The Unintended Consequences of Gamification

This is a necropost - resurrected from the now defunct blog of a previous employer. Sadly, most of the screenshots have fallen down the memory hole. So use your imagination. We'd launched Drive To Improve which put a "blackbox" in drivers' cars and gamified their safe driving.

I’ve recently taken part in the DriveToImprove Beta. My car now has a small device installed in it, which measures my driving. It reports back to me my location, whether I was speeding, and if I’m braking or accelerating too harshly. It also gives me a great little dashboard showing how well I’m doing and how I compare to others.

Bringing “high scores” to real life is part of a trend known as “gamification“.

DriveToImprove has the usual aspects of modern gamification – badges, a leaderboard, and the ability to track your progress.

As I was driving home one day last week, a child ran out in front of my car. I had only a split second to react – slam on the brakes and risk losing points for “Harsh Braking” or continue on, risk hitting the child, but maintain my perfect score…

It’s a real dilemma – safety vs score.

Of course, no one would think like that, would they? I certainly didn’t!

But gaming incentives have a funny effect on our brain. Games are fun – and that makes them highly emotionally manipulative.

That use of scores, rewards, and fun can manipulate us in all sorts of negative ways. Games can encourage us to hate, to harm our bodies, to join a cult, it can cause you to annoy your friends – in some extreme cases, the pleasure associated with playing a game can take over someone’s life until they literally play themselves to death.

So, when designing systems which utilise gamification, we have to be aware that the human brain is susceptible to all sorts of tricks – and we have to be really careful when we subvert them.

We know from feedback on our community that sometimes rapid acceleration is necessary. So is it always a good idea to penalise users for it?

Although we work hard to make sure that the game aspect of the products we create never take priority over safety, it’s impossible to predict what effect our stimulating of the brain’s pleasure centres will have. After all, earning rewards in a game can have the same effect on the brain as cocaine!

What’s great about the test-and-learn approach we take at The Lab is that it gives us time to see the consequences of our developments. We can remain focussed on adding value to our applications, while remaining aware of any unintended side-effects.

I found this video from Eran May-raz and Daniel Lazo a startling and amusing look at what may happen if we let gamification run away with itself.

🆕 blog! “The Unintended Consequences of Gamification”

This is a necropost - resurrected from the now defunct blog of a previous employer. Sadly, most of the screenshots have fallen down the memory hole. So use your imagination. We'd launched Drive To Improve which put a "blackbox" in drivers' cars and gamified their safe driving.

I’ve recently taken part in the D…

👀 Read more: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2012/10/the-unintended-consequences-of-gamification/
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#gaming #necropost

Today was very mixed emotionally

This is a necropost. Originally written in 2017 on a defunct social network and now resurrected. I had been working for GDS for 6 months and was beginning to brush up against the HR bureaucracy.

Today was very mixed emotionally.

I had to do more Line Management Stuff - which I loath. Being trapped in a room with other managers picking over other people, their performance, their ability. I don't want that sort of power over someone else. I sure as hell don't want to spend half my day judging people I've never met and packing them into neat boxes.

I like the guy I manage - but I will feel nothing but relief once he has a permanent manager.

I know I'm a selfish person, but I'm just not interested enough in other people to make a good manager. It needs someone who both cares and has the skills to manage. Neither of these things are part of me and I get incredibly frustrated and upset when I have to apply myself to something I'm no good at (and have no desire to get better at).

And then tonight was just delightful! An evening soirée talking technology with a diverse (ish) bunch of industry experts in the Vogue boardroom0. People listened to my expertise, challenged my assumptions, laughed at my jokes, and shared why they were going to take over the world.

Some fine vegetarian food (with bespoke wine pairings) certainly helped - but it was the spirit and creativity of people on the cusp of driving technological and societal change which inspired me.

There is so much good in the world - more than enough to conquer all the misery and hate. But it is mostly untapped potential. While we trap people in the busy-work of filling in forms, harness their labour in repetitive drudgery, waste their minds on vapid schemes to profit from others' naïveté - we can't free them to be the best that they want to be.

