A quote from Wanda Meloni, founder and president of M2 Research, industry analyst market strategist and well versed in mobile and social game trends.
“If engagement is the super metric of the next decade, then gamification is its elixir.”
Activity #1: Survey
Without reading ahead, answer complete the following survey about you experiences with games (computer and otherwise). The cumulative results will be shown when you complete the survey.
Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world’s leading questionnaire tool.
The results from the survey will be posted on Thursday and updated on the weekend but before we consider specific games, let us take a look at what defines gamification.
According to Smith-Robins (2011) gamification is the term used to describe the “application of game mechanics such as points, badges, and levels to non-game processes”. It does not rely on internal motivation, instead, it provides instantaneous feedback, egging on the competition and rewarding even tiny steps of progress. Gamification assumes that the player isn’t especially motivated at the beginning and then provides lots of incentives to ramp up that motivation.
Social networking platforms such as Facebook provide convenient platforms which can gamify simple activities. An example is “Foursquare” in which people use their mobile devices to “check-in” from restaurants, stores, and other registered locations. Users can earn badges, unlock product deals and those who frequently check-in can become mayor of their favourite local hangout/java spot.
Education has always been about accumulating points of which diplomas and graduation certificates are badges of points earned at different levels. Critics of gamification claim that those who are trying to spice up their business with badges and levels do not understand how a game works. Rather than adding levels of engagement they often add tracking systems, which is more “pointification” than “gamification”. Some argue that education has made the same mistake. Examples of pontification are Airmiles cards etc.
Continue to the Follow-up Activity
Authored by Bridget Perry-Gore