DON’T MISS IT!

-Jonathan Peters, PhD

Introduction: What Used to Work No Longer Does (“The Kids These Days”)
We’ve been teaching the same way for 300 years, relying on a puritanical ethic that states that children should be seen and not heard, sitting for hours on uncomfortable chairs, not fidgeting. Even with decades of neuroscience telling us otherwise, we still rely on this tradition when creating adult learning experiences. But the new generations entering the workforce were not subjected to this type of learning, and they expect and demand learning experiences that respect how they learn. 

-Monica Cornetti, MSEDE

F*ck Average
I didn’t write this chapter for people who are content with “good enough.” I wrote it for the ones who’ve felt the friction—who’ve tried to push boundaries in corporate training only to be met with blank stares, red tape, or flat-out resistance. If that’s you, you’re not alone. Every author in this book has gone toe-to-toe with mediocrity and refused to back down. We’ve challenged stale systems, sparked change, and created learning experiences that actually work. “F*ck Average!” isn’t just a title—it’s a mindset. And if you’re ready to do things differently, you’re in the right place.

-Keith Lillico,
M.Ed., MBA

The Framework Factor: Building Scalable Gamification That Works
Scaling gamification requires a solid foundation, and this chapter emphasizes the importance of a unified framework to provide that structure. A well-defined framework ensures that gamified experiences are designed, developed, and implemented consistently across the organization, avoiding the pitfalls of ad-hoc, siloed efforts. By establishing a common language and process, a framework promotes efficiency, quality, and reusability in gamification initiatives. This chapter will explore the essential components of such a framework and demonstrate how it enables organizations to effectively scale gamification for maximum impact on learner engagement and organizational goals.

-Rihan Mustapha, MA

Anchored in Story: Designing Learning That Lasts
In this chapter, I explore how gamification can transform leadership development from a routine process into an engaging, purpose-driven journey. You’ll discover practical ways to use quests, challenges, and rewards to spark reflection, boost collaboration, and drive meaningful growth in leaders. Whether you're designing a workshop or coaching a team, this approach offers strategies that ignite motivation and unlock potential. It's not just about making learning fun—it's about making it stick.

-Ginine Capozzi, M.Ed.

Power of One™ Moments that Transform Learning
Growing up, my mom often said, “Ginine, never underestimate the power of one—it’s the number that changes everything.” I didn’t fully grasp the weight of her words until a conversation with my boss reshaped the course of my career. That moment revealed something lasting: transformation doesn’t always roar. Sometimes, it whispers—through one conversation, one idea, one action.

That truth lives at the heart of the Power of One™, and it guides how I apply gamification to professional development—not as a gimmick, but as a way to create meaningful, human-centered moments that result in the magical “ah-ha". When designed with intention, game elements can spark curiosity, deepen emotional connection, and turn fleeting moments into catalysts for lasting change. Because what learning awakens, it has the power to transform.

-Artrell Williams, CPTM, CPTD 

If I Can Do It...
Some learning professionals think they know all about gamification. Others believe they don’t have time for it or assume it won’t fit their company culture. Somewhere in between lies a space of curiosity—where trainers and instructional designers just want to bring more fun into their learning experiences. They’ve played Jeopardy in PowerPoint enough times and used Bingo and team challenges every way they can think of. They’re ready for something different.

When I showed up to GamiCon in 2022, I figured I’d be in a room full of trainers flipping through theory booklets and watching slide after slide of activities. Boy was I wrong! That experience completely changed how I facilitate—and showed me that “fun is just a condiment.”

This chapter shares how I went from trying to escape a pre-conference debauchery to designing an award-winning game and becoming a published author in less than three years. It’s a story about discovery, creativity, and how gamification can not only engage learners but produce real operational results—even if operations leaders don’t always see it at first.

