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Sex, lies and gamification
Posted by harriet in blog October 26, 2011The fantastic Olly Lawder came in for a lunch and learn last week to talk to us all about gamification. It’s one of those buzz words that you hear bandied about: Greenpeace have been using it, Mashable think it’s something every marketer should consider and Foursquare is the newest, hottest social media platform. But there are also the dissenters. Those who think it is yet another piece of marketing fluff, or worse, bullshit.
So what is gamification and why is it so divisive? Having finished a thesis on the application of this technique to pro environmental behaviour, Olly was just the man to fill us in. Here is a whistlestop tour:
Gamification ≠Games
“Gamification is the application of game elements to non-game situations
Gamification is not about creating games per se, but applying game elements to products, services and processes. It’s about understanding the psychological depth to what makes games ‘fun’, rewarding and engaging and deploying these insights to improve the way audiences interact. These elements break down into three:
- game aesthetics such as ‘discovery’, ‘fellowship’ and ‘narrative’ are the core experiential outcomes game players seek;
- game dynamics describe the engagement processes over time and
- game mechanics are the tools and devices that provide compelling feedback and sustain engagement.
Most people think about points, badges and rewards, when they think of gamification. These are all examples of game mechanics that can be applied to real world situations.
Games are addictive
Everyone who’s ever become a ‘Grand Theft Auto’ widow(er), or lost an entire week playing Myst will understand how addictive games are. The vast amount of time and money people are prepared to spend has translated into a booming business: the computer games industry is expected to be worth $68bn in 2012. This little statistic puts it nicely into context:
“Humans have spent 5.93 million years in World of Warcraft – 5.93m years ago our ancestors stood up for the 1st time.” (McGonigal, 2010)
Clearly, there is something about gaming that is attracting our interest and retaining it. Gamification is effectively a psychological exploration and application of why that might be.
Games are better than sex
This may be puzzling for those of us who don’t have a World of Warcraft login, but the answer is predictability. Gabe Zicherman explains how games create a predictable space for us to exist in, we have clearly defined ways of progressing (for example, pick up the axe, to kill the monster and rescue the princess, much easier than real life challenges such as getting a promotion). In games, players will take actions against their self-interest, in a predictable way. Sex may sell, and is one way of get people to take actions against their own interest, however, their actions and responses can be highly unpredictable.
To summarise, if you want people to act in a certain way, well-crafted us of game aesthetics, dynamics and elements can elicit predictable reactions.
Gamification is the next stage in social media
So, video games are incredibly successful, as is Facebook. But what made Facebook so successful in the first place? Why aren’t we all frantically checking our MySpace profiles right now? The answers to this one are (in part) newsfeeds and updates. The thing that makes us check Facebook and Twitter obsessively is the fact that they are changing all the time – and nudging us to come back and have a look. However, the excitement in this technology is fading and usage rates are dropping off. The temporariness of viral campaigns, the shallow engagement provided by a Facebook ‘like’ are creating a sense that social might be reaching its limits. From the dizzy excitement of a few years ago, there’s less room to innovate.
Stickiness is the new fetish, it’s no longer good enough to simply ask people to click on a page, we want interaction too. Gamification is shaping up to be an evolution for social media offering deeper levels of engagement.
Gamification has the power to change behaviour by making it ‘fun’
The Nissan Leaf and supporting ‘Carwings’ website’ is a great example of gamification. Both use visual displays to feed back to the driver how fuel efficient their driving is. Not only that, but it publishes region-wide and global leader boards, allowing you to compete against other Leaf drivers in your area. Aimed at the green pound, its narrative (a green car that promotes eco driving) appeals to a green’s self-image. It also allows for the development of intrinsic motivation to drive efficiently by promoting autonomy through goals and feedback, as well as encouraging the user to build their driving ability to experience key game dynamics of ‘flow’ and ‘mastery’. Nissan are claiming a significant cost saving when running the Leaf, enhanced by users trying to beat their best drive and become more efficient than others around them.
Good gamification engages intrinsic motivation
I’ve posted much before on the need to foster intrinsic motivation to become part of something. You can ply a player with all of the badges, points and levels available to them, but if it doesn’t fit with their values or the task at hand, it won’t work. Mechanics such as points, badges and rewards can provide extrinsic motivation and maintain interest over time, but game aesthetics and dynamics are important to appeal to and build intrinsic motivation.
So thanks to Olly for his whistlestop tour. What do you think? Does gamification have the power to change behaviour, or is it just a load of old rubbish? Let us know below….