Interesting days ahead.

🆕 blog! “Today was very mixed emotionally”

This is a necropost. Originally written in 2017 on a defunct social network and now resurrected. I had been working for GDS for 6 months and was beginning to brush up against the HR bureaucracy.

Today was very mixed emotionally.

I had to do more Line Management Stuff - which I loath. Being trapped in a room with other managers…

👀 Read more: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2017/03/today-was-very-mixed-emotionally/
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#necropost #personal #work

A (Nuclear) Blast From The Past

https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2000/10/a-nuclear-blast-from-the-past/

As I was digging around some ancient back-up CDs, I happened across some of my early web pages. Way back in the mists of time, I was a member of the UEA Peace Society. As well as organising talk on campus, we occasionally went on protests. This page records the protest we took to Lakenheath - a local US military encampment.
As far as I can tell, this was part of the Citizens' Weapons Inspection project.
So, here it is, in all its unedited glory. I wonder where you all are now?

Protest at Lakenheath USAF 01 October 2000

On Sunday the 1st of October 2000, a group comprising of East Anglian CND members and UEA Peacesoc-ers (and a few of their friends) went to protest the Lakenheath Airbase which currently holds over 30 LIVE nuclear weapons.

We held a silent vigil outside the base, let incoming and outgoing base members see our demonstration and heard several talks about NATO and its contempt for international law and well-being.

Oh, and it stayed sunny, which was nice.

Here is my photo diary of the day.

Kate poses for the camera; Peace Man! It may interest you to know that this poster was held together with a mixture of gaffer-tape and chewing gum. Mmmm - minty fresh.

Kermit takes time out from his Tai Chi to look suitably puzzled by the proceedings.

This rather nice Policeman decided to film us (Hurrah! We're going to be movie stars, Ma!). So, I decided to repay the favour and imortalise him. And, yes, I did ask his permission.

Ahhh! What a lovely day for a protest.

Kathryn looked skeptical about the plans to attack the police with olives. How wrong she was!

As you can see - the base is protected by legislation dating back to 1842. If it was good enough for Victorian England, it's good enough for our Nukes!

Part of our road protest outside the base. A surprising number of motorists honked us in support, thanks guys.

And, after discussing our next move - we decided to go home!

Yes, well, that's it. Not much more to write. Thanks to everyone who showed up, to Kermit for the olives, Kate for chewing, Davina for smiling so much, Sue for driving, the Police for being nice and friendly, and Love and Hugs to anyone I forgot.

All we are saying is;

GIVE PEACE A CHANCE

#necropost #nuclear #peacesoc #protest #uea

🆕 blog! “Infants practice spelling - ready for halloween”

This is a necropost - resurrected from a scan of a newspaper found on a backup of a CD in a long-forgotten cupboard. I wonder where the other kids are now?

By EVE SWEETING

IF YOU want to turn somebody into a spider or a frog - halloween is the night to try out your spell.

Children at Witham's Chipping Hill Infants…

👀 Read more: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/1986/10/infants-practice-spelling-ready-for-halloween/
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#necropost

Review: Teal Movie

https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2004/01/teal-movie/

This is a Necropost. Resurrected from a long forgotten PDA review website.

Summary

TealPoint's TealMovie 3.50 claims to do the impossible - and it delivers.

Palm Pilots are great for displaying text, there's no doubt about that, but I've never seen one handle full motion graphics with any kind of clarity before... until now. TealMovie 3.50 allows you to convert AVI and Quicktime movies into a format that can be played on your Palm.

There are limitations, of course. A lot depends on the speed of your PDA. For the purposes of this test I was using a Handspring Treo 180 running OS3.5h - different machines will perform with varying quality.

The first thing to note is that, depending on your PDA, the movies you will produce will only be 160*160 10fps greyscale (on a Zire or m100) and up to 320*320 25fps true colour if you have a very modern PDA. I successfully got up to 20fps, which is more than suitable for watching short movies.

