October 25, 2011
To drive, I am told, can give a wonderful sense of freedom to the driver. Many believe the car is an extension of the self, in which the vehicle is accessorized in a way which reflects the owner. Unfortunately, I have never had the urge to drive a car.
When I was around 17 or so my mum was quick to shut me up on my ‘wild dreams’ of driving a ‘death trap’ (TRANSLATION: Motorcycle. Many parents are reading this nodding solemnly.) She promised that if I took lessons for driving a car, that she would pay the full wack for it all. My mother drives a hard bargain, she had a deal, I had no money anyway.
Driving turned out to be one of the most uncomfortable, anxiety inducing activities I have ever voluntarily taken part in. Even without my instructor who insisted on speaking at length about food (he was Italian, not that I’m generalizing cultures but still) I felt eternally distracted. There were so many obstacles and hazards with the car itself, let alone all the chaos waiting to happen on the open road in the face of other cars. It just seemed that there were so many ‘to-do’s’; applying for a provisional license, finding an affordable driving instructor, having the lessons, studying for the theory test, taking the theory test (more money), understanding the highway code and how cars actually work, taking the practical test (more money) and then the disappointing reward, after all that hard work, of forking out another small fortune for the vehicle itself, the petrol to run it, the various insurances and taxes of which there seems to be no end nor cap on their rising costs…all for what? Having to pay for it being parked in the London car park where I lived at the time (yes folks, my front door did back into a car-park) and taking the short haul journey to the local Tesco’s? If anything, the walk did me good so having a car would also strip away of a good bit of exercise.
(You may be wondering at this point readers, where Gamification may eventually come into play. I shall reveal shortly.)
I had 40 lessons. Yep, 40 lessons, two theory tests and one miserably failed driving test. (For those who are interested, I made the boo-boo of crossing my arms over at the wheel and hitting the curb during those astonishingly annoying 3-point turns). And so, after many years, I am now 25, soon to be 26, and I find myself at this familiar road once again. I need to drive, or I will be forever isolated. My partner and I are doing what most people are doing nowadays- planning to move to an area where we can actually afford i.e – out of London.
On this occasion I have to admit that I am much more enthusiastic about the whole thing but I still fear what I know to be a long, long road ahead.
During a workshop I did last week for the ARK Group I had an epiphany. To be honest, I’m not sure why I didn’t have it any earlier. There I was, talking about Gamification to a group of people who were from various professional backgrounds; from the telecoms industry wondering how on earth to get people to read their training manual, to University staff who were perplexed on the high rate of course inquiries and low rates of open-day attendance…to working out a way in which people can easily and enthusiastically be more ‘green’ at home for the greater good.
Together in the group we quite literally created whole and complete gamification strategies for their various challenges and I thought to myself “If I can Gamify these challenges so plausibly, why can’t gamify my own life?”.
As with the challenges of my group, the Gamification strategy either begins with a c
hallenge involving a group of people and then magnifies on the individual, or begins with the individual and grows exponentially to encompass a group. And just with my thoughts of Gamifying my road to driving a car, the idea began with myself as the individual and has now grown into something which I believe can be used by many people.
I figured, if a game has 4 rules (a goal, rules, a feedback system, voluntary participation [and sometimes a collaborative elements as some games are played in teams as well as solo]) then surely I can apply this to learning how to drive?
So here’s how it’s going to go folks, and writing this blog will be one of the elements I will use to help gamify learning to drive as I’m going to keep you all updated on the progress. Firstly, the to-do’s could now become goals with the penultimate goal being to learn to drive and beyond. My lessons will now become levels and all the obstacles and distractions will be the drawbacks as in any game to overcome. The other task is to drive in 30 lessons over 7.5 months so that’s one lesson a week, 4 lessons a month.
The start is in January 2011 (by the time I come back from ESOMAR it’ll be near the end of November, then Christmas, so January is the start). Using Prezi, I have created the start to how this game could look, please see below:
You will see that I have allocated other achievements to unlock as well as the rule of keeping to the budget and ‘leveling’ the tests results themselves So that when the goal is reached, I can gain a good financial bonus which I know can be one of the key motivators for me. Part of the bonus is also to let myself take a road trip to Ireland, where I have never been to before.
Now imagine this was a real game, which I am sure the visual aid of the Prezi can allow you to see it in your minds eye. Now imagine that your driving instructor and friends could all support your progress by logging into the game and rooting for you? Imagine if the instructor could be the person to unlock certain achievements and then you could have the ability to share those via your social networking sites?
It’s certainly one of those ideas I’d love to put into play so lots of people can take part, where you can view ‘top driver of the week’ and ‘best student’ awards for those who put in the most amount of hours that week or month. We could even link the website to an online training/studying tool for all wannabe drivers! Imagine even further if an entire country of wannabe drivers could take part or even the world! However, before I get too ahead of mysef, I need to learn how to drive first before creating this online game!
I’ll keep you all posted ON what a wonderful thing Gamification has done for me…it’s actually made me excited about driving !
