About the Book
"A QUICK BUT THOUGHTFUL LOOK INTO THE PROS AND CONS OF GAMIFICATION...."-Daniel H. Pink, Author, Drive
Why can't life-and business-be fun?
For thousands of years, we've created things called games that tap the tremendous psychic power of fun. In a revised and updated edition of For the Win: The Power of Gamification and Game Thinking in Business, Education, Government, and Social Impact, authors Kevin Werbach and Dan Hunter argue that applying the lessons of gamification could change your business, the way you learn or teach, and even your life.
Werbach and Hunter explain how games can be used as a valuable tool to address serious pursuits like marketing, productivity enhancement, education, innovation, customer engagement, human resources, and sustainability. They reveal how, why, and when gamification works-and what not to do.
Discover the successes-and failures-of organizations that are using gamification:
How a South Korean company called Neofect is using gamification to help people recover from strokes;How a tool called SuperBetter has demonstrated significant results treating depression, concussion symptoms, and the mental health harms of the COVID-19 pandemic through game thinking; How the ride-hailing giant Uber once used gamification to influence their drivers to work longer hours than they otherwise wanted to, causing swift backlash.
The story of gamification isn't fun and games by any means. It's serious. When used carefully and thoughtfully, gamification produces great outcomes for users, in ways that are hard to replicate through other methods. Other times, companies misuse the "guided missile" of gamification to have people work and do things in ways that are against their self-interest.
This revised and updated edition incorporates the most prominent research findings to provide a comprehensive gamification playbook for the real world.
About the Author :
Kevin Werbach is a leading expert on the legal, business, and public policy aspects of the network age. He is a professor of Legal Studies at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, where he currently leads the Reg@Tech roundtable and the Wharton Cryptogovernance Workshop, and he is the author of The Blockchain and the New Architecture of Trust (MIT Press, 2018). He co-led the review of the Federal Communications Commission for the Obama Administration's Presidential Transition Team and served as an expert adviser on broadband issues to the FCC and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. For nine years he organized Supernova, a leading executive technology conference. Werbach was previously the editor of "Release 1.0: Esther Dyson's Monthly Report," and served as Counsel for New Technology Policy at the FCC in the Clinton administration, where he helped develop the U.S. government's Internet and e-commerce policies. Follow him on Twitter at @kwerb. Dan Hunter is an international expert in internet and intellectual property law, in artificial intelligence and cognitive science models of law, and in legaltech and legal innovation. He serves as Executive Dean of the Faculty of Law, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), and was previously the Founding Dean of Swinburne Law School. He holds a PhD from Cambridge on the nature of legal reasoning, as well as computer science and law degrees from Monash University, and a Master of Laws by research from the University of Melbourne. He has taught at law schools in Australia, England and the United States. Professor Hunter regularly publishes on artificial intelligence, legal technology, and the theory of intellectual property. His most recent books have been A History of Intellectual Property in 50 Objects (Cambridge) and The Oxford Introductions to U.S. Law: Intellectual Property (OUP, 2012). He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law, and a chief investigator in the $71M ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society. He also founded the Future Law Podcast (http://thefuturelawpodcast.com), which talks about how law is changing during this time of massive disruption.
