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Why Gamification Matters

2/4/2015

5 Comments

 
Living Life 

What if life were a game? If life were a game, we would all be going about our daily lives trying to score points. We would feel obligated to learn the rules of the game, and we would go out of our way trying to avoid losing points. 

We would still be having fun at play, but only in a structured manner, as not obeying the rules could result in losing points. What a silly world we would live in if life were seen as a game! 

Wait a second.. To some extent, life itself does appear a bit like a game, does it not? 
Driving a car 

What if driving a car were a game? If driving a car were a game, we would all be going about on four wheels on the public roads trying to overcome the challenges of mobility, location and timely presence. 

We would feel inclined to learn the rules of the game if it meant that not knowing the rules would exclude you from participation. And driving a car can be great fun, as many will agree. 
Wife Carrying Championships by Bruno Maximus
In Finland, even Wife Carrying is a game. Picture courtesy of Bruno Maximus @ BrunoMaximus.net
Heck, many would even be willing to pay good money to get in to this game in order to start playing it! 

And after the rules have been learnt, what fun would this game be if there were no challenges left for experienced players? Like for example, avoid losing points to a monster? 

Wait a second.. 
Lets Play a Game 

What, actually, is a “game”? A game could be said to be structured play. See the definition from Wikipedia 

What does it mean “to play”? 

It could be said that to “Play” is to engage in any free activity standing consciously outside of normal life as if it were not serious, while at the same time it is absorbing you, the player, intensely and utterly.

Structuring activities according to, at least, the key components of a game like goals, rules, challenges and interaction, should then construct a game, at least as long as it is undertaken for the purpose of enjoyment, recreation, and sometimes as an instrument for education.

Hang on a second, is that definition still correct? Or could it be that we are in need of a new definition, a new understanding of the phenomena of games and the increasingly important role that games have come to play in in our lives in the age of the internet? Perhaps so.

It is a fact that games have been played for thousands of years. They have appeared in all cultures and are a universal part of human experiences. 
Game definiton by Wikipedia:

A game is structured playing, usually undertaken for enjoyment and sometimes used as an educational tool. 

Games are distinct from work, which is usually carried out for remuneration, and from art, which is more often an expression of aesthetic or ideological elements. 

However, the distinction is not clear-cut, and many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator sports/games) or art (such as jigsaw puzzles or games involving an artistic layout such as Mahjong, solitaire, or some video games).

Key components of games are goals, rules, challenge, and interaction. 

Games generally involve mental or physical stimulation, and often both. 

Many games help develop practical skills, serve as a form of exercise, or otherwise perform an educational, simulational, or psychological role.
Today we see games appear in all sorts of new shapes and sizes like video games, educational games, role playing games, business games, and simulation games.

Games have become ever more relevant in that way. They have somehow begun to have an increasing role in how society is shaped and functions, and also takes up a seemingly ever increasing amount of our time if one were able to measure in hours the amount of time spent participation in all types of gaming.

All this is helped greatly by the availability of modern technology, of course, while being exposed to games and being subject to game dynamics is something that has become ever more common. 

Gamification Matters 

So if it is clear that games matter, why then does gamification matter? 

The best way to describe gamification is the use of game thinking and game mechanics in non-game contexts to engage users in solving problems. 
It has been applied in hundreds of cases in the areas of physical exercise, increased user engagement, return on investment, data quality improvement, timekeeping, entertainment, teaching, loyalty, performance management and usability.

The reason that game thinking and game mechanics are used in these areas is because when it is done in the right way, it simply works.

At the same time, if your gamification project is no fun to play, it will not work. 

What separates the wheat from the chaff must therefor be valuable insight. 

Ultimately, the good news is that it is the players themselves who ultimately decide the success of your gamification project.

And that is why gamification matters.
Picture
Also Investing in High Tech can be seen as a Game (Harper Business, 1999)
5 Comments
Ian link
2/4/2015 06:09:40 pm

Thanks for this Tim, I like it. It made me think of a couple of things firstly how the 4th Wave Psychology, Transactional Analysis, promoted the idea of 'The Games People Play" have a look at Eric Berne's book http://www.ericberne.com/games-people-play/ this is all about the interpersonal games we play and the negative impact they can have on our relationships and yet how hooked upon them we can become.

You also made me think about some positive games such as Phylo http://phylo.cs.mcgill.ca and Foldit http://fold.it/portal/ which are games for the greater good.

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Tim link
2/4/2015 09:09:40 pm

Thank you Ian, for your interesting comment. I will certainly look into Eric Berne's book.When applied in the right way, gamification definitely should be applied to serve the greater good, and a better understanding of this area could, in my opinion, greatly help the advancement of society at large..

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Mario Herger link
2/5/2015 12:02:02 pm

James P. Carse in his book "Finite and Infinite Games" talks about life as being an infinite game. Now of course, making the same mistakes as simplistically-minded gamification designers that gamification is all about points or competition, doesn't make a good design. Regarding life as game uses other game design elements such as failure as part of a learning experience, epic meaning instead of wasting your life in jobs or relationships you don't like, in being curious and learning and on the way to mastery. Thinking of life just as chasing points is as senseless as working just for money. This is neither fun, nor does it make people happy.

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Peter
2/9/2015 12:23:20 pm

Life is a game? We all go through our daily lives trying to score points. We want to learn the rules of the game, and when we know the rules we will come better players. Some of players try to avoid losing points. But players who know the rules do not mind to lose a point or two now and then. :)

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Henrietta
2/9/2015 08:12:59 pm

Thank you for a very thought-provoking post, Tim! You mentioned some very good points, such as the need for a new definition of "game" and "play".

Indeed, one of the challenges in gamification might precisely be the current definition of play as a free and engaging, but non-serious activity. This definition somewhat collides with serious games that are also very close to gamification, both hot topics topic right now.

J. Hamari (http://gamification-research.org/2013/09/does-gamification-work-a-look-into-research/) has studied gamification and has pointed out that designing gamifified experiences has proven to be more manifold than thought. As you pointed out, the gamified process simply might or might not work, and the target group is the jury.

I think in the future there will be more and more studies about what makes a good (and possibly a long-term) gamified experience. It will be interesting to see if there is a certain framework or pattern that cannot fail!

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