-Amadeus Nunaley

Once Upon a Lesson: Where Stories and Games Meet
Gamification is a popular trend in instructional design, with many experts offering advice on how to create more engaging gameplay and interactive elements. But what’s often overlooked is the power of narrative or how a well-crafted story can elevate a learning experience from enjoyable to unforgettable. Drawing on my own experience as a homeschooled child who learned through both textbooks and story-driven educational games, I explore how narrative can anchor knowledge in lasting ways. This chapter takes a look into what makes a story resonate with learners and how to integrate gamification elements that do more than just entertain, they help information stick.

-Frank Parker, MA  

A Gamification Manifesto
In my chapter, I diagnose gamification’s current blind spots and issue a call to reclaim its soul as a medium of care, co-creation, and attunement. Framed as a manifesto, it critiques mainstream gamified systems that often reduce human experience to metrics and compliance—what Heidegger calls enframing, a mode of revealing that treats people as resources to be optimized and controlled. From language apps to workplace dashboards, I argue, gamification too often disguises surveillance as play and prioritizes performance over presence.

In response, I propose a redefinition of gamification as the design of conversational affordances —mechanics that foster trust, dialogue, and emotional depth. Drawing on speech act theory, hermeneutics, and examples like Will Guidara’s Unreasonable Hospitality, I advocate for a shift from extrinsic engagement to transformative play—where design becomes an act of care, and play becomes a way of uncovering what truly matters.

-Javier Velasquez, MA

Fail Smart: Lose to Learn the Gamified Way!
Discover how purposeful failure can unlock powerful learning. This chapter delves into how award-winning gamification design transforms setbacks into stepping stones—crafting systems where feedback loops, identity formation, and iteration turn loss into lasting growth.

While "failing to learn" is not a new concept, how to design failing is something that is not discussed much in education, but, guess what... is a pillar of game design. Failure can lead to frustration and loss of players, but it also is the core of the learning loop in the path towards Mastery. That is why game designers have explores multiple design choices to make loss inspiring and motivational. Losing is not just a road block, is the core of the experience, and succeeding after losing creates fiero and excitement.

Let's understand why losing is scary in education, let's change the framework that we use to try to motivate learners, and let's move from the current system of punishment towards one of growth through failure. Will walk through the lens of games like Celeste, Spelunky, Donkey Kong, Prince of Persia and Tetris to find the key to failing smart!

 -Jazmin Webster, PhD

All Aboard or All Bored? Gamify and Save a Life!
Jazmin Webster takes you on a journey through the skies of onboarding, exploring how gamification can transform the experience from a mundane checklist to an exhilarating flight. Drawing from personal experiences and industry insights, she highlights the importance of turning passive onboarding into active, memorable journeys. By leveraging game mechanics like progression maps, scenario-based challenges, and persona-driven strategies, companies can ensure new hires are not just passengers but co-pilots in their own onboarding adventure. Jazmin equips you to gamify your onboarding experience to energize, engage, and empower your employees from Day One, saving lives one game at a time.

 -Susan Peahl, M.Ed.

Put Down That Shiny Object! It All Starts Here.
Gamification for Learning IS exciting and doable. Organizations want their trainings to be engaging, and we assume effective. Gamification for learning can achieve this. And it IS within your reach. But many organizations are jumping on the Gamification bandwagon haphazardly, often purchasing technology (the Shiny New Objects) to create more engaging training via guesswork, leaving their L & D designers with having to work within the limits of the technology that was purchased; “We spent the money; see what you can make with this.” It’s money down the drain and leaves the design team, learners, and organization frustrated. This chapter explores what you should do FIRST to create engaging, Learner-Centric Training that serves the learner AND the Organization, BEFORE you spend a single cent (or thousands) on tools. START HERE.

 -Sherry Prindle, MA  

Zen and the Art of Gamification: Quick, Enlightening Learning That Sticks
A university professor once visited a Zen Master seeking enlightenment. The Master poured tea into the professor’s cup until it overflowed. “Like this cup,” he said, “you are full of your own opinions. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?” That parable sits at the heart of how I approach training.

After delivering over 5,000 live sessions across 400 topics, I’ve learned how to create ah-ha moments—even in short, check-the-box sessions. In this chapter, I’ll share how small, purposeful gamification can spark curiosity, shift perspective, and drive engagement. You’ll discover how to replace tired icebreakers with “cup emptiers,” sneak learners into a play state, and use micro-gamification that works in any setting.

