I'll Eat This Cricket for a Cricket Badge: A Gamification Novella

by Darren Steele, Christine Chung

What motivates people to do the things they do? Increasingly, some answers are found buried in video game design. Gamification is the process of applying game mechanics to non-gaming stuff (like marketing strategy) to get people to voluntarily do things - remarkable things that can outperform the results of traditional marketing. This is the story of Lara, a senior director at Albatron Global. Today she learns she has 24 hours to prepare for a once-in-a-decade meeting with "The Brotherhood," the triumvirate of terror that founded the company. With her career on the line, she's out of ideas and shackled to a consultant with Cheetos-stained fingers.

80 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 3, 2012

About the author

Author of Ghost CMO: A Marketing Novel (2026)

Darren Steele began his marketing career as a terrified imposter on the Xbox launch team at Microsoft, surrounded by marketing superstars. Today, he’s a (slightly less) terrified Chief Marketing Officer with 18 years on executive teams at private, PE-backed, and public companies including Axon (NASDAQ: AXON) and CampusLogic. He founded SteelFin, a fractional CMO firm that helps businesses navigate critical growth transitions—the same methodology featured in Ghost CMO. He and his wife have five kids and noise-cancelling headphones.

Reviews

[Jackson Steele · Rating 5 out of 5]

Informative and Entertaining

I read a fair number of books about business, and they’re often slow and dry. This is neither—quick, witty, and teaches complex topics in a way that’s somehow both simple and entertaining. Using a fiction story to teach principles works surprisingly well, and I’m here for it.

[Meredith · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you've already read Reality is Broken, you don't need to read this. I may pass on my copy to my old team at the office, since there are tips they could maybe use for internal communications campaigns.

[Katy Jean Vance · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was cute, for a distilled version of McGonigal's Reality is Broken. Glad I read, but only as an intellectual exercise.

[J Micallef · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quick read and SUPER inspiring. Loved this. Great way to get you thinking outside the proverbial box.

[Travis Healy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great intro book on the concepts and practices of Gamification and Game Mechanics.

[Ryan Seamons · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute coverage of basic game ideas. More of a taste. Some sweeping generalities and over simplification of appropriate use of game mechanics, but not bad.