Review :
"Video games now have the dubious honour of having inspired their own management craze. Called 'gamification,' it aims to take principles from video games and apply them to serious tasks. The latest book on the subject, For the Win, comes from Kevin Werbach and Dan Hunter, from the Wharton Business School and the New York Law School respectively . . . .[T]heir central idea—that the world might be a better place if work was less of a necessary drudge and more of a rewarding experience in itself—is hard to argue with." (The Economist) "Here's a conversion worthy of a Transformers movie: Take buttoned-down, MBA-toting business professionals and turn them into video game designers. That's the goal of a new book about Gamification, changing behavior of employees and customers by appealing to their sense of fun and their competitive instinct, video game style. The co-author of For the Win: How Game Thinking Can Revolutionize Your Business is Dan Hunter, who runs New York Law School's Institute for Information Law and Society. He says gamification done right is about meaningful competition." (David Brancaccio, Marketplace, American Public Radio) "Werbach and Hunter aren't playing around with this book on how to add the joy of gaming to your enterprise. This is a quick but thoughtful look into the pros and cons of gamification, what works and what doesn't, with plenty of insight into what really motivates and engages customers and employees." (Daniel H. Pink, author of Drive and A Whole New Mind) "For the Win is the best overview of gamification out there. Direct and to the point, the book is chock-full of solid, studied examples illustrating both best practices and pitfalls to avoid." (Jesse Schell, CEO of Schell Games and author of The Art of Game Design) "For the Win is a total win! In the 21st century, business must shift from push to pull to get the best out of their employees and to entice their customers. This book brilliantly explains how to design and use gamification techniques to that end. I highly recommend this useful and fun to read book." (John Seely Brown, Coauthor of The Power of Pull and A New Culture of Learning; Co-chairman, Deloitte Center for the Edge; Former Chief Scientist, Xerox Corporation; Director, Palo Alto Research Center) "If you prefer realism to hype and rationality to bandwagons, this is the gamification book for you. As a work about gamification today, this book is excellent; as a work about gamification tomorrow, it's staggeringly excellent." (Richard Bartle, Professor, University of Essex; Creator of MUD1, the first multiplayer online game; Author of Designing Virtual Worlds) "Like gamification, this book is a fusion of human nature and good design. Far and away the best book on the subject, with the most examples and the best intellectual grasp of the topics." (Bing Gordon, Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers; former Chief Creative Officer, Electronic Arts) "As business becomes more complex and information-intensive, so managers must learn to rely on their employees' intrinsic motivations and self-direction rather than traditional command and control. 'Gamification' is a vital tool in that shift. In For the Win, Kevin Werbach and Dan Hunter have written an entertaining and immensely practical guide to this rich managerial opportunity." (Philip Evans, Senior Partner, Managing Director, and BCG Fellow, Boston Consulting Group; co-author of Blown to Bits) "Every business executive, small business owner and public servant should read this book; the public and private benefits would be enormous. I'm not kidding. If you're even half as blown away as I was by For the Win, it'll be your best book purchase of the year. Applying 'game thinking' to everyday life might just change . . . well, everything. Read the book and you'll see what I mean." (Jessica Mulligan, Online game pioneer and co-founder, Themis Group) "If you want to understand one of the most important trends in business today, go out and buy For the Win. Werbach and Hunter reveal the secrets to powering up your organization through game thinking. Read this book. It's a game changer." (Brad Feld, Managing Director, Foundry Group; Co-author of Do More Faste) "At a time when so many of us have grown up with video games, game thinking belongs at the center of discussions about business and management. In For the Win, Werbach and Hunter eloquently and practically explain how to apply one of the most important shifts in our cognitive models." (Joichi Ito, Director, MIT Media Lab) "This fantastic book shows how to motivate your customers, employees, and partners using the techniques that game designers have employed for years. For the Win is the perfect title, because businesses that understand these techniques will be the standout winners in their markets. Do yourself a favor and read this deep yet practical guide before your competitors do." (Rajat Paharia, Founder and Chief Product Officer, Bunchball) "A wonderfully written, funny, and timely work. Should be required reading for anyone pursing a modern undertaking utilizing these concepts. As the concept of 'gamifying' continues to grow, the importance of this text will continue to emerge." (Professor Andrew Phelps, Director, School of Interactive Games & Media, Rochester Institute of Technology) "For the Win hits a home run in illustrating the business value of gamification for both small and large companies across the globe." (Kris Duggan, CEO, Badgeville) "For the Win is the smartest book written on the practical potential of gamification. With eyes wide open to both the promise and the risks inherent in yoking business practices to the power of play, Hunter and Werbach may have singlehandedly saved gamification from collapsing under the weight of its own hype." (Julian Dibbell, author of Play Money and My Tiny Life)