Your PDA's speaker also limits the quality of the audio reproduction. Although the software can drive the speaker to incredible volumes, the fidelity is very poor. Listening to speech is fine, but once music comes into the equation the sound is little more than a garbled mess.

The software comprises of two parts - makemvoi.exe, which performs the conversion on your PC, and tealmovi.prc that allows the movies to be played on your device.

If you have the latest multi-gigahertz machine the video encoding process will fly by. On a more modest machine it can take up to a second to convert one frame. I was using a 750MHz Duron that took about 2.5 times real time to convert a movie.

About the software

The interface for makemovi isn't wonderful. It suffers the same usability flaws as products like TMPEncode - too many option presented in an unclear and inconsistent manner. It allows you to set the resolution, speed and orientation of the movie and allows you to make minor adjustments to the audio.

The files it produces are impressive in size, a 6MB Quicktime Movie (Kylie's Agent Provocateur, if you must know!) compresses to around 3.5MB. This may vary depending on whether you choose colour, high resolution etc. Movies can be stored in your PDA's internal memory of on a media card.

The main problem with makemovi is that it is very particular as to which movies it will encode. There is no way to encode an mpeg, nor DivX. Many movies would convert video, but not sound. If they could bundle a few more codecs into the software it would improve its usefulness immensely.

The playback software (tealmovi.prc) is very good. It presents you with a list of the movies you have loaded and during playback allows you to adjust the Gamma Contrast (making the movie brighter or darker), the volume and the position in the movie. Playback is incredibly smooth as long as you encode in a format that is suitable for your machine. The encoding software does give you some idea of what your machine can handle, but it's best to experiment.

So, the software does exactly what it says it will - it allows smooth video playback from your PDA. The real question is whether that's a good thing...

Conclusion

I'll admit, it was fun to have Kylie in my pocket and at my beck and call... but my Palm screen just isn't designed to watch full motion video. If you have an external media card you could place a full-length movie on it, but for the time it would take to encode is prohibitively long. The quality, while impressive, isn't sufficient to keep your eyes from melting after a few minutes and the sound quality isn't good enough to stop it annoying the people around you.

The software is ideal for showing off and if you have a fast and full colour PDA you could watch The Simpsons on the way to work.This is an amazing piece of software engineering. It squeezed every last drop of power from my Palm and gave impressive results. For $19.99 it's a fun way to show off your gadgets, but for general entertainment, I think I'll stick to reading eBooks for now. If someone wants to send me a Sony Clie to see what results it produces on a high-end machine - I'd be more than happy to change my opinion!

#necropost #review

Surrey Herald

This is a necropost - resurrected from a decaying backup DVD.

Oh, we lost. We lost badly. The Surrey Herald (5th of May 1994, page 3) were slightly more upbeat.

For #ThrowbackThursday, I'd like to share a post I made just over fifteen years ago about discovering a new local coffee shop.

https://www.kestr.al/local-coffee/

This is my first necropost! I stumbled across my old AudioBoo archive earlier today and the timing lined up so perfectly I had to share.

I've even preserved the photo of the coffee I took with my at-the-time-current smartphone.

I'm struck by how apologetic I was for trying a local business over a big chain. A lot changes...  

#Necropost #Necroposting #Blog

Unofficial Exam Guidelines. Please Display.

https://shkspr.mobi/blog/1998/05/unofficial-exam-guidelines-please-display/

This is a necropost. Written, I think, in preparations for mock A-Levels and recently found on an old backup disk. People in our 6th Form were always sticking up funny lists and weird humorous print-outs found on the nascent WWW. This was either my attempt to relieve the pressure of endless revision - or just a way to distract myself from the stress of exams. I heartedly endorse all of the following tips for a successful exam.

Fall asleep (or pretend to) until the last 15 minutes. Wake up, say "Oh dear, better get cracking." and do some gibberish work. Turn it in a few minutes early.

Get a copy of the exam, run out screaming "Andre, Andre, I've got the secret documents!!"

