Play at Work

Once thought to be nothing more than diversions for children and nerds, games have become an integral part of everyday life. Educators are trying to make learning more fun by introducing games into the classroom while cutting-edge managers are doing the same in the workplace. Doctors, scientists, and entrepreneurs are deploying games to help solve some of the world's most pressing problems.But according to Adam Penenberg, it's not the games themselves that improve our lives, but rather smart game design and its impact on the brain that can lead us to become immersed in a task we find enjoyable. The individuals and institutions that have used games to achieve this effect are often rewarded with astounding results.Examples include:* A software developer who changed Microsoft's mind-numbing code review process into a fun, team based game.* Google, which indexed its massive image database with unpaid volunteers by turning the process into a game.* A medical student who created a simple game that helped her overcome distractions and dramatically increased her productivity.Drawing on the latest brain science on attention and engagement plus his own firsthand reporting, Penenberg shows how organizations like Google, Microsoft, hospitals, and the military have used game design in bold new ways.

From Tom Sawyer's fence-painting scheme to Angry Birds, games have a unique knack for tapping the heart of engagement. Adam Penenberg takes you well beyond Zynga and through the countless, inventive ways games can be designed to bring out our best thinking. This is a fascinating and entertaining exploration of that most basic of human proclivities: Play, Gamification is a hot topic but few truly understand it. Engaging and filled with incredible stories, Play at Work explains how games can make us more efficient and creative. Drawing on copious research and interviews with an array of game designers, scientists, mathematicians, entrepreneurs, inventors, and government officials, Penenberg offers a new perspective on how to make play work for you, It's happening all around us, but if you're not paying attention you may miss it. Adam Penenberg provides an insightful guide into how gamification is infiltrating the marketplace, and more importantly, how it can be leveraged to make experiences more immersive and addictive. Read it, and prepare to see your everyday experiences through new eyes, In this great and often funny book Penenberg shows how everyone from entrepreneurs to scientists are using gamification to create the future today. Don't be left behind. Read this book to learn how the rules of business and life are changing, Adam Penenberg's excellent new book persuasively demonstrates the power of gaming to motivate work. Filled with great stories of companies who have made the leap into playful productivity, it should be useful and inspirational for anyone looking at how to leverage the spirit of competition

Adam Penenberg is the editor of PandoDaily.com, a Web site that follows tech start-ups. He has written for The New York Times, Forbes, Fast Company, Inc., Slate, and Wired among other publications. He is the author of Viral Loop: From Facebook to Twitter, How Today's Smartest Businesses Grow Themselves and is a journalism professor at New York University.