I'm talking about a product that uses the tools of tracking, gaming, and me-to-we design to give a fabulous experience: Nike+. Nike+ provides a brilliant trifecta of sticky experiences, combining tracking, game mechanics, and me-to-we design to support a product, an activity, a community, and ultimately, healthy lifestyles. experience?

In the spirit of this sentiment, this week we look at games for lurkers, that is, games people watch. Games people watch? Isn’t the point to play games? d guess, in this country at least, more people watch games than play them. In museums, we always assume that everyone wants to get their hands dirty and “do it.”

I have a lot of conversations with people that go like this: Other person: "So, you think that museums should let visitors control the museum experience?" Other person: "But doesn't that erode museums' authority?" If the museum isn't in control, how can it thrive? Museums should consider, as Web 2.0

Two very interesting articles today by Ian Bogost , courtesy of Gamasutra , about the potential of games as a more generalized medium for interaction with content. In the first article, Why We Need More Boring Games , Ian argues for a wider application of gaming to our daily experience. Serious games offer one example.

One of the things that makes games compelling is their capacity to draw us in and swallow us up--spitting us out hours later dazed and squinting. I'm a strong advocate for the positive learning value of games, whether on the playground, on the computer, or at poker night at Uncle Dave's. Not so with addictive games. And yet.

Dear Museums on Twitter, Thanks for experimenting in a new and largely uncharted online environment. So here is a list of suggestions that hopefully will improve the way your museum thinks about using Twitter. Or it's rainy so you suggest I visit the museum? Give me a game, like the Smithsonian's name that artifact gambit.

There's a lot of interesting gaming stuff going on since GDC and SXSW have just finished up, but this week, I want to focus on some gaming in the real world, with an environmental twist. He claims his initial interest was political (dependence on foreign oil), but soon enough, hypermiling became an addictive game.

"Putting Fun into Functional" is a really fabulous powerpoint presentation by Amy Jo Kim of shufflebrain , a unique game design company. Each one of these amplifies the extent to which the player/user feels connected to the game or experience offered. There have got to be some great ways to apply these mechanics to museums.

Anyone who loves games has had this experience. Reading the rules again after each person's roll of the die. Frustration is a reality of gaming. There's an expectation of a learning curve followed by reward, and most people approach games ready and willing to pay the startup costs to learn a new game. educational?

There were many intriguing exhibits and a novel cellphone game (more on that in another post), but I was particularly interested in their new special exhibition on the brain. Many institutions that are pursuing online/onsite experience connections have lighted on the personal webpage as THE way to deliver post-visit experiences.