EXAMPLE: Swarm

Ever since my dear friend introduced me to Swarm, I have become a bit of an addict. As mentioned before Dodgeball turned into Foursquare and Foursquare created Swarm. Simply put, Swarm is a social network, which lets you share your location and status update with your friends. Users get to check-in to locations, add pictures and are rewarded with many different colorful stickers and virtual coins. When users checks into a venue more than any other user he or she becomes the major status.

Friends, that don’t use Swarm, don’t get it and constantly ask me “Why Mieke, what’s the point?” My answer: “I don’t know, does there have to be one other than fun?” I get no physical rewards for collecting coins, I don’t really follow (stalk?) my friends and the stickers are just a fun gimmick. Why do I use it? Well, I am a sucker for gamified apps, I love stickers and somehow it feels damn good to be a badass virtual major. (Also, it’s a great tool for tracking what I’ve been up to - aka Friday night drunk check-ins are hilarious). My colleagues battle each other for major ship at work and lunch places around work. I am creature of habit, I am creature seeking fun and being rewarded. Somehow Swarm has managed to encompass all that in a simple app :)

#games #gamification #gaming #swarm