Our March event is Gaming Normal, which will explore how videogames mechanics, from reward systems to player rankings, are being employed by inventive entrepreneurs across multiple industries. At the event, on March 14 at The Book Club, we’ll find out how game techniques are starting to transform the ‘normal’ work practises of companies, and informing the creation of truly addictive services and products. You can purchase your spot here or for more information, read on…

Many people associate videogaming with hackneyed storylines and chauvinistic characters, yet for all the flaws of the medium, it’s an active form of storytelling that forces us to think in an original and frequently tangential manner. ‘Play’ is a state in which we’re forced to be creative, competitive and guileless – qualities that also characterise many of the world’s most productive and innovative work environments.

More industries are beginning to recognise the creative benefits of facilitating ‘play states’ in the workplace, and how the installation of game-like structures can incentivise productivity and inspiration. Services like Seriosity and Badgeville use the psychological and economic principles of online multiplayer games to drive productivity; employees can win ‘points’ by completing training videos and other workplace tasks, while firms with geographically diffuse workforces use gaming techniques to make their staff work together effectively.

And with Angry Birds becoming almost as well known as Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny, the wider populace is becoming accustomed to gaming interfaces, something that the smarter, early adopting entrepreneurs and brands have noticed. By sucking consumers into worlds of task and reward, they are finding new ways to retain customers and more deeply engage them. Meanwhile ‘gamification’ techniques are being used to desensitise soldiers to the chaos of battlefield experience, and education and health organisations are also offering fun, game-like instructional programmes to engage students and patients.

Is this blurring between the worlds of work and leisure just a fad or will the ‘gamification’ movement continue apace? Are services like foursquare, which invest our everyday interactions with a gaming reward system, genuinely useful or an infantilising force? And how do our brains behave when we’re playing games, and how can knowledge of this cognitive science be harnessed to help us work more effectively? From Oblique Strategies to World of Warcraft, we’ll explore the games across history that have enhanced our problem-solving capabilities, and discuss the psychological implications of ‘gaming the normal’.

We have three fantastic gaming professionals as guests, who will be discussing this shift and sharing new ideas of where it should go:

Adrian Hon is the co-founder of Six To Start, a gaming company which eschews the traditional console in favour of the smartphone, the Internet and the great outdoors. One recent crowdfunded project called Zombies, Run! turns jogging into an escape from the undead. He’s also overseen games for clients including Channel 4, Disney and the BBC and blogs each month for The Daily Telegraph.

Louise Downe is a senior consultant at Seren Partners, designing interactive learning experiences for the likes of BBC and Nesta, as well as honing the mobile services of O2, Vodafone and Visa. She previously worked with the Tate, helping create interactive installations, locational games and audio tours that filled the potentially dry space of the gallery with inquisitive new audiences.

Anja-Karina Pahl is the founder of The Gamification Network, the UK’s first collective dedicated to sharing and exploring the strategies of gamification. She is also the founder of The PRIZM Game Company, who use games to draw out creativity and solve problems in the workplace.

So join them and us for Future Human’s unique cocktail of cocktails, presentations, interactive games, big-screen Twitter slanging matches, and of course brilliant, mind-expanding debate.

Gaming Normal takes place 7-9.30pm on Wednesday March 14 at The Book Club, Shoreditch, London EC2A 4RH. It’s an essential event for anyone who works in digital media or is interested in the ‘gamification’ phenomenon – or, for that matter, anyone who has ever turned their tax return or weekly swim into some kind of hairbrained competition. You know who you are!

Once again, tickets are available here and we strongly advise purchasing early to secure a spot.