Is gamification a word

Asked by: Garrick Donnelly

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(75 votes)

The basic concept of gamification isn’t new, but the word itself is a 21st-century addition to the English lexicon. … In other words, «gamification» is about making something potentially tedious into a game. Gamification is effective because it taps into people’s natural desires for competition and achievement.

Is gamify a real word?

verb (used with object), gam·i·fied, gam·i·fy·ing. to turn (an activity or task) into a game or something resembling a game: Many exercise programs have been gamified, with badges and scores. The company develops gamified apps.

When did gamification become a word?

The term ‘Gamification’ was coined back in 2002 by Nick Pelling, a British-born computer programmer and inventor, and hit the mainstream thanks to Foursquare in 2009. By 2011, it officially became a buzzword when Gartner added it to its ‘Hype Cycle’ list. Now, in 2015, Gamification is hotter than ever.

What is another word for gamification?

Educational games, infotainment, and serious games are all similar (or proposed replacement) terms for gamified learning or training.

What is the exact meaning of gamification?

Gamification describes the incorporation of game-style incentives into everyday or non-game activities. Any time game-like features or aspects of game design are introduced to non-game contexts, gamification is taking place.

36 related questions found

«Gamify» redirects here. For the Australian Children’s TV series, see Gamify (TV series).

Gamification is the strategic attempt to enhance systems, services, organizations, and activities by creating similar experiences to those experienced when playing games in order to motivate and engage users.^[1] This is generally accomplished through the application of game-design elements and game principles (dynamics and mechanics) in non-game contexts.^[2][3]

Gamification is part of persuasive system design, and it commonly employs game design elements^{[4][2][5][6][3]} to improve user engagement,^[7][8][9] organizational productivity,^[10] flow,^[11][12][13] learning,^[14][15] crowdsourcing,^[16] knowledge retention,^[17] employee recruitment and evaluation, ease of use, usefulness of systems,^[13][18][19] physical exercise,^[20] traffic violations,^[21] voter apathy,^[22][23] public attitudes about alternative energy,^[24] and more. A collection of research on gamification shows that a majority of studies on gamification find it has positive effects on individuals.^[5] However, individual and contextual differences exist.^[25]

Techniques[edit]

Gamification techniques are intended to leverage people’s natural desires for socializing, learning, mastery, competition, achievement, status, self-expression, altruism, or closure, or simply their response to the framing of a situation as game or play.^[26] Early gamification strategies use rewards for players who accomplish desired tasks or competition to engage players. Types of rewards include points,^[27] achievement badges or levels,^[28] the filling of a progress bar,^[29] or providing the user with virtual currency.^[28] Making the rewards for accomplishing tasks visible to other players or providing leader boards are ways of encouraging players to compete.^[30]

Another approach to gamification is to make existing tasks feel more like games.^[31] Some techniques used in this approach include adding meaningful choice, onboarding with a tutorial, increasing challenge,^[32] and adding narrative.^[31]

Game design elements[edit]

Game design elements are the basic building blocks of gamification applications.^[33][34] Among these typical game design elements, are points, badges, leader-boards, performance graphs, meaningful stories, avatars, and teammates.^[35]

Points[edit]

Points are basic elements of a multitude of games and gamified applications.^[36] They are typically rewarded for the successful accomplishment of specified activities within the gamified environment^[37] and they serve to numerically represent a player’s progress.^[38] Various kinds of points can be differentiated between, e.g. experience points, redeemable points, or reputation points, as can the different purposes that points serve.^[10] One of the most important purposes of points is to provide feedback. Points allow the players’ in-game behavior to be measured, and they serve as continuous and immediate feedback and as a reward.^[39]

Badges[edit]

Badges are defined as visual representations of achievements^[37] and can be earned and collected within the gamification environment. They confirm the players’ achievements, symbolize their merits,^[40] and visibly show their accomplishment of levels or goals.^[41] Earning a badge can be dependent on a specific number of points or on particular activities within the game.^[37] Badges have many functions, serving as goals, if the prerequisites for winning them are known to the player, or as virtual status symbols.^[37] In the same way as points, badges also provide feedback, in that they indicate how the players have performed.^[42] Badges can influence players’ behavior, leading them to select certain routes and challenges in order to earn badges that are associated with them.^[43] Additionally, as badges symbolize one’s membership in a group of those who own this particular badge, they also can exert social influences on players and co-players,^[40] particularly if they are rare or hard to earn.

Leaderboards[edit]

Leaderboards rank players according to their relative success, measuring them against a certain success criterion.^[44] As such, leaderboards can help determine who performs best in a certain activity^[45] and are thus competitive indicators of progress that relate the player’s own performance to the performance of others. However, the motivational potential of leaderboards is mixed. Werbach and Hunter^[37] regard them as effective motivators if there are only a few points left to the next level or position, but as demotivators, if players find themselves at the bottom end of the leaderboard. Competition caused by leaderboards can create social pressure to increase the player’s level of engagement and can consequently have a constructive effect on participation and learning.^[46] However, these positive effects of competition are more likely if the respective competitors are approximately at the same performance level.^[47][48]

Performance graphs[edit]

Performance graphs, which are often used in simulation or strategy games, provide information about the players’ performance compared to their preceding performance during a game.^[35] Thus, in contrast to leaderboards, performance graphs do not compare the player’s performance to other players, but instead, evaluate the player’s own performance over time. Unlike the social reference standard of leaderboards, performance graphs are based on an individual reference standard. By graphically displaying the player’s performance over a fixed period, they focus on improvements. Motivation theory postulates that this fosters mastery orientation, which is particularly beneficial to learning.^[35]

Meaningful stories[edit]

Meaningful stories are game design elements that do not relate to the player’s performance. The narrative context in which a gamified application can be embedded contextualizes activities and characters in the game and gives them meaning beyond the mere quest for points and achievements.^[49] A story can be communicated by a game’s title (e.g., Space Invaders) or by complex storylines typical of contemporary role-playing video games (e.g., The Elder Scrolls Series).^[49] Narrative contexts can be oriented towards real, non-game contexts or act as analogies of real-world settings. The latter can enrich boring, barely stimulating contexts, and, consequently, inspire and motivate players particularly if the story is in line with their personal interests.^[50] As such, stories are also an important part in gamification applications, as they can alter the meaning of real-world activities by adding a narrative ‘overlay’, e.g. being hunted by zombies while going for a run.

Avatars[edit]

Avatars are visual representations of players within the game or gamification environment.^[37] Usually, they are chosen or even created by the player.^[49] Avatars can be designed quite simply as a mere pictogram, or they can be complexly animated, three- dimensional representations. Their main formal requirement is that they unmistakably identify the players and set them apart from other human or computer-controlled avatars.^[37] Avatars allow the players to adopt or create another identity and, in cooperative games, to become part of a community.^[51]

Teammates[edit]

Teammates, whether they are other real players or virtual non-player characters, can induce conflict, competition or cooperation.^[49] The latter can be fostered particularly by introducing teams, i.e. by creating defined groups of players that work together towards a shared objective.^[37] Meta-analytic evidence supports that the combination of competition and collaboration in games is likely to be effective for learning.^[52]

The Game Element Hierarchy[edit]

The described game elements fit within a broader framework, which involves three types of elements: Dynamics, Mechanics, and Components. These elements constitute The Game Element Hierarchy.^[53]

Dynamics are the highest in the hierarchy. They are the big picture aspects of the gamified system that should be considered and managed; however, they never directly enter into the game. Dynamics elements provide motivation through features such as narrative or social interaction.

Mechanics are the basic processes that drive the action forward and generate player engagement and involvement. Examples are chance, turns, and rewards.

