Gamification
Encyclopedia
Gamification is the use of game design
techniques and mechanics to solve problems and engage audiences. Typically gamification applies to non-game applications and processes (also known as "funware
"), in order to encourage people to adopt them. Gamification works by making technology more engaging, by encouraging users to engage in desired behaviors, by showing a path to mastery and autonomy, and by taking advantage of humans' psychological predisposition to engage in gaming. The technique can encourage people to perform chores that they ordinarily consider boring, such as completing survey
s, shopping, filling out tax forms, or reading web sites.
's "Place" feature, Foursquare (social network), and Gowalla
. Some of the techniques include:
, and encouraging desirable website usage behavior. Gamification is readily applicable to increasing engagement on sites built on social network service
s. One site, DevHub, increased the number of users who completed their online tasks from 10% to 80% after adding gamification elements.
Business applications for gamification are just beginning to appear as well. RedCritter Tracker incorporates gamification elements such as badges, rewards, leaderboards and ribbons into project management.
Gartner Group predicts gamification will be a key trend that every CIO, IT planner and enterprise architect must be aware of as it relates to business.
Gamification is used on Stack Overflow
, a question-and-answer site for programmers, and on all of its sister sites for other topics (including the non-Q&A careers site Careers 2.0). 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, he or she gains additional privileges - including at the higher end, the privilege of helping to moderate the site. Points and badges do not generally carry over between sister sites, because a user's expertise in one topic (such as programming) may be unrelated to their level of expertise, or lack thereof, in another topic. However, one exception is that a user gains 100 reputation points for linking their accounts on sister sites together, if they have at least 200 points on one of them.
Some other applications of gamification include:
Experts anticipated that the technique would also be applied to health care, financial services, transportation, government, employee training, and other activities.
Alix Levine, an American security
consultant, described as gamification some techniques that a number of extremist websites such as Stormfront
and various terrorism-related sites used to build loyalty and participation. As an example, Levine mentioned reputation scores.
Microsoft announced plans to use gamification techniques for its upcoming Windows Phone 7
operating system design.
in March 2004 for his gamification consultancy startup Conundra Ltd. More recently, the technique captured the attention of venture capitalists, one of whom said he considered gamification to be the most promising area in gaming. Another observed that half of all companies seeking funding for consumer software applications mentioned game design in their presentations.
In October 2007, Bunchball, backed by Adobe Systems Incorporated, 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. Bunchball customers include Playboy, Chiquita, Bravo, and The USA Network.
In September 2010, Badgeville
, backed by Norwest Venture Partners, El Dorado Ventures, and Trinity Ventures, launched at TechCrunch Disrupt SF as the first company to offer social game mechanics as a service. Badgeville raised $15M in venture funding in its first year of operation, and has 75 customers including Deloitte Digital, The Active Network, Kings Hawaiian, TechCrunch, Universal Music, Beat the GMAT, Bluefly.com and NBC
.
Founded in June 2009, BigDoor is a Seattle-based startup dedicated to making the online world more rewarding by providing gamification technology to non-gaming websites.
In July 2011, Mountain View, CA based Gigya
, a social integration provider for websites, added Game Mechanics to its suite of social applications. A number of Gigya's 400+ clients have launched with the company's Game Mechanics solution including Pepsi, which leverages Gigya's technology to power Pepsi SoundOff.
Several other angel and venture-backed companies emerged in late 2010, including IActionable, BigDoor and Reputely (inactive as of 2011).
, a contest called the "Gamify SETI & Prosper Challenge" to increase participation in its SETI
program through gamification.
One company, Seriosity, was created to offer gamification consulting. UserInfuser is the first open source gamification platform provided by CloudCaptive.
An organization, Gamification.Co, organized the world's first conference devoted to the phenomenon, held in San Francisco in January 2011.
Some critics dismiss gamification as a buzzword
, and note that many of its techniques have been in place for a long time. Other critiques include:
Game design
Game design, a subset of game development, is the process of designing the content and rules of a game in the pre-production stage and design of gameplay, environment, storyline, and characters during production stage. The term is also used to describe both the game design embodied in a game as...
techniques and mechanics to solve problems and engage audiences. Typically gamification applies to non-game applications and processes (also known as "funware
Funware
Funware, a term coined by Gabe Zicherman, is the use of game mechanics in non-game contexts to encourage desired user actions and generate customer loyalty...
"), in order to encourage people to adopt them. Gamification works by making technology more engaging, by encouraging users to engage in desired behaviors, by showing a path to mastery and autonomy, and by taking advantage of humans' psychological predisposition to engage in gaming. The technique can encourage people to perform chores that they ordinarily consider boring, such as completing survey
Statistical survey
Survey methodology is the field that studies surveys, that is, the sample of individuals from a population with a view towards making statistical inferences about the population using the sample. Polls about public opinion, such as political beliefs, are reported in the news media in democracies....
s, shopping, filling out tax forms, or reading web sites.
