Gamification is the strategic attempt to enhance systems, services, organizations, and activities in order to create similar experiences to those experienced when playing games in order to motivate and engage users. This is generally accomplished through the application of game-design elements and game principles (dynamics and mechanics) in non-game contexts. It can also be defined as a set of activities and processes to solve problems by using or applying the characteristics of game elements.
Gamification is part of persuasive system design, and it commonly employs game design elements to improve user engagement, organizational productivity, flow learning, crowdsourcing knowledge retention, employee recruitment and evaluation, ease of use, the usefulness of systems, physical exercise traffic violations voter apathy, public attitudes about alternative energy, and more. A collection of research on gamification shows that a majority of studies on gamification find it has positive effects on individuals. However, individual and contextual differences exist.
Game Design Elements: Game design elements are the basic building blocks of gamification applications. Among these typical game design elements, are points, badges, leader-boards, performance graphs, meaningful stories, avatars, and teammates.
Applications: 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. Students may also receive incentives, such as an honourable mention on the dean’s list, the honour roll, and scholarships, which are equivalent to levelling 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.
Legal Restrictions: 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 labour laws.
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.
Disadvantages
The downside of gamification can lead to the perception of being manipulated into doing something you don’t want to do. … Gamification involves finding out about the motivations of end-users and tapping into those with nudges for the better. Anything that can be used for the better can also be used for the worse.
Rani Rodrigues
English Teacher
Rahul International School Shreeprastha