Components are the specific instantiations of mechanics and dynamics; elements like points, quests, and virtual goods.^[37]

Applications[edit]

Gamification has been applied to almost every aspect of life. Examples of gamification in business context include the U.S. Army, which uses military simulator America’s Army as a recruitment tool, and M&M’s «Eye Spy» pretzel game, launched in 2013 to amplify the company’s pretzel marketing campaign by creating a fun way to «boost user engagement.» Another example can be seen in the American education system. Students are ranked in their class based on their earned grade-point average (GPA), which is comparable to earning a high score in video games.^[54] Students may also receive incentives, such as an honorable mention on the dean’s list, the honor roll, and scholarships, which are equivalent to leveling-up a video game character or earning virtual currency or tools that augment game success.
Job application processes sometimes use gamification as a way to hire employees by assessing their suitability through questionnaires and mini games that simulate the actual work environment of that company.

Marketing[edit]

Gamification has been widely applied in marketing. Over 70% of Forbes Global 2000 companies surveyed in 2013 said they planned to use gamification for the purposes of marketing and customer retention.^[55] For example, in November, 2011, Australian broadcast and online media partnership Yahoo!7 launched its Fango mobile app/SAP, which TV viewers use to interact with shows via techniques like check-ins and badges. Gamification has also been used in customer loyalty programs. In 2010, Starbucks gave custom Foursquare badges to people who checked in at multiple locations, and offered discounts to people who checked in most frequently at an individual store.^[56] As a general rule Gamification Marketing or Game Marketing usually falls under four primary categories;

1. Brandification (in-game advertising): Messages, images or videos promoting a Brand, Product or Service within a game’s visuals components. According to NBCNews game creators Electronic Arts used «Madden 09» and «Burnout Paradise» to promote ‘in-game’ billboards encouraging players to vote.^[57]

2. Transmedia: The result of taking a media property and extending it into a different medium for both promotional and monetisation purposes. Nintendo’s «007: GoldenEye» is a classic example. A video game created to advertise the originally titled movie. In the end, the promotional game brought in more money than the originally titled film.

3. Through-the-line (TTL) & Below-the-line (BTL): Text above, side or below main game screen (also known as an iFrame) advertising images or text. Example of this would be «I love Bees».

4. Advergames: Usually games based on popular mobile game templates, such as ‘Candy Crush’ or ‘Temple Run’. These games are then recreated via platforms like WIX with software from the likes of Gamify, in order to promote Brands, Products and Services. Usually to encourage engagement, loyalty and product education. These usually involve social leaderboards and rewards that are advertised via social media platforms like Facebook’s Top 10 games.^[58]

Gamification also has been used as a tool for customer engagement,^[59] and for encouraging desirable website usage behaviour.^[29] Additionally, gamification is applicable to increasing engagement on sites built on social network services. For example, in August, 2010, the website builder DevHub announced an increase in the number of users who completed their online tasks from 10% to 80% after adding gamification elements.^[60] On the programming question-and-answer site Stack Overflow users receive points and/or badges for performing a variety of actions, including spreading links to questions and answers via Facebook and Twitter. A large number of different badges are available, and when a user’s reputation points exceed various thresholds, the user gains additional privileges, eventually including moderator privileges.

Inspiration[edit]

Gamification can be used for ideation (structured brainstorming to produce new ideas). A study at MIT Sloan found that ideation games helped participants generate more and better ideas, and compared it to gauging the influence of academic papers by the numbers of citations received in subsequent research.^[61]

Health[edit]

Applications like Fitocracy and QUENTIQ (Dacadoo) use gamification to encourage their users to exercise more effectively and improve their overall health. Users are awarded varying numbers of points for activities they perform in their workouts, and gain levels based on points collected. Users can also complete quests (sets of related activities) and gain achievement badges for fitness milestones.^[62] Health Month adds aspects of social gaming by allowing successful users to restore points to users who have failed to meet certain goals. Public health researchers have studied the use of gamification in self-management of chronic diseases and common mental disorders,^[63][64] STD prevention,^[65][66] and infection prevention and control.^[67]

In a review of health apps in the 2014 Apple App Store, more than 100 apps showed a positive correlation between gamification elements used and high user ratings. MyFitnessPal was named as the app that used the most gamification elements.^[68]

Reviewers of the popular location-based game Pokémon Go praised the game for promoting physical exercise. Terri Schwartz (IGN) said it was «secretly the best exercise app out there,» and that it changed her daily walking routine.^[69] Patrick Allen (Lifehacker) wrote an article with tips about how to work out using Pokémon Go.^[70] Julia Belluz (Vox) said it could be the «greatest unintentional health fad ever,» writing that one of the results of the game that the developers may not have imagined was that «it seems to be getting people moving.»^[71] One study showed users took an extra 194 steps per day once they started using the app, approximately 26% more than usual.^[72] Ingress is a similar game that also requires a player to be physically active. Zombies, Run!, a game in which the player is trying to survive a zombie apocalypse through a series of missions, requires the player to (physically) run, collect items to help the town survive, and listen to various audio narrations to uncover mysteries. Mobile, context-sensitive serious games for sports and health have been called exergames.^[73]

Work[edit]

Gamification has been used in an attempt to improve employee productivity in healthcare, financial services, transportation, government,^[74][75] and others.^[76] In general, enterprise gamification refers to work situations where «game thinking and game-based tools are used in a strategic manner to integrate with existing business processes or information systems. And these techniques are used to help drive positive employee and organizational outcomes.»^[9]

Crowdsourcing[edit]

Crowdsourcing has been gamified in games like Foldit, a game designed by the University of Washington, in which players compete to manipulate proteins into more efficient structures. A 2010 paper in science journal Nature credited Foldit’s 57,000 players with providing useful results that matched or outperformed algorithmically computed solutions.^[77] The ESP Game is a game that is used to generate image metadata. Google Image Labeler is a version of the ESP Game that Google has licensed to generate its own image metadata.^[78] Research from the University of Bonn used gamification to increase wiki contributions by 62%.^[79]

In the context of online crowdsourcing, gamification is also employed to improve the psychological and behavioral consequences of the solvers.^[80] According to numerous research, adding gamification components to a crowdsourcing platform can be considered as a design that shifts participants’ focus from task completion to involvement motivated by intrinsic factors.^[81][82] Since the success of crowdsourcing competitions depends on a large number of participating solvers, the platforms for crowdsourcing provide motivating factors to increase participation by drawing on the concepts of the game.^[83]

Education and training[edit]

Gamification in the context of education and training is of particular interest because it offers a variety of benefits associated with learning outcomes and retention.^{[84][85][86][87]} Using video-game inspired elements like leaderboards and badges has been shown to be effective in engaging large groups and providing objectives for students to achieve outside of traditional norms like grades or verbal feedback. Online learning platforms such as Khan Academy and even physical schools like New York City Department of Education’s Quest to Learn use gamification to motivate students to complete mission-based units and master concepts.^[88][89] There is also an increasing interest in the use of gamification in health sciences and education as an engaging information delivery tool and in order to add variety to revision.^[90][91][92]

With increased access to one-to-one student devices, and accelerated by pressure from the COVID-19 pandemic, many teachers from primary to post-secondary settings have introduced live, online quiz-show style games into their lessons.^[93]

Gamification has also been used to promote learning outside of schools. In August 2009, Gbanga launched a game for the Zurich Zoo where participants learned about endangered species by collecting animals in mixed reality. Companies seeking to train their customers to use their product effectively can showcase features of their products with interactive games like Microsoft’s Ribbon Hero 2.^[94][95]

A wide range of employers including the United States Armed Forces, Unilever, and SAP currently use gamified training modules to educate their employees and motivate them to apply what they learned in trainings to their job.^[75][96][97] According to a study conducted by Badgeville, 78% of workers are utilizing games-based motivation at work and nearly 91% say these systems improve their work experience by increasing engagement, awareness and productivity.^[98] In the form of occupational safety training, technology can provide realistic and effective simulations of real-life experiences, making safety training less passive and more engaging, more flexible in terms of time management and a cost-effective alternative to practice.^{[99][100][101][102]}

