Meaningful Gamification, Nov 21 @ 5:30p

November 21, 2013 | Discovery Park B155 | Reception 5:30 | Lecture 6:00

Dr. Scott Nicholson

Meaningful Gamification:

Motivating Through Play

Instead of Manipulating Through Rewards

Please join Dr. Scott Nicholson as he explains the use of game design concepts to create a layer on a real world setting. Typically, gamification focuses on the use of rewards like points and badges to change the behavior of users. Rewards can cause long-term damage to intrinsic motivation, however, so Dr. Nicholson has focused on developing the concept of meaningful gamification as a way to build intrinsic motivation.

Dr. Nicholson is an Associate Professor at Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies and Director of the Because Play Matters game lab and the Game Designers' Guild of Syracuse. He is an alumnus of the Interdisciplinary PhD program in Information Science at UNT. During 2011-2012, he was a visiting professor at MIT in Comparative Media Studies and the GAMBIT game lab. Dr. Nicholson is a published board game designer, wrote the book Everyone Plays at the Library, and was an academic reference librarian at Texas Christian University. He hosts a research blog at http://becauseplaymatters.com.

The College of Information sponsors a Colloquium Series at which renowned researchers and professionals address topics of interest to students and faculty. The goal of the series is to nurture the community of scholars and provide opportunities for faculty and students to engage in the scholarly and research life of the College and the University.