Every episode of the Professor Game podcast, hosted by Rob Alvarez of The Octalysis Group. Honest breakdowns of gamification, behavioral design, and the Octalysis Framework, applied to real products, retention, and engagement. New episodes weekly, plus interviews with leading experts.
Civic Engagement Through Classroom Games with Kerry Flanagan-Owen | Episode 407
Book a free 1:1 call to create your personalized gamification game plan: 🎯 professorgame.com/discoverycall Episode Summary Kerry Flanagan-Owen, Senior Manager of Learning Design at the Bill of Rights Institute, describes how her team (collaborating with Game Genius designers Roddy McKenzie and Peter Williamson) built […]
How to Win at the Game of Life (Without Playing by the Rules) | Episode 406
Episode Summary Drawing on Peter Gray’s “A Brief History of Education,” Rob Alvarez argues that modern schooling was engineered for compliance and obedience to serve agricultural and industrial labor needs, not to develop free thinkers. He maps the resulting dynamic onto game design (extrinsic […]
From Skeptics to Superstars: The Power of Play at Work with Alex Suchman | Episode 405
🚀 Want your community buzzing and bringing in more revenue? Snag my free mini course with 3 killer gamification hacks: professorgame.com/freebie-3-gamification-hacks Episode Summary Alex Suchman, CEO of Barometer XP, argues that play at work has been miscast as frivolous when it is actually the […]
Why Your Game Mechanic Is the Learning with Elisa Navarro Chinchilla | Episode 404
Episode Summary Elisa Navarro Chinchilla, CEO of Gold Bug Interactive, argues that a serious game’s core mechanic must be bound to the learning itself. Anything else produces “chocolate-covered broccoli” where a platformer pauses to ask quiz questions. She walks through the production cycle from […]
Secrets to Building the Most Engaging Community Ever | Episode 403
Episode Summary Rob Alvarez argues that community founders burn out because they build feedback loops for members but not for themselves, and because they build communities they don’t personally want to inhabit. He recommends a personal momentum tracker (points for posts, member wins, helpful […]