Politics and terrorist groups[edit]

Alix Levine, an American security consultant, reports that some techniques that a number of extremist websites such as Stormfront and various terrorism-related sites used to build loyalty and participation can be described as gamification. As an example, Levine mentioned reputation scores.^[103][104]

The Chinese government has announced that it will begin using gamification to rate its citizens in 2020, implementing a Social Credit System in which citizens will earn points representing trustworthiness. Details of this project are still vague, but it has been reported that citizens will receive points for good behavior, such as making payments on time and educational attainments.^[105]

Bellingcat contributor Robert Evans has written about the «gamification of terror» in the wake of the El Paso shooting, in an analysis of the role 8Chan and similar boards played in inspiring the massacre, as well as other acts of terrorism and mass shootings.^[106] According to Evans, «[w]hat we see here is evidence of the only real innovation 8chan has brought to global terrorism: the gamification of mass violence. We see this not just in the references to “high scores”, but in the very way the Christchurch shooting was carried out. Brenton Tarrant livestreamed his massacre from a helmet cam in a way that made the shooting look almost exactly like a First Person Shooter video game. This was a conscious choice, as was his decision to pick a sound-track for the spree that would entertain and inspire his viewers.»^[106]

Technology design[edit]

Traditionally, researchers thought of motivations to use computer systems to be primarily driven by extrinsic purposes; however, many modern systems have their use driven primarily by intrinsic motivations.^[107] Examples of such systems used primarily to fulfill users’ intrinsic motivations, include online gaming, virtual worlds, online shopping, learning/education, online dating, digital music repositories, social networking, online pornography, and so on. Such systems are excellent candidates for further ‘gamification’ in their design. Moreover, even traditional management information systems (e.g., ERP, CRM) are being ‘gamified’ such that both extrinsic and intrinsic motivations must increasingly be considered.

As illustration, Microsoft has announced plans to use gamification techniques for its Windows Phone 7 operating system design.^[108] While businesses face the challenges of creating motivating gameplay strategies, what makes for effective gamification^[109] is a key question.

One important type of technological design in gamification is the player centered design. Based on the design methodology user-centered design, its main goal is to promote greater connectivity and positive behavior change between technological consumers. It has five steps that help computer users connect with other people online to help them accomplish goals and other tasks they need to complete. The 5 steps are: an individual or company has to know their player (their target audience), identify their mission (their goal), understand human motivation (the personality, desires, and triggers of the target audience), apply mechanics (points, badges, leaderboards, etc.), and to manage, monitor, and measure the way they are using their mechanics to ensure it is helping them achieve the desired outcome of their goal and that their goal is specific and realistic.^[110]

Authentication[edit]

Gamification has also been applied to authentication. For example, the possibilities of using a game like Guitar Hero can help someone learn a password implicitly.^{[111][clarification needed]} Furthermore, games have been explored as a way to learn new and complicated passwords. It is suggested that these games could be used to «level up» a password, thereby improving its strength over time.^[112] Gamification has also been proposed as a way to select and manage archives.^[113] In 2013 Australian technology company Wynbox recorded success in the application of its gamification engine to the hotel booking process.^[114]

Online gambling[edit]

Gamification has been used to some extent by online casinos. Some brands use an incremental reward system to extend the typical player lifecycle and to encourage repeat visits and cash deposits at the casino in return for rewards such as free spins and cash match bonuses on subsequent deposits.^[115]

History[edit]

The term «gamification» first appeared online in the context of computer software in 2008.^[116][a] Gamification did not gain popularity until 2010.^[120][121] Even prior to the term coming into use, other fields borrowing elements from videogames was common; for example, some work in learning disabilities^[122] and scientific visualization adapted elements from videogames.^[123]

The term «gamification» first gained widespread usage in 2010, in a more specific sense referring to incorporation of social/reward aspects of games into software.^[124] The technique captured the attention of venture capitalists, one of whom said he considered gamification the most promising area in gaming.^[125] Another observed that half of all companies seeking funding for consumer software applications mentioned game design in their presentations.^[29]

Several researchers consider gamification closely related to earlier work on adapting game-design elements and techniques to non-game contexts. Deterding et al.^[2] survey research in human–computer interaction that uses game-derived elements for motivation and interface design, and Nelson^[126] argues for a connection to both the Soviet concept of socialist competition, and the American management trend of «fun at work». Fuchs^[127] points out that gamification might be driven by new forms of ludic interfaces. Gamification conferences have also retroactively incorporated simulation; e.g. Will Wright, designer of the 1989 video game SimCity, was the keynote speaker at the gamification conference Gsummit 2013.^[128]

In addition to companies that use the technique, a number of businesses created gamification platforms. In October 2007, Bunchball,^[129] backed by Adobe Systems Incorporated,^[130] was the first company to provide game mechanics as a service,^[131] on Dunder Mifflin Infinity, the community site for the NBC TV show The Office. Bunchball customers have included Playboy, Chiquita, Bravo, and The USA Network.^[132] Badgeville, which offers gamification services, launched in late 2010, and raised $15 million in venture-capital funding in its first year of operation.^[133]

Gamification as an educational and behavior modification tool reached the public sector by 2012, when the United States Department of Energy co-funded multiple research trials,^[134] including consumer behavior studies,^[135] adapting the format of Programmed learning into mobile microlearning to experiment with the impacts of gamification in reducing energy use.^[136] Cultural anthropologist Susan Mazur-Stommen published a business case for applying games to addressing climate change and sustainability, delivering research which «…took many forms including card-games (Cool Choices), videogames (Ludwig), and games for mobile devices such as smartphones (Ringorang) [p.9].»^[137]

Gamification 2013, an event exploring the future of gamification, was held at the University of Waterloo Stratford Campus in October 2013.^[138]

Legal restrictions[edit]

Through gamification’s growing adoption and its nature as a data aggregator, multiple legal restrictions may apply to gamification. Some refer to the use of virtual currencies and virtual assets, data privacy laws and data protection, or labor laws.^[139]

The use of virtual currencies, in contrast to traditional payment systems, is not regulated. The legal uncertainty surrounding the virtual currency schemes might constitute a challenge for public authorities, as these schemes can be used by criminals, fraudsters and money launderers to perform their illegal activities.^[140]

A March 2022 consultation paper by the Board of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) questions whether some gamification tactics should be banned.^[141]

Criticism[edit]

University of Hamburg researcher Sebastian Deterding has characterized the initial popular strategies for gamification as not being fun and creating an artificial sense of achievement. He also says that gamification can encourage unintended behaviours.^[142]

Poorly designed gamification in the workplace has been compared to Taylorism, and is considered a form of micromanagement.^[143]

In a review of 132 of the top health and fitness apps in the Apple app store, in 2014, using gamification as a method to modify behavior, the authors concluded that «Despite the inclusion of at least some components of gamification, the mean scores of integration of gamification components were still below 50 percent. This was also true for the inclusion of game elements and the use of health behavior theory constructs, thus showing a lack of following any clear industry standard of effective gaming, gamification, or behavioral theory in health and fitness apps.»^[68]

Concern was also expressed in a 2016 study analyzing outcome data from 1,298 users who competed in gamified and incentivized exercise challenges while wearing wearable devices. In that study the authors conjectured that data may be highly skewed by cohorts of already healthy users, rather than the intended audiences of participants requiring behavioral intervention.^[144]

Game designers like Jon Radoff and Margaret Robertson have also criticized gamification as excluding elements like storytelling and experiences and using simple reward systems in place of true game mechanics.^[145][146]

Gamification practitioners^[147][148] have pointed out that while the initial popular designs were in fact mostly relying on simplistic reward approach, even those led to significant improvements in short-term engagement.^[149] This was supported by the first comprehensive study in 2014, which concluded that an increase in gamification elements correlated with an increase in motivation score, but not with capacity or opportunity/trigger scores.^[68][150]

The same study called for standardization across the app industry on gamification principles to improve the effectiveness of health apps on the health outcomes of users.^[68]

MIT Professor Kevin Slavin has described business research into gamification as flawed and misleading for those unfamiliar with gaming.^[151] Heather Chaplin, writing in Slate, describes gamification as «an allegedly populist idea that actually benefits corporate interests over those of ordinary people».^[152] Jane McGonigal has distanced her work from the label «gamification», listing rewards outside of gameplay as the central idea of gamification and distinguishing game applications where the gameplay itself is the reward under the term «gameful design».^[153]

«Gamification» as a term has also been criticized. Ian Bogost has referred to the term as a marketing fad and suggested «exploitation-ware» as a more suitable name for the games used in marketing.^[154] Other opinions on the terminology criticism have made the case why the term gamification makes sense.^[155]

In an article in the LA Times, the gamification of worker engagement at Disneyland was described as an «electronic whip».^[156] Workers had reported feelings similar to slavery behaviors and whipping sense.

