Gamification – Digital Media Reflections

Gamification, let’s start at the beginning

Once you start to pay attention to gamification, you will probably begin to notice that it is everywhere! Personally, I didn’t realise how much gamification I have been exposed to and participated with until I really started to pay attention.

Here’s a short podcast I made shortly after discovering gamification.

Hold on, what is gamification?

Gamification is the concept of integrating gaming mechanics and game dynamics into non-gaming activities. It can be used to motivate and provide encouragement. (Hamari, J, Koivisto J, 2015,)

What do you mean by gaming mechanics and game dynamics?

Gaming mechanics

Point Systems – These are used to cumulatively reward players and act as an instant positive reinforcement.
Challenges, trophies, badges/medals and accomplishments – a visible reward for reaching new levels or completing a goal.
Levels- To show players have completed a goal or task.
Virtual Goods- incentivise the player to keep working or being active within the game by allowing ‘purchasing’ of the virtual goods (often with the points a player has collected)
Classification Table, ranking score table or leader boards are used to display the position of the player within the game.

Gaming Dynamics

Rewards – presented after an action or activity completed to positively reinforce the player and encourage a repetition of the action.
Status – acts as recognition of participation, such as levelling up.
Accomplishment/Fulfilment -Encourages players to continue working on a task as a sense of accomplishment is achieved when the goal is completed.
Self-expression – Players need the ability to express themselves within games. for example, customisable avatars which can set players apart and allow people to display their independence.
Competition can give some players a sense of gratification by comparing their performance with other players.

(Da Rocha Seixas, L, Sandro Gomes, A, De Melo Filho, IJ, 2015)

Gamification Elements – Image taken by author

Okay now we understand what Gamification is, how is it used?

Due to gamification being so motivating it has been adopted into so many industries!

Let’s’ have a look at some examples…

You can find many gamification applications in the health industry – such as apps which support people to quit smoking such as MyQuit Buddy or support them with their fitness goals, like MyFitnessPal.

Gamification in Business, surely not?!

Remember the McDonald’s monopoly game? An analogue version of gamification.

How about the Coles – little shop promotions (Although I will keep my opinions on that for another future blog, or feel free to have a look at the quick video I posted on twitter whilst I was in the heat of the moment)

Woolworths discovery garden promotion, Hungry Jacks app, Boost Juice.

Gamification is not only used in business as promotional material, it is also harnessed within organisations.

There’s many applications available to support or engage employees, such as iActionable , Team Treehouse, Battle Jungle, Centrical.

Gamification is found in many industries – Image taken by author

Now that your paying attention to gamification, you may be realising, like me that you have actually participated in gamification in the education sector. It wasn’t until I was really paying attention that I realised I had been motivated with gamification by a math tutor I had years ago in high school. I was rewarded for completing the questions by playing mini games on the computer. My sister had Mathletics during her education

These days there’s even gamification programs such as – Classcraft, Rezzly, ClassDojo and Gradecraft and personal education apps such as Duolingo which assist you learning a new language!

Once you start looking into it there are heaps of personal apps to support your own journey for motivation, whether that’s beginning and supporting habits such as Habitica, or concentration supporting applications such as Forest or Flora.

Then there’s some apps that has got me thinking, What came first, the game or the gamification?

Such as Pokémon Go. Was this designed as a game, or an app to encourage people to get outside into their local environments?

I’d love to hear about your experience with gamification in the comment section down below.

Are you like me, and have participated with gamification without even realising?

Or better yet do you utilise and benefit from some gamified applications or programs?

I know I am looking forward to exploring our gamified world more!

References

Da Rocha Seixas, L, Sandro Gomes, A, De Melo Filho, IJ, 2015, ‘Effectiveness of gamification in the engagement of students’, Computers in Human Behaviour, vol. 58, pp.48-63 doi:10.1016/j.chb.2015.11.021

Hamari, J, Koivisto J, 2015, ‘Why do people use gamification services?’, International Journal of Information Management, vol. 35 no. 4, pp. 418-431, doi: 10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2015.04.006

Gamification: What do these gaming elements have over us?

So, having learned that gamification is the concept of adding gaming elements into non-gaming contexts, to harness the motivation capability that games have and utilise them into the non-gaming context. (Hamari J, Koivisto J, 2015)

The question to explore is: why is gamification able to be motivating? What do these gaming elements have over us?

img_6676-4-3 — Gamification Motivates – Image taken by author.

A few major theories seek to explain how Gamification can be so motivating.