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14:47
Hi, I think that Gamification has the potential to change our behavior and to
change the world…if it’s executed rigth. Like (almost) everything their are
two sides to the coin.
In the short term gamification will be used just as a marketing tool and so
often ends up (and will be seen by critics) as a possibility for manipulation.
Why? Just adding points and badges to an activtiy is the easiest way to use
gamification. But that’s just 10% about the idea of using game-elements as an
engaging tool – even to achieve intrinsic motivation.
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But games are much more: playing is nature’s learning engine. To play for
improvement and mastering is being build into our DNA. So, by using gamification
as a role model for creating determining factors that help us to increase our
motivations and abilities to execute desired activities gamification will
achieve an open and honest success.
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Gamification is the KnowHow of the gaming industry to engage people and even
to solve real world problems (look at fold.it) by playing. It also fits often
with the findings of the ‘positive psychology’ science. And these are insights that are not short-sighted or manipulative.
For a longterm success of gamification it will be important that the real meaning of this approach will be educated to anyone.
16:39
Hi Roman,
Thanks for your considered comment. I agree with you that gamification’s potential is hugely exciting but it’s early days and there are bound to be some superficial attempts.
To really ‘get’ gamification I think you need to draw on quite a broad spectrum of ideas. Positive psychology, as you mentioned, from the likes of Mihály CsÃkszentmihályi as well as behaviourism and the effects of extrinsic rewards on motivation to name two.
You’re right to be sceptical about using mechanics such as ‘points and badges’, the really valuable insights from the video games world are the dynamics and aesthetics of engagement.
All the best,
Olly Lawder
11:55
At CorpComms Magazine we’ve been hearing so much buzz around gamification that I decided to investigate further in a recent feature article. As you say, some people think it’s the ‘next big thing’ while others say it’s just a new term for something which has always existed.
Somewhere in between are those who think that it’s not a new concept but that it’s becoming more relevant and diverse in its applications thanks to our interconnectedness online and our need to have everything at our fingertips and be incentivised by points, badges and so on.
Others think a new key area is its application among communications staff to incentivise and increase productivity. While this has always been a part of the sales culture, it is only just filtering into comms, as there are now much more readily ways to monitor customer sentiment and see if particular campaigns are working.
I’m interested to see the applications in the healthcare sphere in particular (there’s even a new journal specifically for this: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_….
Here’s our tuppence-worth on the subject: http://www.corpcommsmagazine.c…
Looking forward to hearing more about Olly’s research.
Sheli
13:31
http://www.unwords.com/
17:15
Hi Sheli,
Thanks for your input to the debate. Healthcare is indeed an interesting area for the application of gamification and along with educational and environmental issues presents one of the best opportunities to put it to work. Though not strictly gamification, one example of game-based marketing in the healthcare industry that might interest you is Syrum which I wrote about here: http://www.auroracommsblog.com…
You mentioned using gamification techniques to incentivise staff. I think if we are to judge the potential of gamification we need to ask “what are we trying to get people to do?†The world of sales is driven by extrinsic rewards such as bonuses for hitting targets and game mechanics are very good at
showing progress towards goals and acting as motivating ‘reward schedules’. It’s no surprise that Salesforce is convinced of gamification’s potential: http://www.readwriteweb.com/en…
However, and this may be of particular interest to your readership, if communicators are seeking to build genuine loyalty to work for an organisation, intrinsic motivation is key. This is a vast subject area but in short, much of the criticism that is directed at gamification is focused on over-claims of the ability of game mechanics to get us to change our behaviour – often dismissed as ‘pointsification’! Although I do think games offer us some good ideas on how to build intrinsic motivation their execution is more complex than the addition of points and badges.
Thanks for the link to your article. You’re right, there are many ideas in gamification that are not entirely new but I would say that its potential has been vastly under exploited.
All the best,
Olly
17:39
Great article Sheli and a really comprehensive analysis.
I think that the point about ‘the basics still apply’ is a great one which I also think extends to applying gamification to marketing. I expect to see a rash of badly chosen games mechanics in comms campaigns going forward which forget to factor in the needs and wants of their audiences.
21:18
Here’s my take on Green Gamification, published on Green Biz: http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2…
11:41
Good article on the early stages of green+games Bennu. Particularly approve of the Nissan Leaf as an example of gamification’s potential – really strong case study.
thanks for your input,
Olly Lawder