Turning School Into An RPG Where You Level Up By Studying
I thought we all agreed gamification was deeply uncool and never to be mentioned again? That hasn’t stopped Classcraft’s…
Here's The Next-Gen Gaming Toothbrush
I'm guessing that you've played a lot of video games using your hands. Well, how many have you played with your mouth?…
Razer's Making A Smartband. How Strange.
Over the past couple of years, gaming accessory maker Razer has made big splashes at CES with ambitious projects aimed…
Al Gore Made A Video Game… Sort Of
In July 2011, after a somewhat clueless Al Gore keynoted the Games for Change conference in New York, Kotaku wrote…
If You Run a Warehouse, You Don't Need To Turn Work Into a Game. Really.
Recently, people wanted to gamify things. That's "game-i-fy," as in "turn stuff into games," which more or less meant…
This Might Sound Weird, But MMO Shopping Is A Real Thing. And It Looks, Err, Fun.
I've never been one of those people that considers shopping "fun." I shop because it's necessary, because I need…
Israel Has Turned Propaganda Into a Game, And It's Pretty Gross
To help spin the good spin in its current stoush with Hamas, the Israeli Defence Force has launched a program called IDF…
Two Fitness MMOs Go Mano a Mano with Their PvP Plans
Last year I profiled Fitocracy, which isn't a video game per se but a gamified fitness regimen that draws from concepts…
A Kotaku Reader has Big Plans, and Sees a Big Future, for the 'Sixth Grade MMO' He Built
If you ever complained about homework increasing as the days got longer and the weather warmer, well, the tables have…
Ancient Chinese Graveyard Ritual Goes Online
Tomb-sweeping is usually a very somber affair, usually. Now in a surge to promote eco-friendly "burials" and body…
Samurai Yetis and Ninja Werewolves: How One Teacher Turned Sixth Grade Into an MMO
Editor's Note: Ben Bertoli is a longtime Kotaku reader and commenter, a lifetime, dedicated video gamer, and a…
The Problem With Gamification
Greg Costikyan on the subject of gamification. Or, turning things/activities that aren't games into games.
The Rules of Religion, and Why The Next One Just Might Be a Game
The things that make us reconsider who we are and what we believe in are often bizarre, random, coincidental; sometimes…
Amazing Arcade Machine Inverts the Relationship Between Gaming and Laundry
Playing video games and doing laundry are two activities that don't go well together at all, unless you're Kingston…
Gamification is Here to Stay (And it's not Bullshit)
Gamification is a polarizing and divisive topic with many proponents and vocal skeptics and cynics. But it is not bullsh…
Gamification is Bullshit
In his short treatise On Bullshit, the moral philosopher Harry Frankfurt gives us a useful theory of bullshit. We…
Microsoft's Execrable "Clippy" Returns in Gamified Office Tutorial
Microsoft Word's loathsome Clippy, the Crazy Crab of application mascots, is making a comeback. Yes, really. Killed…
What Can Terrorists Learn from Video Games?
Gamification is the act of applying video game-like rewards to non-gaming situations as a form of motivation. Imagine…
You Are All Liars
Some time last year, I landed in Los Angeles. I was catching a connecting flight, the bane of the expedient traveler.…
Pretty Little Pictures
Trey Ratcliff sees the world with a gamer's eye.