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
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
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Ola Ellnestam
Agical AB
Västerlånggatan 79, 2 tr
111 29 Stockholm, SWEDEN
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E-mail: ola.el...@agical.se
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Twitter: ellnestam
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
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