Techniques
Early examples of gamification are based on rewarding points to people who share experiences on location-based platforms such as FacebookFacebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
's "Place" feature, Foursquare (social network), and Gowalla
Gowalla
Gowalla is a location-based social network. Users 'check in' at Spots in their local vicinity, either through a dedicated mobile application or through the mobile website. As a reward users will sometimes receive virtual "items" from check-ins. Items have developed to become a promotional tool for...
. Some of the techniques include:
- achievement "badges"
- achievement levels
- "leader boards"
- a progress barProgress barA progress bar is a component in a graphical user interface used to convey the progress of a task, such as a download or file transfer. Often, the graphic is accompanied by a textual representation of the progress in a percent format....
or other visual meter to indicate how close people are to completing a task a company is trying to encourage, such as completing a social networking profile or earning a frequent shopper loyalty award. - virtual currencyVirtual currencyVirtual currency is used to purchase virtual goods within a variety of online communities; which include social networking websites, virtual worlds and online gaming sites....
- systems for awarding, redeeming, trading, gifting, and otherwise exchanging points
- challenges between users
- embedding small casual games within other activities.
Applications
, gamification was used by marketers and website product managers as a tool for customer engagementCustomer engagement
Customer engagement refers to the engagement of customers with one another, with a company or a brand. The initiative for engagement can be either consumer- or company-led and the medium of engagement can be on or offline....
, and encouraging desirable website usage behavior. Gamification is readily applicable to increasing engagement on sites built on social network service
Social network service
A social networking service is an online service, platform, or site that focuses on building and reflecting of social networks or social relations among people, who, for example, share interests and/or activities. A social network service consists of a representation of each user , his/her social...
s. One site, DevHub, increased the number of users who completed their online tasks from 10% to 80% after adding gamification elements.
Business applications for gamification are just beginning to appear as well. RedCritter Tracker incorporates gamification elements such as badges, rewards, leaderboards and ribbons into project management.
Gartner Group predicts gamification will be a key trend that every CIO, IT planner and enterprise architect must be aware of as it relates to business.
Gamification is used on Stack Overflow
Stack overflow
In software, a stack overflow occurs when too much memory is used on the call stack. The call stack contains a limited amount of memory, often determined at the start of the program. The size of the call stack depends on many factors, including the programming language, machine architecture,...
, a question-and-answer site for programmers, and on all of its sister sites for other topics (including the non-Q&A careers site Careers 2.0). Users receive points and/or badges for performing a variety of actions, including spreading links to questions and answers via Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
and Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
. A large number of different badges are available, and when a user's reputation points exceed various thresholds, he or she gains additional privileges - including at the higher end, the privilege of helping to moderate the site. Points and badges do not generally carry over between sister sites, because a user's expertise in one topic (such as programming) may be unrelated to their level of expertise, or lack thereof, in another topic. However, one exception is that a user gains 100 reputation points for linking their accounts on sister sites together, if they have at least 200 points on one of them.
Some other applications of gamification include:
- Employee training programs,
- Wellness and other personal activities
- Financial services websites. and
- Online and in-person shopping.
- Primary education.
- Extreme sports.
- Project management.
- Enhancing loyalty programmes.
- Sustainability.
Experts anticipated that the technique would also be applied to health care, financial services, transportation, government, employee training, and other activities.
Alix Levine, an American security
National security
National security is the requirement to maintain the survival of the state through the use of economic, diplomacy, power projection and political power. The concept developed mostly in the United States of America after World War II...
consultant, described as gamification some techniques that a number of extremist websites such as Stormfront
Stormfront (website)
Stormfront is a white nationalist and supremacist neo-Nazi Internet forum that has been described as the Internet's first major hate site.Stormfront began as an online bulletin board system in the early 1990s before being established as a website in 1995 by former Ku Klux Klan leader and white...
and various terrorism-related sites used to build loyalty and participation. As an example, Levine mentioned reputation scores.
Microsoft announced plans to use gamification techniques for its upcoming Windows Phone 7
Windows Phone 7
Windows Phone is a mobile operating system developed by Microsoft, and is the successor to its Windows Mobile platform, although incompatible with it. Unlike its predecessor, it is primarily aimed at the consumer market rather than the enterprise market...
operating system design.
