Distributed Quests

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Joshua Kerievsky

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Sep 17, 2009, 1:20:39 PM9/17/09
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Would it make sense if folks around the globe could design quests that are rated by experts to either be at a certain level or offer up a certain number of points for completing them successfully?  

An API could be designed such that all quests would have to support some standard way of communicating with a central site, which would register quests and register changes to a person's rating or credits.  

We'd have to build in peer reviews and other ways to do the assessment.  

The trick would be to produce an ecosystem of quests, including some really hard ones.  

In fact, at some point, quests ought to be real.  There are a lot of needy not-for-profit organizations that could use some Agile experts.  We could even track up-time and defects to award or take away points.  

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Joshua Kerievsky
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Patrick Wilson-Welsh

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Sep 17, 2009, 2:13:00 PM9/17/09
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Hello Joshua,


These are great ideas, in my judgment. 


There are also open source projects that need love from "refactoring and test-retrofitting" elves. Points could be awarded for that. 


But yes, an ecosystem of quests/ordeals is what I have had in mind too. 


Another related meme: GiveCamp: http://michigangivecamp.org/  Points for that too. 


--Patrick

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patrick welsh

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Chris Wheeler

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Sep 17, 2009, 2:40:01 PM9/17/09
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Josh,

I'm really digging this metaphor - immersive world, 'quest' type progression...

Helping not-for-profits is one way to gain 'points'. What about time spent at known agile shops? Is that not another, more common, way that one could complete real quests?

Chris.

Ola Ellnestam

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Sep 17, 2009, 2:47:27 PM9/17/09
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Joshua Kerievsky wrote:
> Would it make sense if folks around the globe could design quests that are
> rated by experts to either be at a certain level or offer up a certain
> number of points for completing them successfully?
> An API could be designed such that all quests would have to support some
> standard way of communicating with a central site, which would register
> quests and register changes to a person's rating or credits.
>
> We'd have to build in peer reviews and other ways to do the assessment.
>
> The trick would be to produce an ecosystem of quests, including some really
> hard ones.
>
> In fact, at some point, quests ought to be real. There are a lot of needy
> not-for-profit organizations that could use some Agile experts. We could
> even track up-time and defects to award or take away points.
>

I am (was) really into on-line gaming. Just by reading quests I get this
lovely tingling feeling. And combining it with software development is
brilliant.

Leveling and questing as you do in RPGs is a great metaphor for software
development 'career' making.

The trick is, as you say, the creation of an RPG-like ecosystem for
software developers.

This made me think a lot! Very inspiring.

//Ola

--
---------------------------------------------------------
Ola Ellnestam
Agical AB
Västerlånggatan 79, 2 tr
111 29 Stockholm, SWEDEN

Mobile: +46-708-754000
E-mail: ola.el...@agical.se
Blog: http://ellnestam.wordpress.com
Twitter: ellnestam

William Pietri

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Sep 17, 2009, 2:56:26 PM9/17/09
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Ola Ellnestam wrote:
> I am (was) really into on-line gaming. Just by reading quests I get this
> lovely tingling feeling. And combining it with software development is
> brilliant.
>
> Leveling and questing as you do in RPGs is a great metaphor for software
> development 'career' making.
>
> The trick is, as you say, the creation of an RPG-like ecosystem for
> software developers.

That makes me think of Foursquare and Booyah, both social networking
apps where leveling up involves real-world activities, not just virtual
ones.

http://playfoursquare.com/
http://www.booyah.com/

Another interesting example to consider is Puzzle Pirates. There, skill
at in-game activities isn't determined by time spent. Instead, you
ability to do things in game, like fire canons or win in swordfights, is
based on your ability in small games.

William

D. André Dhondt

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Sep 17, 2009, 3:30:16 PM9/17/09
to Assessing Agility
> In fact, at some point, quests ought to be real.
They already are. Anyone know Corey Haines? He's already been doing
this for at least 6 months, and has found so much value in it that
he's planning another year --

http://programmingtour.blogspot.com/

His summary is this entry: http://programmingtour.blogspot.com/2009/08/hat-in-hand.html

If he would just give out a score for each of these companies, or an
improvement checklist, maybe it could become a profitable business
model...

Brian Marick

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Sep 17, 2009, 5:48:58 PM9/17/09
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The quest idea is just weird enough to be interesting. However, I
never got the whole idea of experience points. I used to play
Runequest. In Runequest, all your skills had percentage chances of
working. The more you used them, the higher the percentage.

Saying, "she has a 35% chance of successfully applying her TDD skill"
seems more like you want as an assessment than experience points or
levels.

-----
Brian Marick, independent consultant
Mostly on agile methods with a testing slant
Author of _Programming Cocoa with Ruby_
www.exampler.com, www.exampler.com/blog, www.twitter.com/marick

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