Response to “Designing Gamification in Right Way”

When I wrote the title of this response, there appeared a red wavy line after I finished typing “gamification”. At first, I thought I made a mistake. But after I checked again, I found that it was Microsoft office’s mistake. This mistake proved that at least before 2010, “gamification” is not a popular word because I am using Microsoft office 2010.

So gamification is a new word to many people and the author tries to introduce how to design gamification in right way. He uses five parts to finish his work. Firstly, he point out that gamification needs a clear goal. Then, he states the importance of knowing target group and user type. In addition, he expends the rage of variables. The most important part is learning content. In this part, he explains how to design gamification depends on many variables. Last but not least, he raises a question about the harm of gamification.

I focus on the last two parts of this article. In the learning content part, he explains deeply how to design gamification. He emphasizes again that educator should pay attention to many different variables and use game mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics flexibly. In the last part, he raises a question about the harm of gamification. Sometimes gamification is useless and even harmful because the goal of game is not the goal of education. The solution goes back to the first part, clear goals.

In this article, I find that the author make use of his materials. Every part relates to others. This article is like a circle. The problem and question risen up in the last two parts, their solutions are hidden in the first three parts. This strategy makes whole article clear and impressive.