If it is a math/science exam, answer in essay form. If it is long answer/essay form, answer with numbers and symbols. Be creative. Use the integral symbol.

Make paper aeroplanes out of the exam. Aim them at the instructor's left nostril.

Talk the entire way through the exam. Read questions aloud, debate your answers with yourself out loud. If asked to stop start talking about what a prat the instructor is.

Bring cheerleaders.

Walk in, get the exam, sit down. About five minutes into it, loudly say to the instructor, "I don't understand ANY of this. I've been to every lesson all term long! Help.”

Bring a Game Boy. Play with the volume at max level.

On the answer sheet find a new, interesting way to refuse to answer every question. For example: “I refuse to answer this question on the grounds that it conflicts with my religious beliefs”. Be creative.

Bring pets.

Giggle. Loudly.

Fifteen minutes into the exam ask for more paper. Repeat this process every fifteen minutes.

Do the exam with crayons, paint, or fluorescent markers.

Come into the exam wearing slippers, a bathrobe, a towel on your head.

Be as vulgar as possible on the exam paper.

Do the entire exam in another language. If you don't know one, make one up! For math/science exams, try using Roman numerals.

Bring things to throw at the instructor when s/he's not looking. Blame it on the person nearest to you.

As soon as the instructor hands you the exam, eat it.

Walk into the exam with a Siamese twin.

Every five minutes, stand up, collect all your things, move to another seat, continue with the exam.

Turn in the exam approximately 30 minutes into it. As you walk out, start commenting on how easy it was.

Hold an unlit cigarette in your mouth. If you are told there is no smoking, politely point out that you are not smoking; just holding an unlit cigarette in your mouth.

Bring a black marker. Return the exam with all questions and answers completely blacked out.

Get the exam. Twenty minutes into it, throw your papers down violently, scream out "Screw this!" and walk out triumphantly.

Insist on going to the toilet. You will have to be accompanied.

Show up completely drunk. (you should start crying for mother).

COUGH!

Comment on how sexy the instructor is looking that day.

Come to the exam wearing a black cloak. After about 30 minutes, put on a white mask and start yelling "I'm here, the phantom of the opera" until they drag you away.

Insist the person next to you is cheating.

Upon receiving the exam, look it over, while laughing loudly, say “You don't really expect me to waste my time on this drivel? "Teletubbies" is on!!!”

Bring a water pistol with you. ‘Nuff said.

From the moment the exam begins, hum the theme to Countdown. When they finally get you to leave begin whistling the theme to the Bridge on the River Kwai.

Start a fight in the middle of the exam.

If the exam is math/science related, make up the longest proofs you could possibly think of. Get pi and imaginary numbers into most equations. If it is a written exam, relate everything to your own life story.

Bring a friend to give you a back massage the entire way through the exam. Insist this person is needed, because you have bad circulation.

Bring cheat sheets FOR ANOTHER CLASS and staple them to the exam, with the comment "Please use the attached notes for references as you see fit. "

When you walk in, complain about the heat. Strip.

After you get the exam, call the instructor over, point to any question, ask for the answer. Try to work it out of him/her.

Loud, Rumbling, Echoing, Deadly Farts.

Try to get people in the room to do a Mexican wave.

Play frisbee with a friend at the other side of the room.

Bring some large, ugly idol. Pray to it often. Consider a small sacrifice.

Get deliveries of flowers, pizzas, telegrams, etc. sent to you every few minutes throughout the exam.

Get lots of people to call your mobile phone. Make sure it has an annoying ring.

During the exam, take apart everything around you. Anything you can reach.

Complete the exam with everything you write being backwards at a 90 degree angle.

Bring a musical instrument with you, play various tunes. If you are asked to stop, say "it helps me think. " Bring a copy of the official exam rules, challenging the instructor to find the section on musical instruments. Don't forget to use the phrase "Told you so".

Answer the exam with the "Top Ten Reasons Why Examiners Suck"

These exam stress relieving jollities were brought to you by...........Campaign to Relive Accumulated Pressures!

#exam #necropost #retropost #students