Gamification
In short Adding game design elements such as points, badges, and leaderboards to activities that are not games.
Definition
Gamification is the use of game design elements, such as points, badges, levels, leaderboards, progress bars, and challenges, in activities that are not games. A language app that rewards a daily streak, a fitness tracker that ranks you against friends, and a loyalty scheme that unlocks tiers are all gamified; none of them is a game. The activity stays what it was, and the borrowed elements sit on top of it to make progress visible and keep people coming back. Building a whole game for a purpose makes a serious game; decorating a non-game activity with a game's scoring and rewards is gamification.
Not to be confused with
- Serious game
A serious game is a complete game built for a purpose, while gamification leaves the activity a non-game and adds game elements to it.
- Playful design
Playful design invites open-ended, exploratory play, whereas gamification borrows the rule-bound, goal-directed parts of games.
- Gameful design
Gameful design names the broader aim of designing for game-like experience, and is sometimes used as a gentler synonym; gamification is the specific practice of adding game elements to non-game contexts.
- Game-based learning
Game-based learning has students play actual games, whereas a gamified course keeps ordinary coursework and scores it like a game.
Where the game lives
- rules: used
- goals: used
- feedback: used
- uncertainty: dropped
- choice: dropped
- play: dropped
Gamification takes the scoring layer of a game, its goals and feedback, and attaches it to an activity that does not change. Uncertainty, meaningful choice, and play rarely make the trip, which is the core of its critics' complaint.
used dropped · What the six structures are
Examples
DuolingoDuolingo, 2012
A language-learning app built around streaks, experience points, leagues, and a progress path.
Nike+Nike, 2006
A running tracker that turned workouts into logged totals, goals, and comparisons with friends.
FoursquareFoursquare Labs, 2009
A location app that rewarded check-ins with points, badges, and the title of mayor.
Where the field disagrees
Gamification is a contested word. In industry it often means any use of games for business, from points programs to fully fledged serious games. Some researchers prefer gameful design to avoid the word’s marketing history. Critics such as Ian Bogost argue that the practice takes the least interesting parts of games, points and badges, and leaves behind what makes them worth playing.
Second Playthrough follows Deterding, Dixon, Khaled, and Nacke (2011): gamification is the use of game design elements in non-game contexts. It is distinct from making a full game. If the result is a game, we call it a serious game, an educational game, or another entry in this family; if the result is a non-game with a game’s scoring attached, we call it gamification.
In the essays
Where the game lives
Six structures—rules, goals, feedback, uncertainty, choice, play—map any game-like thing; the missing ones explain why it does or doesn’t feel like a game.
Gamification is not a game
Gamification usually borrows the visible parts of games—points, badges, streaks—and drops what makes them work: real choice, uncertainty and voluntary play.
Sources
- PaperFrom Game Design Elements to Gamefulness: Defining 'Gamification'. Proceedings of the 15th International Academic MindTrek Conference (ACM), 2011. The definition Second Playthrough follows.
- PaperDoes Gamification Work? A Literature Review of Empirical Studies on Gamification. Proceedings of the 47th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (IEEE), 2014.
- ArticleWhy Gamification Is Bullshit. The Gameful World: Approaches, Issues, Applications (MIT Press), 2015. The best-known critique, first published as a blog post in 2011.
- BookGamification by Design. O'Reilly Media, 2011. A practitioner's handbook representing the industry usage. Reading list