Big News: The Book is Out!
Our very own, Kevin Werbach and Dan Hunter, have released their book, For the Win: How Game Thinking Can Revolutionize Your Business.
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An overview:
Take your business to the next level—for the win Millions flock to their computers, consoles, mobile phones, tablets, and social networks each day to play World of Warcraft, Farmville, Scrabble, and countless other games, generating billions in sales each year. The careful and skillful construction of these games is built on decades of research into human motivation and psychology: A well-designed game goes right to the motivational heart of the human psyche.
In For the Win, authors Kevin Werbach and Dan Hunter argue persuasively that gamemakers need not be the only ones benefiting from game design. Werbach and Hunter are lawyers and World of Warcraft players who created the world’s first course on gamification at the Wharton School. In their book, they reveal how game thinking—addressing problems like a game designer—can motivate employees and customers and create engaging experiences that can transform your business.
And Some Reviews:
“Like gamification, this book is a fusion of human nature and good design. Far and away the best book on the subject, with the most examples and the best intellectual grasp of the topics.”
—Bing Gordon, Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers; former Chief Creative Officer, Electronic Arts
“If you want to understand one of the most important trends in business today, go out and buy For the Win. Werbach and Hunter reveal the secrets to powering up your organization through game thinking. Read this book. It’s a game changer.”
—Brad Feld, Managing Director, Foundry Group; Co-author of Do More Faster
“For the Win hits a home run in illustrating the business value of gamification for both small and large companies across the globe.”
—Kris Duggan, CEO, Badgeville
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To all our gamified readers, get yourself a copy. You won’t regret it.
I’m a high school principal reading this as a potential summer reading book for our teaching staff. I see a lot of possibility in learning to use gamification to improve instructional design and practice, and am wondering if you know of any people, schools, or resources I could connect to in order to help me see if this would be a worthwhile direction.
Thanks,
Steve Wallis
Steve,
Thanks for taking an interest in our book and in gamification. We think it’s a great idea to gamify classrooms and likely to be an essential tool to the future of education.
We wrote an article on the Khan Academy from founder Salman Khan. The article is available here: http://gamifyforthewin.com/2012/08/khan-academys-vision-of-the-future-of-education/
As you will notice, he has helped implement gamification in several classrooms.
Info here: http://www.losaltos.k12.ca.us/District/Department/26-Academics/3671-Khan-Academy.html
And here: http://www.khanacademy.org/coach-res/case-studies/v/los-altos
We also wrote on article on a panel titled “Technology in Education: How Will it Change the Game?” Link to the article here (and a link to the panel): http://gamifyforthewin.com/2012/07/gaming-as-an-educational-tool/
Those should be some good places to start.
Dear Steve,
I am one of the students enrolled for your April 1 session on Coursera.
I was always on the lookout for a book that could help bring in the excitement of the world of entertainment and sports into the workplace. Upon your invitation, I promptly ordered the e book and your book responded to my prayers very well.
I just now finished reading the 116 pages in one go (3 hours) and it was simply unputdownable.
I am looking forward to the course with great expectations and enthusiasm.
Ideally I would like to market my forthcoming book in an interactive way adopting the 6 step process outlined in Pages 66-74. I hope to work on this project alongside the six week session.
Thank you very much.