Sunday Scavenger Hunt

This is going to sound dumb. But you know when you get the Sunday paper, and you want to find the Parade Magazine, or the coupons, or the comics, and you have to hunt through all those ad inserts to find what you want? That's really a game -- a kind of crummy game, but a game nonetheless. And I mention it because I think it is very much a good analogy for many of the future advergames we are going to see -- "hey, we have something you want -- just dig through these ads to get it!"

24 Hour Fitness New Member Rewards

Want to work out? Want to get medals? Want to help 24 hour fitness achieve its marketing goals? Well, now you can do all that at once! Did I mention there are MEDALS?

Rideshare Online

And if you don't live in Redmond, you can get points for carpooling with Rideshare Online. Hey, can Redmondians get points for both systems? Advantage, Redmond! Hey ladies, can I get a ride?

R-Trip

Want to get points for taking the bus? Well, if you live in Redmond, check out R-Trip.

Healthseeker

I just learned about Healthseeker from Ayogo through an article in Fast Company that Joe Pine, one of authors of Authenticity sent me. Enough links for you?

Healthseeker seems to be implemented very well. At the Game Horizon 2010 conference I talked about how games integrated with real life need to be:

1) Engaging
2) Effortless
3) Uncheatable
4) Not embarrassing

Healthseeker seems to have numbers 1 and 4 down okay, but 2 and 3 are pretty tough. Healthseeker's focus on social networking is a good way to reduce cheating, but still, making something like this effortless is really hard. And then there is the shame problem -- once you make a few bad moves, it makes you want to avoid the system, which is easy to avoid, since you have to put in effort to interact with it.

Time will tell if this is the right approach -- Healthseeker definitely seems like one of the stronger health/diet apps out there! The Gamepocalypse will make you STRONG!

Progress Wars

Don't think that filling bars for the sake of filling bars is rewarding? You haven't tried Progress Wars.

It's a great way to fill bars.

You are a Tamagotchi

A great summary article about many of the recent "health games" that work off our "data exhaust."