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Ethnogamification

Gamification really emerged as a term in the business world in 2010, and whether or not you have heard the word you may already have noticed the effects.

As it began to seep into the world of missions I started to introduce a new term “Ethnogamification”

I created a couple of blog posts on the subject of Ethnogamification in 2014 and have had the opportunity to mention it in a couple of seminars. In 2015 I introduced the concept at a conference with representatives from up to 125 different mission agencies (okay so some of them went to the other seminars offered at the same time, but the idea began attracting  interest.) In 2016 I lead a training track on the Designing Scripture Engagement Games, we looked at what games are, how games and game elements are being used and how they could be.

The overview presentation is now public at prezi.com/n6a26oveqasq/designing-scripture-engagement-games/

I also dug a little deeper in an early essay for my MA in Missiology and wrote a guest blog post at and in a guest blog at bibleandmission.org.uk/2016/05/13/games-as-scripture-engagement/ 

Since then I’ve been quieter on the subject but I am pleased to see that some of the ideas have crept into a few peoples thinking, even if the term itself has yet to catch on.

You can read my earliest blog posts on the subject here:

A few other posts have since touched on the concepts of games and gamification.

Meanwhile, there is a great Introduction to Gamification by Piet van den Boer . Now viewed nearly 24,000 times. (you may want to enlarge to full screen to read the slides)

This presentation is also available in Dutch. Other content from Piet included a helpful slideshare on website optimisation

The free online course on Gamification by Prof Kevin Werbach, that started my journey is now repeated several times a year. It takes 4-8 hours/week (or less if you don’t do your homework) and videos are now subtitled in English, Ukrainian, Chinese (Simplified), Vietnamese, Russian, Turkish, Kazakh, and many more. Click here for details

Another gamification guru worth exploring is Yu-kai Chou (yukaichou.com) I’ve read some of his materials, watched some presentations and together with seven other colleagues read through his book at the start of 2019 as we explored together how games and gamification could have greater impact.

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