Summary
People are instinctively suspicious of stuff that gets too big, too fast. Two years ago the term “gamification” barely existed, now it’s everywhere. There are gamification books, startups and even a dedicated gamification summit. With so much hype, backlash is inevitable.

Description
In a recent Google Tech Talk designer and self-confessed“grumpy German scholar”Sebastian Deterding outlines how he believes companies could “gamify better”.His presentation really stands out from the general gamification hype/hateDeterding identifies three key ingredients to successful games: meaning, mastery and autonomy.Meaningful games are ones which connect deeply with users. It could be via compelling narrative or via a game’s social value (only you can save the Finnish library archive). Mastery is about giving players a sense of control and well-defined game progression. Autonomy is basically the art of making games enough fun so that people actually choose to play them.