Just as everyone learns differently, everyone is motivated differently. Many papers and theorists have tried to breakdown all the components based on different psychological models (Deterding, S 2015). However, as humans all have different motivations, this range of theories compete to explain how gamification can be so motivating,

As this is only a short blog post, and a long rabbit hole to get stuck in, let’s just touch on a few.

Many papers use Flow Theory to describe individuals’ experiences when playing games. Flow theory describes the ‘rewarding, subjective, emotional state of optimal pleasure that arises when an individual is absorbed in either work or leisure activities that are perceived as valuable’ (Boyle et al. 2012). Flow theory indicates that in order to maintain engagement there should be a balance between individual skills and the challenges within an activity. As well as be naturally gratifying, immersive, require a high degree of attentiveness, give a sense of autonomy, have clear goals and provide feedback to the user. (Boyle et al. 2012)

Yee’s (2006) research attempted to identify some core tools to assess the motivational components of games. His paper concluded with three core components.

An Achievement Component which consists of elements of advancement, mechanics and competition. A Social Component- socialising, building relationships and teamwork. And an Immersion Component which is characterised by elements of discovery, role playing, and customisation. Yee concluded that the player motivations do not subdue each other (Yee, N, 2006).

The last theory I’d like to review is Self- Determination Theory, which Ryan, Rigby and Przybylski (2010) built on to study players reasons for playing games. Self- Determination Theory or SDT implies that we are motivated to participate in activities which satisfy three innate psychological needs – The sense of autonomy, competence and ability to relate to others.

Autonomy describes the sense of acting within ones will towards your own goals, needs values and identity
Competence is fulfilled with the experience of one’s growing ability to achieve a task or challenge
Relatedness is the sense of connection with others.

The theory suggests that when these needs are met, we are independently motivated (Deci, EL, Ryan, RM, 2012).

img_6624-1 — When Gaming Elements and Non Gaming Elements Combine – Image taken by author.

When comparing all of these different theories to the multiple common gaming elements, we can begin to understand why each element holds and contributes different motivation qualities to the gamification design.

(Check out my previous blog post here, where I discuss some of the common gaming elements)

This further explains why successful gamification design uses combinations of many gaming elements in order to create a motivating and engaging design.

Gaming Elements – Image taken by author.

I found that researching why gaming elements can be so motivating absolutely fascinating. There are a lot of theories and it is a highly complex area of psychological study. To explain how particular gaming elements can satisfy one of the most well supported theories that I’ve discovered, Self Determination Theory, I’ve created a short video.

In the video I review an application called Habitica against this theory. I explain how the app uses gaming elements which fulfil the three needs included in Self Determination theory.

Lots of these theories that I learned about, attempt to generalise the motivating elements in gamification, which evades the fact that every human is different and will (or even will not) be motivated and engaged by different combinations of elements included in gamification.

References

Boyle, EA, Connolly, TM, Hainey, T, Boyle, JM, 2012, ‘Engagement in digital entertainment games: A systematic review’, Computers in Human Behaviour, vol. 28, no. 3, pp.771-780, doi:10.1016/j.chb.2011.11.020

Deci, EL, Ryan, RM, 2012, ‘Motivation, Personality and Development Within Embedded Social Contexts: An Overview of Self-Determination Theory’ The Oxford Handbook of Human Motivation, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195399820.013.0006

Hamari, J, Koivisto J, 2015, ‘Why do people use gamification services?’, International Journal of Information Management, vol. 35 no. 4, pp. 418-431, doi: 10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2015.04.006

Deterding, S 2015, ‘The Lens of Intrinsic Skill Atoms: A Method for Gameful Design’ Human- Computer Interaction, vol. 30 no. ¾, pp. 294-335, doi: 10.1080/07370024.2014.993471

Yee, N, 2006, ‘Motivations for Play in Online Games’ , CyberPsychology & Behaviour, vol. 9, no. 6, pp772-775, doi:10.1089/cpb.2006.9.772

Video

8bit game (https://theartistunion.com/tracks/cd7de4) by Alex Nekita CC by 3.0

Deci, EL, Ryan, RM, 2012, ‘Motivation, Personality and Development Within Embedded Social Contexts: An Overview of Self-Determination Theory’ The Oxford Handbook of Human Motivation, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195399820.013.0006

Hamari, J, Koivisto J, 2015, ‘Why do people use gamification services?’, International Journal of Information Management, vol. 35 no. 4, pp. 418-431, doi: 10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2015.04.006 Deterding, S 2015, ‘The Lens of Intrinsic Skill Atoms: A Method for Gameful Design’ Human- Computer Interaction, vol. 30 no. ¾, pp. 294-335, doi: 10.1080/07370024.2014.993471

All images included taken by the author