gamification in portuguese

And so it came to pass that in May 6th I took another step in my quest for a better understanding of gamification. This step had two main objectives:

1. to understand who're the key players on the subject in Portugal;
2. to hear about gamification Portuguese.

It consisted of me participating in a User Experience Design & Gamification workshop organized by APMP and led by a gentleman called Rui Cordeiro.

I must admit that I was a bit skeptical about this workshop. I was quite content with saving my money for other flights. Such as this. 

And my skepticism was mostly due to two reasons: first was the fact that I hadn't heard much about gamification being done or discussed in Portugal, and therefore was expecting beginner's level content; second was my very portuguese habit of doubting other portuguese talking about stuff that came from abroad. Yes, we can be a little conceipted.

But the truth is that when you think about it, if the goal is, like my friend Ricardo says, "to become the parents of gamification in Portugal", it might be useful to at least get to know the playing field. Worst case scenario you learn a few things and hurray for networking! It bears notice that it was after this conversation that the need to also blog in portuguese came up.

So, it was with all this in mind that Murphy decided to slap me across the face.

As I walked in I was faced with a really heterogeneous group: professionals from several fields, ages, genders and of course musical tastes! But most of all, I was faced with this gentleman.

Rui Cordeiro is, as is stated in the workshop page, a game designer with more than 20 years of experience, that after a sucessful career making videogames at some of the biggest companies in the field (Activision/Blizzard, Gameloft, Sony, 2K Games), decided in 2010 to start looking at what he calls "...the 'intrusion' of games in life and other 'things'...". Since then he became an expert in UXD (user experience design), working internationally with topics such as Gamification, Design Thinking and User Centered Design.

And I knew nothing about this.

So it was that for almost 3 hours I was presented with some content I already knew from the online courses I took, delivered with a clarity, enthusiasm and sheer mastery that put me in my place. Also, to hear about gamification in portuguese is another experience in itself, particularly the terminology - "stuff" (cenas) was priceless.

In the second set of 3 hours I got my first real exercise in colaborative gamification design, with a less than expert approach at using Design Thinking and positive and constructive feedback at the end.

Also of notice was the fact that my lunch hour was spent mostly talking about gamification, discussing the subject and of course fooling around. Networking made fun. ;)

To sum it up, it was a day well spent at ETIC that renewed my faith in this subject in Portugal and my will to leave a mark in it.