Companies and organizations
The term may have been first coined by Nick PellingNick Pelling
Nick Pelling is a British-born computer programmer, best known for a series of 1980s computer games for the BBC Micro written under the nom-de-plume Orlando M. Pilchard. He was educated at Brentwood School, and has both a BSc in Maths and Philosophy and an MBA with Distinction...
in March 2004 for his gamification consultancy startup Conundra Ltd. More recently, the technique captured the attention of venture capitalists, one of whom said he considered gamification to be the most promising area in gaming. Another observed that half of all companies seeking funding for consumer software applications mentioned game design in their presentations.
Gamification vendors
In addition to companies that use the technique, a number of businesses created platforms and consulting operations for others to add gamification elements to their own services.In October 2007, Bunchball, backed by Adobe Systems Incorporated, was the first company to provide game mechanics as a service, on Dunder Mifflin Infinity
Dunder Mifflin Infinity
"Dunder Mifflin Infinity" is the third episode of the fourth season of the American comedy television series The Office, and the show's fifty-sixth episode overall. The episode was written by Michael Schur, who also acts in the show, and directed by Craig Zisk...
, the community site for the NBC TV show The Office. Bunchball customers include Playboy, Chiquita, Bravo, and The USA Network.
In September 2010, Badgeville
Badgeville
Badgeville, Inc., is a privately-held technology company headquartered in Menlo Park, California with additional offices in New York and Europe. Badgeville offers a SaaS-based technology for web and mobile sites to track and reward user behavior using a technique known as gamification...
, backed by Norwest Venture Partners, El Dorado Ventures, and Trinity Ventures, launched at TechCrunch Disrupt SF as the first company to offer social game mechanics as a service. Badgeville raised $15M in venture funding in its first year of operation, and has 75 customers including Deloitte Digital, The Active Network, Kings Hawaiian, TechCrunch, Universal Music, Beat the GMAT, Bluefly.com and NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
.
Founded in June 2009, BigDoor is a Seattle-based startup dedicated to making the online world more rewarding by providing gamification technology to non-gaming websites.
In July 2011, Mountain View, CA based Gigya
Gigya
Gigya Inc. is a privately held technology company headquartered in Mountain View, California with additional offices in Tel Aviv, Israel. Gigya offers a Saas-based technology for making websites social...
, a social integration provider for websites, added Game Mechanics to its suite of social applications. A number of Gigya's 400+ clients have launched with the company's Game Mechanics solution including Pepsi, which leverages Gigya's technology to power Pepsi SoundOff.
Several other angel and venture-backed companies emerged in late 2010, including IActionable, BigDoor and Reputely (inactive as of 2011).
Related companies
San Francisco startup Gamify offers a universal gamification platform. Gamify has created the Gamification Encyclopedia to document trends in this topic and, together with the SETI InstituteSETI Institute
The SETI Institute is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to “explore, understand and explain the origin, nature and prevalence of life in the universe”. SETI stands for the "search for extraterrestrial intelligence". One program is the use of both radio and optical telescopes to search...
, a contest called the "Gamify SETI & Prosper Challenge" to increase participation in its SETI
SETI
The search for extraterrestrial intelligence is the collective name for a number of activities people undertake to search for intelligent extraterrestrial life. Some of the most well known projects are run by the SETI Institute. SETI projects use scientific methods to search for intelligent life...
program through gamification.
One company, Seriosity, was created to offer gamification consulting. UserInfuser is the first open source gamification platform provided by CloudCaptive.
An organization, Gamification.Co, organized the world's first conference devoted to the phenomenon, held in San Francisco in January 2011.
Critique
The term "gamification" and the practices it describes have received negative attention from game industry professionals, business consultants and executives, academics, and communications professionals. A Stanford professor, in a book on the subject, suggested that the gamification of businesses and virtual worlds is creating an expectation among people that real-life interactions follow simple mechanics, and some disillusionment when they do not.Some critics dismiss gamification as a buzzword
Buzzword
A buzzword is a term of art, salesmanship, politics, or technical jargon that is used in the media and wider society outside of its originally narrow technical context....
, and note that many of its techniques have been in place for a long time. Other critiques include:
- gamification elements are already present in everyday activities such as happy hourHappy hourHappy hour is a marketing term for a period of time in which a restaurant or bar offers discounts on alcoholic drinks, such as beer, wine, and cocktails.-Basic information:...
s, loyalty programs, etc. - for business purposes, gamification is invalid, faddish, exploitative, an oversimplification, or a renaming of existing practices.
- adding to and preying upon the confusion among business decision makers about the meaningful distinctions between games, videogames, social games, gamification, game mechanics, etc.
- the negative consequences of making simple game-like consumer interactions an end in themselves, rather than designing either high quality games or full product designs.
- gamification sometimes misses elements such as storytelling and experiences which are central to what make games effective, or that gamification has mistaken the addition of points for the application of genuine game mechanics.