and manager. Ready? Game on.




The Gamer's Brain


Book Description

Making a successful video game is hard. Even games that are successful at launch may fail to engage and retain players in the long term due to issues with the user experience (UX) that they are delivering. The game user experience accounts for the whole experience players have with a video game, from first hearing about it to navigating menus and progressing in the game. UX as a discipline offers guidelines to assist developers in creating the experience they want to deliver, shipping higher quality games (whether it is an indie game, AAA game, or "serious game"), and meeting their business goals while staying true to their design and artistic intent. In a nutshell, UX is about understanding the gamer’s brain: understanding human capabilities and limitations to anticipate how a game will be perceived, the emotions it will elicit, how players will interact with it, and how engaging the experience will be. This book is designed to equip readers of all levels, from student to professional, with neuroscience knowledge and user experience guidelines and methodologies. These insights will help readers identify the ingredients for successful and engaging video games, empowering them to develop their own unique game recipe more efficiently, while providing a better experience for their audience. Key Features Provides an overview of how the brain learns and processes information by distilling research findings from cognitive science and psychology research in a very accessible way. Topics covered include: "neuromyths", perception, memory, attention, motivation, emotion, and learning. Includes numerous examples from released games of how scientific knowledge translates into game design, and how to use a UX framework in game development. Describes how UX can guide developers to improve the usability and the level of engagement a game provides to its target audience by using cognitive psychology knowledge, implementing human-computer interaction principles, and applying the scientific method (user research). Provides a practical definition of UX specifically applied to games, with a unique framework. Defines the most relevant pillars for good usability (ease of use) and good "engage-ability" (the ability of the game to be fun and engaging), translated into a practical checklist. Covers design thinking, game user research, game analytics, and UX strategy at both a project and studio level. Offers unique insights from a UX expert and PhD in psychology who has been working in the entertainment industry for over 10 years. This book is a practical tool that any professional game developer or student can use right away and includes the most complete overview of UX in games existing today.




Game Thinking


Book Description

During her time working on genre-defining games like The Sims, Rock Band, and Ultima Online, Amy Jo learned that customers stick with products that help them get better at something they care about, like playing an instrument or leading a team. Amy Jo has used her insights from gaming to help hundreds of companies like Netflix, Disney, The New York Times, Ubisoft and Happify innovate faster and smarter, and drive long-term engagement.




Total Engagement


Book Description

Can the workplace be more productive by including avatars, three-dimensional environments, and participant-driven outcomes? This grounded and thought-provoking book by Byron Reeves and Leighton Read proves that it is not only possible, it is inevitable. Implementing components of multiplayer computer games in the workplace will address a host of age-old problems. Games can not only stem boredom and decrease turnover, but also enhancee collaboration and encourage creative leadership. Games require extraordinary teamwork, elaborate data analysis and strategy, recruitment and retention of top players, and quick decision making. Recreating some elements of games - such as positioning tasks within stories, creating internal economies, and implementing participant-driven communication systems - can not only boost employee engagement but overall productivity. Of course, the strong psychological power of games can have both positive and negative consequences for the workplace. That's why it's important to put them into practice correctly from the beginning - and Reeves and Read explain how by showing which good design principles are a powerful antidote to the addictive and stress-inducing potential of games. Supported by specific case studies and years of research, Total Engagement will completely change the way you view both work and play.




Gamification in Education: Breakthroughs in Research and Practice


Book Description

Serious games provide a unique opportunity to fully engage students more than traditional teaching approaches. Understanding the best way to utilize these games and the concept of play in an educational setting is imperative for effectual learning in the 21st century. Gamification in Education: Breakthroughs in Research and Practice is an innovative reference source for the latest academic material on the different approaches and issues faced in integrating games within curriculums. Highlighting a range of topics, such as learning through play, virtual worlds, and educational computer games, this publication is ideally designed for educators, administrators, software designers, and stakeholders in all levels of education.




The Engagement Game


Book Description

What's a little blackmail between friends? The black sheep of the old-money Rosemanns, advertising executive Marcus has made his own way in the world-and done extremely well for himself-but his family is still pressuring him to join their investment firm and settle down with a quiet, unobjectionable girl. Which is why the sexy Rose Verma is the perfect date for his family's charity ball. A bleeding-heart lefty from the wrong side of the tracks, Rose has never met a stray dog she didn't love or a polka-dotted mini-dress she couldn't rock. Marcus has enough dirt on Rose to "convince" her to play along. And if he lets it slip that they're engaged, all the better. But all's fair in love and blackmail, and Rose is ready to play a few cards of her own...




Gamification for Business


Book Description

Gamification for Business shows how games and game-based design can be used to effectively tackle business challenges and improve organizational performance. From siloed working and information overload to the clash between ongoing operations and innovation, this book shows how to identify what type of game is best suited to each business issue. With guidance on online games, simulations, event-based games and gamified training, this book ensures that business leaders and senior decision makers feel confident in their ability to assess the opportunities of each type of gamification for their business. Including case studies from more than 20 organizations who have implemented a game-based solution, this book outlines the business issue in each company and the aim of the game, the impact the game had and key learning points to help readers implement a similar type of game in their own business. Based on extensive research into the effectiveness of games and real-world examples from companies who have experienced the benefits of serious games and design thinking, Gamification for Business is essential reading for all business professionals looking to improve employee motivation, boost engagement, create a cohesive team environment and facilitate innovation in their company for improved business performance.




Glued to Games


Book Description

This book offers a practical yet powerful way to understand the psychological appeal and strong motivation to play video games. Video games have come a long way, from Atari's pinging, monochromatic Pong to the garish mayhem of Grand Theft Auto and the stylish sophistication of Beatles Rock Band. And it is no longer just teenagers that are hooked, audiences both young and old can't seem to get enough. But while "video-game addict" has become a common term, are these games really physically and psychologically addictive? With video game sales in the billions and anxious concerns about their longterm effects growing louder, this volume brings something new to the discussion. It is a research-based analysis on the games and gamers, addressing both the positive and negative aspects of habitual playing by drawing on significant recent studies and established motivational theory. Filled with examples from popular games and the real experiences of gamers themselves, it gets to the heart of gaming's powerful psychological and emotional allure, the benefits as well as the dangers. It gives everyone from researchers to parents to gamers themselves a clearer understanding the psychology of gaming, while offering prescriptions for healthier, more enjoyable games and gaming experiences.