See also[edit]

• Egoboo, a component of some gamification strategies

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

Further reading[edit]

• Boller, Sharon; Kapp, Karl M. (2017). Play to Learn: Everything You Need to Know About Designing Effective Learning Games. ISBN 978-1562865771.
• Burke, Brian (2014). Gamify: How Gamification Motivates People to Do Extraordinary Things. Bibliomotion. ISBN 978-1-937134-85-3.
• Chou, Yu-kai (2015). Actionable Gamification: Beyond Points, Badges, and Leaderboards. Octalysis Media. ISBN 978-1-5117-4404-1.
• Fuchs, Mathias; Fizek, Sonia; Ruffino, Paolo; Schrape, Niklas (2014). Rethinking Gamification. Lüneburg: meson press. ISBN 978-3-95796-000-9.
• Gray, Dave; Brown, Sunni; Macanufo, James (2010). Gamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators, Rulebreakers, and Changemakers. ISBN 978-0596804176.
• Haiken, Michele (2017). Gamify Literacy: Boost Comprehension, Collaboration and Learning. International Society for Technology in Education. ISBN 978-1-56484-386-9.
• Herger, Mario (2014). Enterprise Gamification – Engaging people by letting them have fun (Vol. 01). EGC Media. ISBN 978-1-4700-0064-6.
• Horachek, David (2014). Creating eLearning Games with Unity. Packt Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84969-343-1.
• Hugos, Michael (2012). Enterprise Games – Using Game Mechanics to Build a Better Business. O’Reilly Media. ISBN 978-1-4493-1956-4.
• Kapp, Karl M.; Blair, Lucas; Mesch, Rich (2013). The Gamification of Learning and Instruction Fieldbook: Ideas into Practice. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-118-67724-7.
• Kumar, Janaki; Herger, Mario (2013). Gamification At Work. Interaction Design Foundation. ISBN 978-87-92964-07-6.
• Marczewski, Andrzej (2018). Even Ninja Monkeys Like to Play: Unicorn Edition. CreateSpace Independent Publishing. ISBN 978-1-7240-1710-9.
• McGonigal, Jane (2015). SuperBetter: A Revolutionary Approach to Getting Stronger, Happier, Braver and More Resilient. Penguin Press. ISBN 978-0-670-06954-5.
• Pennenberg, Adam L. (2013). Play At Work – How games Inspire Breakthrough Thinking. Portfolio Penguin. ISBN 978-1-59184-479-2.
• Routledge, Helen (2015). «Why Games Are Good For Business: How to Leverage the Power of Serious Games, Gamification and Simulations». Palgrave Macmillan.
• Suriano, Jason (2017). Office Arcade: Gamification, Byte-Size Learning, and Other Wins on the Way to Productive Human Resources. Lioncrest Publishing. ISBN 978-1-6196-1605-9.
• Zichermann, Gabe; Linder, Joselin (2013). The Gamification Revolution – How Leaders Leverage Game Mechanics to Crush the Competition. McGraw Hill. ISBN 978-0-07-180831-6.

Last Updated:
8 Apr 2023
— Updated example sentences

What is gamification?

Gamification is the application of game elements and mechanics in non-game processes and spheres of life. A gamification expert and the author of the book «Actionable Gamification: Beyond Points, Badges and Leaderboards» Yu-Kai Chou defines gamification as extracting all the fun, interesting and engaging elements from games and applying them to other activities to improve their performance.

The scope of gamification is extremely broad. The objective of gamification is determined by each company for its own case. But, in one way or another, all of them are about improving the efficiency of a particular process (boosting the quality of education, increasing sales or revenue or a number of subscribers, etc.) At the moment, gamification technology is one of the leading marketing trends. A variety of forms and variations, as well as the various ways of using it, make gamification universal and applicable for all types of businesses.

Why is gamification effective? Because playing games is a key way of exploring the world for everyone from the earliest years. The game form of interaction with the world is the most adaptive and involves the fundamental aspects of the human psyche. In addition, gamification is not an expensive way to improve business productivity.

Types of gamification

• Structural gamification

Only the structure of the presenting the material, or the customer’s route from newcomer to regular, is gamified. This kind of gamification engages the customer in the brand, encourages them to become familiar with it and explore its content. For example, each brand article read gives the customer a new status.

• Content gamification

Only the content generated by the brand is gamified. For example, when articles hide various «Easter eggs», and attentive clients can find them and win a prize.

• Digital gamification

The software and applications that customers use to interact with the brand are gamified. This is the most popular gamification type allowing you to manage the user experience.

• Analogue gamification

Badge-based gamification. For example, a loyalty card or even a designer pass to a fitness club.

There are also internal and external types of gamification. The internal type focuses on optimizing the company itself and boosting its productivity while the external one mostly focuses on attracting customers and driving sales.

Gamification methods

• Loyalty programmes

Club cards, loyalty cards or discount coupons. These tactics strengthen communication with the company and encourage the customer to take a chain of actions rather than a single, target action. The process is repeated over and over again forming a long-term relationship with the brand.

• Ratings and rank table

Seeing your position in a rank table and comparing yourself with other users turns on a competitive element. This way, one customer is motivated by the desire to outdo another one. They can do so by interacting with the company more frequently.

• Progress scale

Visualizing the customer’s progress in the relationships with the brand, training, product use, etc. The scale should show all the intermediate steps on this path and encourage the customer to reach the end. A good example is the LinkedIn profile completion scale.

• Points and icons

Points also can be used to monitor progress, and their certain amount is exchanged for a reward or a certain status. Icons are symbols that in some way indicate the completion of a particular task or reaching a new progress level. Both strategies are ways of encouraging and providing feedback in gamification.

• Level progress

Levels also can reflect user progress. Typically, they are interlinked with user rewards or status. The higher the level, the more solid the reward. Most often, the level method is used to improve the effectiveness of training, but it is also applicable to the regulation of the customer experience.

Gamification methods and models can be combined in different ways to maximize the effectiveness of gamification.

Gamification in business

In business, gamification should be based on the following principles of gamification:

• Reward. In any game, a reward for results is a must. It does not necessarily have to be material. Most importantly, it must cause positive emotions and can serve as a mark of distinction (or exclusivity). A reward is an incentive or to participate in the gamification, In other words, it’s the motivation.
• Knowing the audience. What incentive will work exactly for your customers? What are their needs and interests? If the reward is chosen without knowing the audience, it may not work, and the gamification will fail. That’s why you need careful audience research before gamification begins.
• The element of surprise. A good game can’t be predictable. Sudden jolts and twists are the key to keeping customers’ attention. Therefore, a gamification strategy should include various options for developing the game, a variety of statuses, rewards, etc.
• Demonstration of success. People prefer those gamification options in which they can talk about their achievements. This is exactly what various statuses, icons and other attributes are used for.  Such things can be discussed in forums or reposted on social media.

