Jay LeonardGood day and all. Today I am merely rambling to try to either prove or disprove an idea I have.
I was thinking about short definitions for Gamification – outside of the usual
Add game mechanics to non game tasks
The more I look at Gamification, the more unsatisfied I am with that description. There is so much more to Gamification.
I have written in length about that side of Gamification. The use of extrinsic rewards, badges, leaderboards, social elements etc. The more I look, the more I realise how much more we are trying to capture under that one wading of Gamification.
Badgeville talk about Game Mechanics, Reputation Mechanics and Social Mechanics. Mark Sorell spoke at length with GSummitX about behavioural economics. I have recently been banging on about Introduce, engage, retain.
It seems we are all trying to nail what Gamification really is, which to me means we need to find a better definition.
This probably isn’t it, but I like it for now.
Adding the unusual to the usual to create benefit.
For example, taking badges. These are not a normal part of any work or even fitness environment. They are unusual to that ecosystem. Used in the correct way with other unusual elements, they can create some benefit. (dangerous example, but easy to explain).
Typing of the dead. Take a game, swap the gun for typing and you have a gamified learning experience. You took the usual (the game), added the unusual (typing) and created benefit (learning how to type in a fun way).
Real time feedback at work. In our jobs we get feed back in several ways. We get immediate feedback for work we have done and we get the traditional annual review. Only the annual review counts towards anything and with it you usually have to show some of the feedback you had in the year. There is now a lot of noise being made about real-time feedback. This is something that gamers are used to. Shoot something and you get an animation and a score. Imagine waiting a year before you saw that. The game would not sell well. So again, taking the usual – annual review and adding the unusual – real-time feedback. The benefit is a more rounded and immediate look at performance.
This is just merely a thought, but I would love some comments from you all. Think of something you have done or seen that is referred to as Gamification. Then look and see if the concept of adding the unusual to the usual to create benefit describes the gamified aspects.
This article was written for Business 2 Community by Jay Leonard.
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I think your definition is as good as any I’ve heard Andrzej. I’d say it’s measuring activities that aren’t typically measured.
“When performance is measured and reported, the rate of performance accelerates” (Thomas Monson) which is why I think measuring and setting benchmarks is the key element.
When I was a kid my dad gave me the book “The Game of Work” and I think that really changed the way I approached work. I even started Flow and Zone to distribute lifehacker / self-help games:
http://flowandzonegames.com
Hopefully others get as much fun and benefit out of these games as I have.
Thanks! I am trying to make people think about what they can do with the techniques and ideas that gamification offers us – rather than constantly trying to define it and limit what can and can’t be part of it! Will check your site out :) (if you are interested my blog is http://www.marczewski.me.uk)
I’ve always thought that the name ‘gamification’ was horrible! When you try to explain it to someone, they immediately think of ‘games’. Sure it involves game elements, but the underlying purposes (encouraging motivation, influence and engagement) are what the concept is all about. I’ve been coining gamification as ‘influence media’ when I tell people about it because it makes a lot more sense: it’s getting people to do something in your favor, when most other things are equal. This is what influence is all about. Cheers!
Influence Media is good. A lot of it is all about influencing behaviour. I think there is more to gamification than just that, but it is a major factor that people like badgeville are spending a lot of time looking at!