The Gamification Toolkit

by Kevin Werbach, Dan Hunter

Take your gamification efforts to the next level

When The Economist covered Kevin Werbach and Dan Hunter's new book For the Win in 2012, they referred to gamification as a "management craze." Since then, gamification has proved to be much more than a fleeting it is a global movement. For the Win has been published globally in English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian, and Spanish, and more than a quarter of a million people have taken Werbach's gamification course on Coursera.

Now, in their new ebook The Gamification Toolkit , Werbach and Hunter go deeper into the key game elements and provide you with the tools to take gamification to the next level. This brief but comprehensive ebook is a user's guide to help you build a game—for the win.

Genres: Business, Games, Nonfiction

78 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 2015

About the author

Kevin Werbach is Professor of Legal Studies and Business Ethics at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Founder of the technology consulting firm Supernova Group, he has advised the FCC and Department of Commerce on communication policy. He is the coauthor of For the Win: How Game Thinking Can Revolutionize Your Business.

Reviews

[LJ · Rating 2 out of 5]

I grabbed this off the available audiobook list in Overdrive because I’m interested in this method of learning/structure. As others have said, its value is limited as a standalone. It did inspire some thinking, though, and led me to add the parent book - For the Win - to my to-read list. I may revisit this and revise my rating after I get around to that one.

[Roberto Carrasco · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's not worth it. If you have already read For the Win, this new "book" is just a bonus chapter that doesn't tell anything new. And if you haven't read For the Win, you won't understand this one.

[Joshua Pitzalis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought it was a good book, but it's really just a reference book for their first book, For the Win. For the win goes into details and explains the gamification process, this is more of a bullet point list of things you can do to start building a gamified system. It starts off with this pithy mnemonic for building engaging systems that is called the 6Ds.

1. Define your business objective
2. Delineate your target behaviours
3. Describe your players
4. Devise activity loops
5. Don't forget the fun
6. Deploy the appropriate tools

That's pretty much it though, it doesn't go onto explain what each of those points means. If that doesn't make sense then definitely buy this as an accompaniment to their first book.


The rest of the book just list out tools for the 6th points. the tools are broken into big picture dynamics, day to day processes and mechanics, and specific components and tactics.

It's a useful starting point, it's not a recipe book. How you make things work is going to be unique to your project and a good way to tell if you are using a good gamified system is to see whether or not it is pushing emotion buttons.


I did think the examples under each of the tools were a little thin on the ground, I would have appreciated more examples in a book like this.

[Chad Schultz · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wish I had realized that this book was under an hour long before I purchased it. It's really just an appendix for the authors other book, "For the Win," which is about gamification. Indeed, a substantial portion of the content here is just urging the listener to buy "For the Win" in order to get the real info. This is essentially just a glossary of some specific gamification techniques. It would be better as an appendix in the other book, or as a PDF a few pages long from their website.

[Helfren · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the new era of technology, gamification in everything we do in life feels better. Using the system of gains and loses as well as a lot of application of game, we can revolutionize the organization and makes our self sufficient for the marketplace.

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting toolkit (as the title suggest) to get to know gamification and start applying it in everyday life

[Lyn Murnane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great overview of how gamification has been used and how you might use it to inspire and motivate.

[Drew Dello Stritto · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’d suggest reading this before “For the Win” by the same authors. This book was a quick read and simplification of the nuts and bolts of gamification.

[Nadia Paiva · Rating 2 out of 5]

Doesn't add much if you have already read For The Win, and if you haven't chances are that you won't understand much of what the book offers.

[Josephine Grigoriou · Rating 4 out of 5]

God Intro men savner lidt nogle gamification eksempler som måske drager paralleller med markedsføring mm ☺️

[mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

De tantas menciones a For the win, ya sé que tengo que leerlo sí o sí.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

En el libro se describen los tres tipos de elementos para una propuesta de gamification: dinámica, mecánica y componentes; cada uno acompañado de varios ejemplos. Sin embargo creo que es de absoluta obligatoriedad para quien quiera ahondar en el tema leer el primer libro del autor: "For the Win" para tener una visión mucho mas amplia y detallada de esta tendencia.

[Jose Morales · Rating 3 out of 5]

Corto, pero completo a la vez. Explica brevemente la gran mayoría de las cosas a tener en cuenta a la hora de ludificar una empresa o proceso: dinámicas, mecanismos y los propios componentes.

Útil para plantearse qué y cómo conseguir implementar la ludificación. Ilustrado con muchos ejemplos (stackoverflow, duolingo, etc...).

[Mohammed Algarawi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I hate it when people milk whatever they produce. This is some kind of summary of another book the author has published. Reading this book by itself is pointless. It just quickly sweeps over a couple concepts and design mechanics, but doesn't add anything that isn't common sense and general knowledge.

I might give the original book a chance, but this is just a waste of time.

[Magnuslu]

Concise summary of elements that can go into a gamification solution. It basically decomposes successful elements from highly successful games and proposes them as building blocks in a non-gaming environment.

[Margaret Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice follow on to "For the Win" not that much information added but more of an update. I was hoping for more detailed information about platforms, vendors and do it yourself, as "toolkit" suggests.

[Tuula · Rating 4 out of 5]

Only 78 pages(!)

[Vega · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very helpful addenda for For the Win, but no more than that.