Pros and cons of gamification in business

In simple words, gamification in sales allows you to strike many objectives at once:

• Drawing attention. You will attract a new audience, and heat the old one.
• Expanding the millennial and zoomer segment. People under the age of 27 have grown up playing video games, so they respond positively to the system of passing levels and getting rewards.
• Increasing activity. It results in a high estimation of algorithms. Social media favours blogs with a large number of likes and posts and shows your blog to a new audience more often.
• Increasing motivation. Customers will be more willing to interact with the brand and participate in various promotions and events.
• Targeted actions. Gamification encourages customers to buy, subscribe, repost, or do any other planned action  (the goal of gamification is to motivate customers to do a targeted action).
• Training. Gamification teaches customers how to use your product.
• Positioning. Most often, gamification is based on a brand story. Subsequently, it then allows to form the right image and actively promote it.
• Personalizing your experience. Each customer will be able to take their own path in getting to know or using your product.

As a result, marketing gamification and its tools help to increase the company’s revenue. Among the disadvantages of gamification, only the risk of monotony and the wrong choice of motivation (reward) can be found. But you can easily solve them both by regular actualization of the game and careful study of your audience. Thus, possible disadvantages are errors made only if gamification is incorrectly understood and applied.

Examples of gamification in business

• Schlotzsky’s

A fast-food restaurant chain preparing the famous «Shlotzsky sandwiches» in the USA. To boost sales, the cafe chain has launched two games: The Original Stacking and Scratch & Match. The first game, which anyone can download to their phone, asks you to assemble an edible burger of randomly falling ingredients. The second game is a classic lottery. You can receive a ticket by entering a special code in the check after buying a sandwich. If you win in any of the games, your virtual rewards can be exchanged for real ones in any restaurant.

• McDonald’s

This famous fast-food chain regularly conducts the Monopoly action. Together with the tray, customers are given a sheet of Monopoly game, where a certain number of cards of a certain colour must be collected. The collected cards give the chance to win a prize — a trip or, say, a new iPhone. However, the customer never knows the colour of the card that will be in the food they buy, so a lot depends on their luck and how often they buy from McDonald’s. This way, McDonald’s has multiplied its footfall and profits.

• Not Your Average Joe’s

This American restaurant chain has opted for interior gamification. To motivate their staff to serve guests better, restaurant managers developed Muse, a company app for staff. In fact, it was a rating system. Each employee could see the number of checks they have closed during a certain period, the amount of tips earned and their position in the ranking among the other employees of the restaurant chain. Employees who hit Muse’s top could count on extra time off, bonuses and other rewards.

• Duolingo

One of the most popular applications for learning English. It contains the following elements of gamification:

1. The mechanics of choosing a level of complexity. That is, a user can indicate their language level before the study begins. At the same time, they can pass any level as an external student by passing the corresponding test and proving their readiness for a more complex round (in fact, proving their language knowledge). The chance to skip a module allows advanced students to not get bored.
2. Battles with “bosses”. Before you go to the next level, you have to cope with a complex task. Beating such a «boss» helps users realise their progress and opens up access to new opportunities.
3. Icons. Each completed level is displayed in the user profile as a unique icon. These icons show what the user has learned. However, the icons may pale and even disappear, if the user has not practised their knowledge for a long time.

• Emerald Street

The rental company Emerald Street has gamified email newsletters. The user gets a larger discount if they read newsletters and click on links. The more clicks, the higher the user level and the bigger the discount.

• Nike

The Nike+ Running App displays your run statistics and measures how far you have progressed to your goal. Nike+ can be integrated with social networks, which allows users to organize whole challenges and share their achievements. The app also can recommend products to the user, depending on their pace and running style.

Gamification in Marketing: a check-list to assemble your game

It can be difficult for beginners to understand what is related to the mechanics of gamification, and what is not. Any game consists of a set of different game components. In different combinations, they can produce different results. To implement gamification, choose 6-10 components that match each other:

• Personalized member avatars
• Points
• Levels or statuses
• Icons (or other symbols for participant activity)
• Quests or tasks that are limited in time or member status
• Closed content (Open when certain conditions are met)
• Current (updated) ratings
• Items to collect
• Virtual currency
• Rewards purchased with points or virtual currency
• The ability to create teams and compete
• Social online interaction
• Battle (performing a task)
• Boss battle (the most difficult task you need to complete in order to move up to the next level in the system or ranking)
• Visualization of processes or participants
• External and internal digest of success (including on social media)
• Information content for promotion in the game

What is the definition of gamification? Well…

“Gamification is about taking something that is not a game and applying game mechanics to increase user engagement, happiness and loyalty!”

This means that gamification takes elements from game-design and the general principles and theories which drive gameplay and applies them to other contexts.

Secondly, gamification is ordinarily applied to solve problems. These range from issues of engagement in the workplace through to voter apathy. As such, here’s a list of just some of the problems gamification can help solve:

• Learner engagement in workplace training
• Sales staff performance
• Your ability to complete chores and mundane tasks
• Performance at the gym
• Organisational productivity
• Your ability to enter ‘flow’
• Knowledge retention
• Crowdsourcing
• Recruitment issues
• Customer retention

Gamification will always look slightly different in each context. So, let’s go back to the beginning.

What is Gamification and Where Did it Come From?

In 2002, Nick Pelling coined the term ‘gamification’ and freestyle rappers everywhere rejoiced at the rhyming potential it offered.

The world is now a very different place. We’ve had three new Spider-men, Andy Murray won Wimbledon and we no longer ‘Ask Jeeves’ if there’s the slightest chance that our missing sock has been sucked up into a black hole. But what is the definition of gamification?

It’s a term you’ve probably heard before. Maybe you have a vague understanding of what it is. Maybe you don’t. Perhaps you’ve used it before. Perhaps you haven’t. Maybe the term makes you break out in hives. Maybe it makes you jump for joy.

Why is Everyone so Confused About Gamification?

There’s a clear issue with the term. No two people seem to have the same working definition of gamification. It doesn’t help that there are two different types of gamification (‘Structural’ and ‘Content’).

Then there’s ‘Learning Games’, which are their own beast, but often get dragged into conversations about gamification. Then, of course, there are people who get confused about ‘game elements’ and ‘game mechanics’. Is it about user experience, or is it a form of behavioural design, or is it both? Finally, there are those poor, misguided folk who use the term as a catch-all for anything tangentially connected to the gaming world.

Argh! Why!? This is so deeply, tragically wrong.

There’s clearly an underlying sense of confusion about this word. If you run a quick search, you’ll find a startling lack of clarity on the topic. Bamboozlement abounds. As it happens, we’re about to throw our own beret into the mix.

In fact, by the end of this article, we’ll have reached our very own definition of gamification. Hurrah!

What is Gamification?

Back in the halcyon days of 2014, Gartner sought to redefine ‘gamification’. According to Gartner, gamification is “the use of game mechanics and experience design to digitally engage and motivate people to achieve their goals”.

This is an interesting definition. It covers structural gamification (‘game mechanics’) and content gamification (‘experience design’) and highlights the importance of engagement and driving motivation. And yet, this definition comes off as both a little too precise and a little too loose. So let’s break it down!

1. Is Gamification Digital or Analog?

Interestingly, Gartner’s definition hones in on ‘digital’ engagement. But whilst digital experiences tend to be easier to gamify, they’re not the only types of experience that can be gamified.

Think about the loyalty card you receive from your local coffee shop. There’s nothing particularly digital about a piece of paper and a stamp. It’s very clear from the real world. Yet, like many loyalty programs, this is clearly an example of gamification in action.

What’s more, we often use gamification in classroom training, without using any digital applications as a crutch. Learners earn Badges throughout the day and climb up our makeshift Leaderboard. We even apply a level structure around our content.

Can you really say that it’s not a gamified experience just because it’s not happening within a digital application? …Can you?

2. Does Gamification Require Goals?

In Gartner’s definition, gamification focuses on enabling people to achieve ‘their’ goals. Hence, this begs the question: can you not gamify an experience to help people achieve your goals?