And yes, there’s a formula: my PRiNDLe Drive Training model helps you reverse-engineer learning from business goals to engagement strategies. So pour a fresh cup, shift into drive, and get ready to design training that actually moves people.

 -Josh 'Doc' Yavelberg, PhD

The Sententia Shift: How Gamification Rewrites How We Solve Problems
Gamification isn’t just about games—it’s a shift in how we design for change. In The Sententia Shift, we explore how gamification, when used as a design lens, can transform complex challenges into navigable journeys. Drawing from real-world successes and failures, this chapter reveals how motivational mechanics—like feedback loops, progress indicators, and narrative structures—can reframe engagement, behavior, and outcomes across sectors. Whether you're building training programs, change initiatives, or community experiences, this chapter will help you rethink your strategy, not just your scoreboards. Prepare to be challenged, inspired, and equipped to design with intention—even if your solution doesn’t look like a game.

-Chuck Sigmund, M.Ed.

Who Are You and Who Are They? Defining Personas for Impactful Gamification

Imagine a training experience that feels like a game you can’t put down—custom-built for your learners, fueled by their unique motivations, and designed to spark real behavior change. That’s the promise of Chuck Sigmund’s electrifying chapter on using learner personas as the secret sauce behind unforgettable gamification.

Drawing on proven frameworks—Bartle’s player types, Marczewski’s Hexad, Reiss’s Motivational Profile, and Chou’s Octalysis—he shows how to connect the dots between what learners crave and the game mechanics that make them hungry to learn.

This chapter is your blueprint for turning disconnected and seemingly-irrelevant training into a high-voltage, high-impact experience. 

-Renee Boisvert

Weighted Dice and Other Empathic Gamification Mechanics
This chapter explores the application of gamification as a supportive tool for behavior change, particularly in contexts involving neurodiversity, mental health challenges, and inconsistent energy availability. Drawing from personal narratives and reflective practice, the author examines how gamified systems—when grounded in empathy and flexibility—can foster engagement, autonomy, and self-regulation. Case examples illustrate the design of small, individualized interventions as well as principles of universal design for behaviorally complex learning environments. The chapter offers practical strategies for instructional designers, educators, and caregivers seeking to create humane, adaptive gamification frameworks for real-life challenges. 

-Bernardo Letayf

Problems, Players and Actions: Designing and Understanding Engaging Player Journeys
Engagement comes from progress, not from rewards. When a player finds themselves walking in a specific direction, it needs to be clear which way they must go and how much they have walked. The goal may not be completely clear, it's ok to add some fog to it to make it less obvious, but as long as the next step is clear, players won't feel lost. In this chapter, I want to share the technique that has been developed over the past 14 years of design where we have found an excellent way to show the players how to keep going. Creating a path where journey progress becomes a resource for motivation showing the players they can keep going because they have already achieved so much. Rewards as prizes are overrated but resources will keep us moving forward. We all want to feel we can keep going. 

 -Steve Abrams, M.Ed.

Making the Story Move Us: Connecting Story Archetypes to the Most Effective Game Mechanics for our Learners.
This chapter presents a unique interdisciplinary framework that draws a line through the eight story archetypes to the 16 Reiss Motivation Profiles and then the game mechanics that operationalize these psychological drives. By synthesizing narrative theory, motivational psychology, and interactive design, the chapter reveals how different story structures like the Hero’s Journey or Tragedy mirror fundamental human needs—from the quest for power and independence to the longing for tranquility or belonging. It then goes further by mapping specific game mechanics like Leaderboards, Side Quests, and Easter Eggs to each motivator-archetype pair, offering a dynamic model for constructing resonant, engaging and effective stories for gamified learning programs. This framework not only deepens our understanding of why certain stories endure but also provides a powerful toolkit for educators, storytellers, and game designers aiming to create emotionally compelling and motivationally aligned experiences.