Author Archives: Matt Carey

The Doubt of the Benefit: Fake Progress and Lumosity’s “Brain Games”

Posted on August 20, 2012 by Matt Carey

, Matt Carey When ShuffleBrain CEO Amy Jo Kim took the stage at the 2011 CasualConnect game design conference, she started her speech “Smart Gamification” with a strangely defensive proviso: “I’m going to give you a quick run-through of how … Continue reading →

Posted in Critical Conversation | Tagged Amy Jo Kim , Behavioural modification , Behavoiral psychology , BPI , Brain Age , Brain Games , Brain Performance Index , Brain Training , CasualConnect , Dinner TIme , Engineering , fake progress , Gamification , Jonathan Blow , Lumosity , Matt Carey , patterns of reinforcement , Pavlov , Playing Koi , PSN , Shufflebrain , Skinner , Steam , WiiWare , XBLA | 10 Comments

0 XP: The Zynga Counterrevolution

Posted on July 11, 2012 by Matt Carey

by Matt Carey Imagine a slot machine gambler. For hours she pumps coins into a slot for the privilege of pushing a button. Each time she pushes the button she watches an animation on the machine’s video screen. Usually … Continue reading →

Posted in Critical Conversation | Tagged Café World , Dota 2 , Facebook gamers , Farmville , Mafia Wars , Matt Carey , Spacechem , TF2 , The Sims Social , Valve , XP grinding , YoVille , Zynga , Zynga Slots | 4 Comments

Author Archives: Matt Carey

The Doubt of the Benefit: Fake Progress and Lumosity’s “Brain Games”

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