Could you not create a gamified experience that encourages others to complete a survey you have created? They may not have woken up in the morning with a burning desire to complete a questionnaire, but the use of rewards could be enough to motivate them into action.

Whilst we appreciate the importance of aligning individual and organisational goals, we don’t see how this impacts on the definition of gamification.

Perhaps Gartner is trying to position gamification as a goal alignment tool.

In other words, you can use gamification to get people on board with your own goals. This means it stops being about helping people realise their own potential. They’re simply doing what you need them to.

Still, even if this is true, it doesn’t feel accurate to classify a reconfigured goal as ‘their’ goal. The motivation has changed, but the author of the goal remains the same.

3. Gameception: Can You Gamify a Game?

Gamification can’t exist on its own. It needs to be applied to something else. Yet in capturing this fact, Gartner’s definition seems to come up a little short.

Hence, there’s no mention of where the game mechanics (or experience design) need to be applied, beyond the ‘digital’ qualifier. Does that mean that we could describe the gaming mechanics used within video games as an example of gamification? This seems nonsensical on the face of it, but Gartner’s definition doesn’t necessarily rule it out.

How Do We Define Gamification?

As nit-picky as this all may sound, the consensus is an important thing. If we’re all working from the same base definition, then we’re able to have better conversations and drive deeper understanding.

Hence, here at Growth Engineering, we define gamification as “the application of gaming mechanics to non-gaming environments to make difficult tasks more palatable”.

What we mean by this definition is that gaming mechanics – Experience Points, Levels, Leaderboard, Rewards – help you to make boring tasks more fun. Instead of dragging your heels and putting off whatever it is you need to do, gamification engages you! You’ll jump in, get it done and win that high score!

Gamification leverages our desires for status, achievement, competition and to be part of an inclusive social community to increase engagement.

Many gamification models reward the user for completing the desired task and a Leaderboard is then utilised so they strive for further improvement. These elements result in a gamification platform with high levels of engagement.

Gamification Examples

Gamification has a long and rich history. And ever since the term ‘gamification’ was born in 2002, we have only seen it become more and more popular. As a result, it’s now a useful tool in various industries and settings.

It’s much easier to understand gamification if you see examples of it in action. As such, we are next going to explore some of our favourite examples of gamification in different settings. These gamification examples include:

• Gamification in hobbies and activities
• Combining gamification and immersive technology
• Gamification in customer service
• Gamified mobile apps
• Gamification in education
• And gamified corporate training

Let’s explore these examples more in-depth below!

1. Gamification Is Out of This World, Scouts Honour

A primitive example of gamification would be rewarding Scouts with a badge for a task that they wouldn’t normally partake in. For instance, Scouts may earn badges for fishing or orienteering.

Competition amongst the Scouts reinforces a desire to keep getting more badges. These badges engage the Scout through the desires mentioned earlier: status, achievement, competition and being part of an inclusive social community.

The fact that 10 out of the 12 people to have walked on the moon were Scouts means something must be working!

2. Gamification, I Choose You!

Pokémon GO has proven to be one of the most successful mobile games of all time. While it no longer is the global phenomenon it was in 2016, it continues to be popular today. What’s the secret sauce you ask? Through gamification, the app has managed to captivate and engage users worldwide

Acting as a futuristic Scout badge, ‘Pokémon Go!’ rewarded its users with high-level Pokémon for walking great distances. This is an example of applying game mechanics to fitness, which is a market that is quickly becoming part of our Fitbit-wearing lives.

Had you asked those young people (and those young at heart) to walk those distances without any incentive then you’d probably find yourself out of luck. This is the power of gamification!

In the next case studies, you will learn more about how gamification is used for enterprise training programs and online courses. Keep reading! 

3. Gamification in Customer Service, FreshDesk

FreshDesk is one example of gamification in business. As a helpdesk software platform, its value comes from improving customer satisfaction for its clients. One of the key drivers was the productivity and performance of customer service agents. As such, FreshDesk employed gamification techniques to increase their enthusiasm and engagement on the job.

One way of doing this was to transform the monotony of ordinary everyday tasks into exciting quests. Call centre agents were awarded with badges for completing performance goals within these quests. For example, those who were able to deliver speedy responses to customers received a “Fast Resolution Badge”. A point system was used where the achievement of multiple levels or tasks earned participants awards or trophies. 

Moreover, the use of a Leaderboard allowed managers to track performance. This gave increased visibility for top performers across the whole team. In turn, this encouraged healthy competition among the players, driving up engagement levels. Challenges were also set up in a multi-player / multi-team environment, allowing agents to socialize and learn from each other. 

Hence, what resulted was a positive transformation in employee attitudes where employees became better engaged with their work. Managers saw their customer service teams become more efficient and effective. Through gamification, FreshDesk successfully saw an increase in staff productivity, ultimately leading to enhanced customer satisfaction. 

4. Gamification in Apps, Nike+

When Nike developed the Nike Run Club App (now Nike+), the purpose of the app was to motivate people to be consistent with their training. 

Alongside features such as GPS tracking, guided workouts and custom coaching plans, the app incorporated elements of gamification to really boost user engagement. 

Nike created in-app challenges, which allowed users to compete with their friends or other fellow app users. Urgency was also used to drive user action, with each challenge accessible for a limited time.

With each completed run, users unlocked achievements and prizes which they could broadcast to their friends. Small wins were celebrated through personalized messages. Similarly, a Leaderboard encouraged users to track their performance and monitor how far ahead of other runners they were. Social learning was also incorporated, making it possible for users to share photos, stickers and progress with friends.

As a result, by incorporating gamification elements such as time-bound challenges, progress levels, and awards, Nike+ succeeded in getting people to become more consistent in fitness. Retention was also achieved by the boosts users received with each completion and the notifications that brought friends back into the app. 

As a result, sales skyrocketed for Nike shoes. This helped Nike to gain control of a significant portion of the running shoe market ever since the launch of Nike+.

5. Gamification in Education, Google

When Google added Google Forms to its Google Drive suite, the program offered gamification tools for different kinds of users. In the case of education, Google invited teachers to gamify their lessons to increase engagement among students. For example, Google empowered teachers to create and award badges every time a student produced great work, or displayed exemplary behaviour. 

Recipients can then show off the badges on social media, or even on recruitment portals to support their job applications. Google Sheets also facilitates the creation of Leaderboards for learners. 

Accordingly, this empowered students to track their individual progress, and also see the top performers in each class. Through these gamification elements, instructors are able to deliver a curriculum, where students are highly motivated and engaged to learn. 

Knowing the power of gamification, Google also employed similar techniques for its own staff. Like many companies, Google wanted to have its employees submit travel expense information consistently and on time. 

As such, they transformed their travel expense system into an interactive platform, which gamified the way employees managed and reported their expenses. As a result, they achieved 100% compliance within 6 months of launch. 

6. Gamification for Corporate Training, HP

HP, the world’s biggest personal computer vendor and one of the world’s largest tech brands, wanted an effective way to maximize learning and knowledge recall for their sales staff. 

In partnership with Growth Engineering, a mobile app called The HP Uni App was launched. The purpose of the app was to train sales teams on cybersecurity topics. Working together, we aimed to maximize learner engagement through gamification. 

At the heart of the learning campaign was the HP Security Cup. The mechanics invited users to partake in knowledge battles, where they could earn points upon winning rounds. Successful players could then rise up the leader board in an attempt to win the HP Security Cup. 

Learners were also able to challenge each other in peer-to-peer quiz battles which drove further excitement and participation. As a result, employee engagement skyrocketed to never before seen levels, much to the delight of HP’s management team. Using Growth Engineering’s mobile app framework, Growth Engineering Learning App, HP was able to achieve outstanding learning outcomes for its L&D initiatives. 

Want to learn more about gamification? Luckily for you, we’ve written just the thing! 

