Starting today, SCN has been loaded with some new gamification features. If this is the first time you have heard about the changes, I recommend looking at chip.rodgersblog Game On! #Gamification Coming to #SCN (SAP Community Network) which covers all of the new gamified features that have been included. You can learn more about the team that worked hard to get these new features implemented at http://youtu.be/_9dumwW7XRo. The gamification is enabled using bunchball's nitro platform.
If this whole gamification thing is new to you and you missed the 2011 SAP techEd keynote with Jane McGonigal, I recommend you check out Jane's TED talk about how Gaming can make a better world. I also recommend reading How Gamification of the Enterprise can kill the Dilbert-Comics, which focuses on how gamification can make changes in the enterprise application space. Though gamification may not be widely used in enterprise apps just yet, they have been around in the online collaboration space as long as I can remember. I do not think I have ever seen a forum that did not at least give points and rankings for the number of posts people have. If you are still not sold on the whole gamification thing, you can always ignore it!
Just as points have been on forums for many years, a point system has also existed on SCN, it is just having some changes now. The first change that I noticed and really like is that your points will no longer expire after 12 months. I think this is great! Partly because I had some points that expired and adding that in brought me up to a silver from a bronze. Woo-hoo! Of course the benefit of having points expire is that it encourages members to keep contributing in order to keep their status. I think not expiring is good because people shouldn't be punished because they are not active for a while, which could be a result of working on a very time consuming project. There are also some improvements to the waypoints are assigned in the wikis explained in SCN Wiki points allocation changes .
Missions are a new feature that allow you to earn points and badges for completing a task. All of the missions that involving adding content require you to read the SAP Community Network Rules of Engagement as the first step to adding content. Much like the itunes agreement, I'm sure many people have never read this before and I would bet the mission requirement will help with that. Unlike the itunes agreement, it was clear and concise! I really like how you can click the gear in the lower right hand corner (pictured below) and see the specific requirements to complete the mission.
Something I would like to see is some missions or points around code exchange. Some reward for contributing to a project or having so many people download a project that you started. I also think that a badge would be a great place to show off and verify any SAP certifications.
To the SCN team: Good job! Congrats on going live!
Do you have a favorite feature of the new gamification system? Post it below!
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