"Gaming the Future of Museums" Activities

Here are two activities that complement the lecture "Gaming the Future of Museum":

• Games People Play...in Museums" explores the low or no-tech games you and your friends may already use to enhance your museum experience.
• Badges! Playing with Incentives" explores how to a principle of gaming--give good feedback!--can help influence the behavior of museum visitors.

Both encourage you to submit your ideas so we can compile and share them with colleagues! Let's crowdsource the future of gaming in museums.

Games People Play . . . in Museums

In the discussions after the lecture "Gaming the Future of Museums" by Dr. Jane McGonigal, it became clear that many people have their own self-created games they play in museums, alone or with friends. They use these no-tech, self-directed games to stimulate their imaginations, structure their visit or interact with friends and family. Help us document and share these games! Need a jumpstart to your thinking? Start here:

• What games do you play by yourself, or with friends, when you visit a museum?
• Ask your colleagues, friends and family about their “museum games
• Visit a museum and invent  a game you can play by yourself or with others
• Visit the the Games People Play wiki to read about other people's games

Email your contributions to futureofmuseums@aam-us.org, or contribute directly  on the Games People Play wiki*!

* wiki: a page or collection of Web pages that enables anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content. Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites and to power community websites. The collaborative encyclopedia Wikipedia is one of the best-known wikis.

Badges! Playing with Incentives

In her lecture, Dr. McGonigal discusses how her games, such as Superstruct, award badges for activities that demonstrated behaviors she wants the game to encourage. She has created badges that are awarded for behavior that demonstrates any of ten "superpowers" she feels will be necessary for people to thrive in the future. Review her list of superpowers, and her badge designs here.

List behaviors you want your museum to encourage, and specific tasks visitors could accomplish to demonstrate these qualities. Design badges (names and logos!) that you could award visitors for accomplishing these tasks. Submit your badge designs, with an explanation of each and its purpose, via email to futureofmuseums@aam-us.org and we will post them to the CFM website.