Our Guide To Gamification: What it is and Why it Works is an insightful research note that will tell you everything you need to know. Grab your copy here!

And what about us at Growth Engineering? Why do we care so much about the definition? And what gives us the right to define the term?

Well, we’re the #1 provider of gamified learning technology, in fact, we’re the team who pioneered its use within L&D. When it comes to gamification techniques, we know what we’re talking about.

Our learning platforms are gamification solutions through and through! Everything we do is meticulously designed to engage learners, from your very first login to your one-thousandth, learners are motivated and engaged by game-like features on Growth Engineering LMS, Growth Engineering Learning App and Growth Engineering Authoring Tool.

Want to find out more about how we use gamification to engage learners? Why not start with one of these blogs:

• Experience Points on the Growth Engineering LMS
• Badges on the Growth Engineering LMS
• Leaderboards on the Growth Engineering LMS
• Levels on the Growth Engineering LMS

Want to learn more about how gamification can solve your organisation’s L&D challenges? Our ‘Ultimate Guidebook to Gamification in Online Learning‘ is your one-stop-shop for all things gamification!

What’s interesting is that gamification is not a new concept. While the term may have been coined in more recent times, the concept has existed in many areas of life for as long as civilisation has existed. If you remember watching Mary Poppins, she sums up gamification quite nicely with the quote «In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. You find the fun and SNAP! the job’s a game.«

She was onto something here. Mary Poppins knew all the way back in the 1960s that anything could be turned into a fun activity by making it into a game. There were prominent examples of gamification existing even earlier than Mary Poppins however.

Back in the early 1900s, if you were a Boy Scout you could obtain real badges and ranks, a tradition that is still carried out today. However as video games started to take off, we saw educational video games then become popular in the 1970s and 80s. You may remember such games as ‘Where in the World is Carmen San Diego’, ‘Reader Rabbit’ and ‘Math Blaster’. These games were forms of entertainment that were built for serious purposes, to educate players.

Foursquare is an example of social gamification. If you checked into a location, you would receive points. Check in to a new location, you hadn’t visited before and you would receive even more points. You could then compare the number of points you had on a leaderboard with friends and you could also receive badges for doing special things like checking in on a boat or checking in with more than 50 people in one place. 

If you checked into a place more than anyone else, you became the “Foursquare mayor” of that location. This user experience felt like a game, and it was a lot of fun to use. Foursquare became a popular example of an app increasing user engagement through loyalty program gamification. 

What’s interesting, though, was that the game elements they used started to appear in many different other applications and websites. This may have contributed to these game elements becoming a popular way to add gamification.

These days we’re seeing more and more serious games in gamification, partly because video games have become mainstream and, as well, smartphones have made it incredibly easy to play games anywhere at any time.

Gamification Examples

Marketing

Health

Education

Websites

Influencers

Gamification in Marketing

Gamification has been widely applied in marketing. Forbes, in 2013 estimated that over 70% of their ‘Global 2000 Companies’ list were recorded saying on a survey that they planned to use gamification for the purposes of marketing and customer retention. With that being said here are the 3 Major types of Gamification Marketing.

1. Transmedia: 007: GoldenEye

Transmedia is the practice of taking a media property and extending it into a different medium to either expand upon the material or bring greater attention to it. In 1997 Nintendo did this with its N64 release ‘007: GoldenEye’. This was a AAA Title Game that was created to bring more attention to the film of the same title’s release but actually ended up making more money than the film itself. 

Not surprising then that 20 years later the video game industry is now 4x larger than the movie industry. Perhaps we will soon start seeing advertisements for video games in movies?

2. Brandification: Tesla + PUBG 

Brandification in its simplest form consists of in-game advertising for real-world products & services. This could look like messages, images or videos promoting a brand, product or service within a video games’ world. One of the first to do it well was Counter-Strike. One of the most popular first shooter games in history, Counter-Strike allowed advertisers to promote movie posters on the walls within the game itself like «Smokin’ Aces» back in 2006 among other films. 

The most recent example of Brandification? Tesla is using Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) as a platform to market their cars. PUBG is one of the most played and viewed (Twitch) video games in the world right now. Tesla as of July 2020 placed their cars within the game as drivable vehicles for players.

3. Advergame: Pepsi Man

Advergames are online video games that promote a particular brand, product, or marketing message by integrating it into the game template, created expressly for promotional purposes. Advergames are often commissioned to support other media, not replace them. The idea is that the more interaction with the property through the form of the game the stronger it leads to better associations.

Advergames first became popular with Pepsi’s «Pepsi Man» and 7 Up’s ‘Spot’ in the late 90s. in 2019, snackable mobile games like ‘Candy Crush’ & ‘Temple Run’ have begun to be ‘re-skinned’ with company branding and themes to promote their products and services. These are done through companies like Gamify or popular DIY website platforms like WIX or Shopify. Advergames have been proven to get higher levels of engagement & redemption than more traditional advertisements. 

Gamification in Health

 1. Physical Health: Nike

Nike launched Nike+Run in 2010 as a gamification platform that tracks and gamifies your run time, distance covered, health levels and compares yourself to your previous recordings and others within your social field. They have a leaderboard, points, and badges. This is a classic example of live feedback and micro-measuring progress to helping runners to improve and progress in their personal goals.

For a more in-depth look at some of the best Gamified Health Apps on the market, check out Gamify’s Top Fitness Apps 2021.

2. Mental Health: Headspace 

Headspace comes in the form of an app that uses gamification to increase user completion and mastery of a level of meditation before moving on to a more advanced section. Each session is about ten minutes long and usually in audio format. Gamifying the process helps users to track their progress in bettering their mental state and in truly seeing the strides they’ve taken towards being better balanced.

3. Group Workouts: Les Mills

Other organisations like CrossFit have done well with their group connection and leaderboards but Les Mills ‘Be Moved’ utilises gamification to another level. They do group classes on stationary bikes with a computer screen in front of them, simulating a futuristic roller coaster. Once you log in, it tracks your scores, provides leaderboards and if you don’t show up to class it gives you a warning (an example of loss aversion). 7/8 of our gamification core drives are displayed within Les Mills’ ‘Be Moved’.

Gamification in Education

 1. Computer Games: Minecraft — Education Edition 

Math Blaster and Treasure Mountain are some of the earliest examples of popular educational games, however, one of the best and most current examples of Game-based Learning is Minecraft: Education Edition. This game teaches students how to code through one of the most popular game formats in the world. If you’re a teacher you already know a lot of your students love this game and the game mechanics that come with it.

2. Apps: Google’s Read Along
Another app-based learning game is “Read Along” by Google. The app uses Google’s voice technology to encourage kids to read and follow along with stories. It has great reviews and is used around the world. The only drawback at the moment is it only being compatible with Android at the moment.

3. Classroom: Kahoot

Kahoot allows you to create a multiple choice quiz through a quick website link share. This allows for students to use their phones in a productive manner, participating in selecting or typing their answers to in-class quizzes in real-time. Kahoot is one of the most straightforward and interactive examples of gamification motivating people in the classroom.

4. eLearning Platforms: Archy Learning

Archy Learning is a simple gamified eLearning platform. Teachers can cut and paste YouTube links and classroom notes into a learning pathway. Where it gets really fun is with the addition of gamification strategy in the form of class quizzes, educational video games, mixed media exams, and awarded certificates upon completed courses for an all-around gamification learning experience.

For more examples see our video and blog Gamification Examples in Education

Gamification in Websites

1. Physical & Online Locations: Foursquare

Previously mentioned, Foursquare was the original website and brand which not only built their company around the premise of gamification but grew 10x in size in just five years of implementing game elements into customer onboarding. Bringing both real life and online elements to their brand, store and website. Watch the video at the top of this page to learn more about Foursquare.

