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Is Gamification being used properly by businesses?
Recently, there’s been a lot of chatter about how
Gamification has somehow failed to meet expec-
tations in certain sectors, but the evidence seems to
indicate that it is actually due to poor design and im-
plementation.
If you’ve ever been employed in a very serious busi-
ness environment, you’ve probably heard some-
one say “stop playing games!” at least once. This of
course implies that someone isn’t taking their duties
seriously or perhaps is acting like a clown. But what
if you could merge the fervor that the average person
seems to have for “playing games” with serious du-
ties? Well, this is exactly what Gamification seeks to
achieve—to create a balance between what some-
one might identify as “fun” vs. what they see as “ef-
fort-based labor”. Regardless of how you might per-
sonally feel about Gamification, you have to admit,
it’s a very interesting approach to running a business
and general management.
Over the course of the last half of the 2012 cal-
endar and up into the first couple of months
of our current year (2013), many businesses
began reporting problems associated with their
gamification strategies. Almost immediately, there
were those who stepped up to blame gamification
itself, claiming that it’s a flawed concept. Well, let’s
set the record straight.
There are great examples of Gamification nearly
everywhere you look in society. In fact, where
would the entertainment industry be right
now if not for gamification? Likewise, think about
how gamification is used in an educational capac-
ity, literally, around the world (for decades now). The
simple fact of the matter is that gamification is used
in early childhood education to train future students
to accept routines as well as reinforce group-based
critical thinking. Furthermore, there are plenty of
great examples of gamification success on the retail
side of things, where companies link social media to
“gamified” contests or offers.
Perhaps one of the greatest examples of gamifi-
cation in action is the “Speed Camera Lottery”,
which is an idea developed by Kevin Richardson
as part of a Volkswagen’s “Fun Theory” award. The ba-
sic idea was to create a system that would reinforce
good driver behavior and adherence to speed and traf-
fic laws. In essence, he created a system where those
who are driving faster than the speed limit are given a
fine, and those who are under are entered into a “lot-
tery” (which is based on the amount of money paid
by the offenders). In other words, drivers who obey
the traffic laws and speed limits are rewarded, while
the offending drivers are punished. Needless to say,
it’s been a complete success. People are engaging this
form of Gamification because it is fun, immediate, and
features a rather simplistic design.
What does this mean? What’s the bottom line?
This all leads to one conclusion; gamification
is currently being implemented ineffectively
by most businesses. Furthermore, one might make the
argument that most forms of it feature poor to terrible
design. It would seem that most of these businesses
are simply engaging their workforce with gamification
apps and expecting immediate results, often without
even breaking down how the system works (or if it’s
right for their organization). For example, given that
we’re talking about an approach to management that’s
supposed to be inclusive and fun, it would make sense
to allow one’s employees to vote on which Gamifica-
tion platform is most suitable. Are companies doing
this? The answer to that question is likely no, since it’s
clear that their chosen platform or app(s) are consist-
ently motivating the wrong individuals. This situation
is neatly summed up by Brian Burke, Research Vice
President at Gartner:
“The focus is on the obvious game mechanics, such as
points, badges and leader boards, rather than on the
more subtle and more important game design elements,
such as balancing competition and collaboration, or de-
fining a meaningful game economy,” Mr. Burke said. “As a
result, in many cases, organizations are simply counting
points, slapping meaningless badges on activities and
creating gamified applications that are simply not en-
gaging for the target audience. Some organizations are
already beginning to cast off poorly designed gamified
applications.”
He also stated that:
“The challenge facing project managers and sponsors re-
sponsible for gamification initiatives is the lack of game
design talent to apply to gamification projects. Poor
game design is one of the key failings of many gamified
applications today.”
The point being made here is clear. The blame or
immediate “failure” of gamification to positively
influence businesses is not due to the concept (of
Gamification) itself, but rather becaue of two separate
factors: poor implementation and bad design.
H owever, as time rolls forward, many of the
problems associated with design and imple-
mentation are likely to be resolved. Think
about it: all it’s really going to take is a few really good
designs which are customized for various types of
corporate environments for the entire gamification
industry to bloom. Once this happens, everyone will
rush in to implement these gamification systems and
competing designers will mimic their successes.
Perhaps one of the best approaches to improv-
ing your business’ use of gamification (or the
scope and success of your IT career) is to seek
out certification programs in it. More specifically,
companies should consider hiring more IT workers
with training in gamification design and implemen-
tation. By the same token, IT professionals should
make an effort to become certified in one or more
specialized areas of Gamification.
Is Gamification being used properly by
businesses?