Introduction
Coming back for our third part on small gamification I want to talk about gamification in public spaces. This is a topic that I find really fascinating as it addresses one of mankind’s main drives, curiosity. When you are in a city or area that you know there is some kind of public gamification and you can just walk there and see it, it triggers your curiosity. I have seen some gamification in public spaces but I am very interested in experiencing it too. We all know what the Big Ben looks like from a million pictures we have seen online. That doesn’t change the fact that first time you go to London you still want to see it. We want to experience interesting landmarks and public spaces and it’s the same with games. Watching someone play games is very different than actually playing games ourselves. I like what Pete always tells me about getting 50% of enjoyment when you watch someone play a game. I think it’s the same with public gamification. So this is a post about public spaces and games coming together to offer people a brand new experience.
FedEx Charging Station
The FedEx charging station is a gamified charging station set up by FedEx at the airport in Madrid. If you want to charge your phone, you need to pedal. Simple as that. If you want energy then you need to produce it. A great clear idea to motivate people to work out a bit as they are waiting for their flight and they are charging their phone at the same time.
This is a photo that was sent to us by @rich_wallace on Twitter.
I have not experienced this gamified phone charger but looks like a great idea to me! It’s something that I would love to try it out to see how it feels. I will be pedaling in an airport to charge my phone. Sounds a great idea for people that travel a lot and spend a lot of time in airports. Of course, there is a point to be made here for gamification or games that have a physical effect to the player. For example, there was a lot of talk about how Pokemon Go could be better designed to make it more safe for players. Likewise, someone could say that you need a device that monitors heartbeat on this machine and gives you a warning when your heart beats too fast. Having said that I think that gamification always needs to be solving a problem. It needs to be valuable to the player. Gamification needs to add some sort of value after or during the experience. Depending on the project that could be various things of course. The FedEx Charging Station is a great idea for people that spend a lot of time in airports and we would love to see more examples like this.
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