Matthijs Krempel was an avid gamer in college playing EverQuest 8 hours a day. In the famous massive multiplayer online (MMO) game, users can create avatars to carry out fantasy genre role playing game adventures. He eventually reached the pinnacle of EverQuest by defeating the game’s “final bosses” up to 25 times. Part of what drove this desire was to earn the badges or achievements to show off his accomplishments.
Krempel is also a software developer. He is known for developing Channel9, an application which pulls video content from Channel 9 – Microsoft’s developer community. He used Visual Studio to develop it. His gaming experience and knowledge of Visual Studio has piqued Microsoft’s interest to approach him to turn programming into a game.
Bringing gamification to something that did otherwise does not seem like a game is not a new concept, but to bring it to programming is new. It is also a significant effort which can help new programmers investigate new techniques and methods in which they may not have tried before. It also may encourage programmers to develop new skills.
Gamer-turned-developer Matthijs Krempel says don’t always apply to the work he’s doing — “The tasks aren’t always relevant” — but he agrees that this could actually work in your favor. A badge for implementing 1,000 resources, for instance, could encourage an inquisitive coder to start a new project to explore aspects of Visual Studio he normally wouldn’t.
I love gaming, and I love development. This might be something I could get behind. You can try the beta too.
