Gamification
Gamification can be defined as the process of enhancing systems, services, organisations and activities through the integration of game design elements and principles, such as dynamics and mechanics, in non-game contexts with the aim of motivating and engaging users.
It is a component of 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] dating apps and intimate relationships,[21][22][23][24] traffic violations,[25] voter apathy,[26][27] public attitudes about alternative energy,[28] and more.
[31] Gamification techniques are intended to leverage people's evolved 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.
[41] According to Chou, the efficacy of the Octalysis Framework in gamification, shows that experience points (XP), badges, and progress indicators can significantly enhance user engagement and productivity in business learning programs.
Werbach and Hunter[44] 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.
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.
[57] 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.
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.
[62] 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.
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.
[67] 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 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.
[68] Incorporating game mechanics such as leaderboards and rewards in these platforms can further encourage participation and foster collaboration, ultimately enhancing the ideation process.
[83] 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.
A 2010 paper in science journal Nature credited Foldit's 57,000 players with providing useful results that matched or outperformed algorithmically computed solutions.
[88] 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.
[96][97] 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.
[98][99][100] 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.
[107][108][109][110][111] The combined use od virtual reality and gamification can provide a more effective solutions in term of knowledge acquisition and retention when they are compared with traditional training methods.
[112][113] 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.
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.
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.
Deterding et al.[2] survey research in human–computer interaction that uses game-derived elements for motivation and interface design, and Nelson[136] argues for a connection to both the Soviet concept of socialist competition, and the American management trend of "fun at work".
[138] In October 2007, Bunchball was the first company to provide game mechanics as a service, on Dunder Mifflin Infinity, the community site for the NBC TV show The Office.
[151] 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.
"[75] 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.
[155][156] Gamification practitioners[157][158] 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.
[161] Heather Chaplin, writing in Slate, describes gamification as "an allegedly populist idea that actually benefits corporate interests over those of ordinary people".
