Episode 105 – Glad to be of Service

Phaedra and Michael M start off the year talking about InterConnect 2015, where Phaedra will be on the main stage speaking about the power of games.  Continuing on into how the card game for Rejection Therapy operates, a couple of throwback shows from Ross Smith’s experiences with personification of water coolers and buildings at Microsoft and David Szilagy’s & Balás Vedres experiences with Gravitent are recalled. The concept of how brands such as @AmericanAir have a personality based on on the way that people interact with them, or in Ross’ case, how people at Microsoft interacted with a water cooler … Continue reading

Episode 60 – Bubbly Bubblers in Gamified Buildings

Phaedra, Michael and Michael were delighted to be accompanied by Ross Smith, Director of Test in the Skype division of Microsoft for this show, centered around games for employee engagement. Ross described the recent work that he and his team have done with giving personality to buildings and using the building itself as the ‘game master’, to orchestrate and facilitate employee engagement. Games for health One of the intriguing examples (also discussed in Episode 58, but without the benefit of Ross’s first hand experience) uses a water cooler with personality as the mechanism for gamifying health.  While drinking eight glasses … Continue reading