For those with an Android phone and access to an activation code, Ingress
is a game that forces introverts out of the house. This game mixes a
resource control approach, Google maps with GPS techniques. The rules
require the player to get out, since you can only take control of game
resources if you’re fairly close to them (e.g., 40 meters) in the real
world.Here in Texas there is some activity, but last week when I was in Palo Alto there was virtual Ingress technology on almost every corner, in this augmented reality MMORPG.
These same techniques could be applied to employee orientation within business (assuming it is large enough for GPS to work – although I suppose you could write it to use WiFi hubs within a building). This sort of training tool would encourage people to get out and interact with other employees and find out information about the corporate culture and resources – going far deeper than most employee orientation today. On a corporate implementation like this, you’d likely time constrain the access so it doesn’t get out of control and interfere with actually doing work.
This is similar to the kind of gamification that can be applied to delve into the corner features of applications, but this implementation is much more social and physical.