2. Website: DevHub

In August 2010 Devhub announced an increase in the number of users who completed their online tasks from 10% to 80% after adding gamification elements. Social websites like Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin now have implemented game elements into their sign-up & account processes as a result of DevHub’s success. The easiest tool to Gamify your site is through the largest DIY website engines in the world; Wix & Shopify allow users to add games to eCommerce stores in order to encourage engagement and email subscriptions.

3. Social: Reddit

The most well-executed example of gamification within a social site can be found on Reddit. Using badges, points, leaderboards, personalisation/avatars, coins, and many other elements and mechanics to increase engagement, Reddit took a basic blog website and transformed it into one of the top 10 most visited sites in the world through gamification. By gaining points for the amount of time you write, interact, and have simply been a member on the site, you can buy «coins» and “gift” them to article writers. This is a great example of intrinsic motivators building up a website’s following.

4. Online Portfolio: Bruno Simon

One of the most engaging online portfolios you will ever ‘experience’. Bruno Simon is a Creative Developer who is just showing off at this point with his fully interactive online portfolio. Control a 3D model truck as you literally drive around his past projects, social links, and added playground to ensure that viewers truly take their time to soak in and enjoy what Bruno has achieved (click on the link and go for a spin).

Gamification Influencers

1. The Original: Yu-Kai Chou

Yu-Kai was one of the first prominent figures in gamification. First, truly rising in popularity around the topic of gamification with his TED talk in 2014, and soon followed up by awarded «Gamification Guru of the Year» — Gamification Europe Conference in 2017. 

His book ‘Octalysis‘ is the framework I mentioned in 8 Core Drives in Gamification. 

2. The Consultant: Gabe Zicherman

Gabe has written three major books on gamification and done numerous live videos and events, including major gamification conferences. His talks, workshops, books, and courses have helped train marketers, customer loyalty experts, HR professionals, strategists, and product designers to make the world a more fun and engaging place.

He can be seen here consulting Samantha Bee on how to ‘Gamify voting’.

3. The Face: Jane McGonigal

Game designer, author of SuperBetter, and public speaker. Jane’s TED Talk on ‘How Gaming can Make a Better World’ has established her as «the face of Gamification«.

4. The Doctor: Dr. Zac Fitz-Walter

Dr. Zac earned one of the world’s first PhDs in gamification design and has since lectured and developed a curriculum on gamification for universities. He speaks and educates governments, conferences, and companies around the world on effective gamification and engagement design including Gamification Europe.

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Summary 

What actions do you want your audience to take? Whether they are students, customers or employees — Can you think of any way of measuring and rewarding them for doing certain actions? The old saying is true «whatever gets measured, improves». 

This is why loyalty cards and Airpoints have done so well. They acknowledge and reward customers for behaviours the company wants them to continue doing. In the next article, we’ll be going through more examples of how individuals and companies have utilised gamification to their benefit, titled: «5 Best Gamification Examples».

Can you think of other companies which have gamified their products or services? 

What other industries have done well with gamification? 

This is the first of a three-part series. Click on the «Next Article» tab in the bottom right to go to the next page where we look at other «Top Gamification Examples» within a video presentation.

What Is Gamification?

Gamification is a new vocabulary word lately, and there’s even a summit about it. What is the definition of gamification? The word gamification is used to describe companies integrating game mechanics into their non-gaming product or service to drive user engagement. These companies are “gamifying” their products and services by adding light game mechanics on top of them.

What does that actually look like? While the term is relatively new, the tactics aren’t and have already been in play for quite some time. Here are some examples of gamification in action.

Real World Examples of Gamification

Collecting Friends on Facebook and Twitter, and the LinkedIn LION Phenomenon (Game Mechanic: Collection)

Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are great examples of users who are collecting a list of friends, or thumbnails of friends. Twitter is a particularly good example, putting the number prominently at the top and picture collection of all the people you’ve follow at the bottom.

My Twitter (@adachen)

For LinkedIn, the desire to collect people has created the peculiar phenomenon of LinkedIn LIONs. LIONs are “Linked In Open Networkers,” individuals who are open to connecting with people whom they have had no prior business relationship with. This is a somewhat unintended result, since LinkedIn would naturally want to keep social graphs accurate and this goes against that. These LIONs have even evolved to create a website complete with leaderboard (TopLinked 50 Leaderboard) for the top LIONs.

Collecting Badges in Foursquare (Game Mechanic: Collection, Achievement)

Foursquare is both a way to collect and record locations that you’ve visited, but has layered on mayorship and badge collection. Through Foursquare, checking in the most in the last month for a restaurant can make you mayor of that location. A contender for the position can trigger a competition for mayorship. Foursquare also allows their users to unlock badges based on their check-in activity.

One clever facet of badge collection is that they are not linked to particular places, but instead particular types of places. The Gym Rat badge, for example, can be earned by checking in 10x a month at any gym, not just one gym. This creates a common language and context for people to relate with one another, regardless of whether they are next-door neighbors or across the nation from one another.

Leveling Up in My Starbucks Rewards (Game Mechanic: Points, Achievement, Leveling, Rewards)

Starbucks has a rewards program called My Starbucks Rewards. Basically, it starts with a Starbucks gift card pre-loaded with cash, but the game mechanics kick in as soon as you’ve registered your card. After registration, Starbucks shows a progress bar and points in the form of stars to track your progress. Stars are earned for every purchase with your registered Starbucks card.

Once you’ve earned 5 stars, you advance to the Green level. This level rewards you with free refills on coffee and tea, free syrups and milks, and access to select trial offers. Get to 30 stars, and you get a free drink for every 15 cards and a personalized gold card.

Earning Points in My Coke Rewards (Game Mechanic: Points, Collection, Rewards)

My Coke Rewards is a rewards and loyalty program for consumers of Coca Cola products. Each product has a unique alphanumeric code printed on the label, and these codes can be collected and redeemed at the website for points. The points from the codes can be redeemed for sweepstakes entries and rewards like electronics and retailers.

Travel Leaderboards in Tripit.com (Game Mechanic: Competition, Collection)

Tripit.com is actually one of my favorite services. I love how simple it is to forward my trip itinerary to an email, and instantly gain access to a clean itinerary on my iPhone. Tripit also allows you to connect with other users of the service. One fun way they’ve gamified their site is by introducing travel leaderboards and personal statistics.

Through the travel leaderboards, I can not only collect my own record of travel achievements, but see how I compare against my friends. As you can see, not doing so good compared to other jetsetters.

Gifting membership through Netflix (Game Mechanic: Gifting)

Part of Netflix’s user acquisition strategy is the free trial and then converting the trial users into paid subscribers. They occasionally send out emails inviting their existing subscribers to invite their friends and family.

Source: hackingnetflix.com

Cleverly, these free trials are described as a gift to treat your friends and family, while they are basically an invite to trial the service.

Personalization and Self Expression through NIKEiD (Game Mechanic: Personalization, Self Expression)

While many retailers take advantage of limited edition and designer edition shoes to allow consumers outlets for personality and self-expression, NIKE has take it one step further with their NIKEiD shoes. NIKE allows full personalization through their ability to create on-demand customized shoes for each person. Through their NIKEiD site, you can fully customize the colors, materials, sizing, and fit of your very own special Nike shoes and they will ship it just for you.

In Conclusion

The practice of gamification is commonplace and well-practiced. My pile of rewards cards shows that companies have been on to the idea of motivating users through points, levels and status for a long time.

However, while many of these companies have been using these strategies for a while, they are likely not thinking of this consciously as gamification.Viewing these tactics through the lens of game mechanics and psychology prompts deeper analysis around effectiveness and engagement. Are they optimizing the virality of gift invitations, or figuring out how to tune their rewards systems to be fun? There’s a lot of psychology and science underpinning why basic game mechanics can be so effective in motivating consumers to engage. Hopefully, as gamification becomes more mainstream, the result is that products will be more fun and engaging!

Any big examples I missed? How are you thinking about gamifying your product?