Gamification

Learn all about implementing a good gamification design into your products, workplace, and lifestyle Key FeaturesExplore what makes a game fun and engagingGain insight into the Octalysis Framework and its applicationsDiscover the potential of the Core Drives of gamification through real-world scenariosBook Description Effective gamification is a combination of game design, game dynamics, user experience, and ROI-driving business implementations. This book explores the interplay between these disciplines and captures the core principles that contribute to a good gamification design. The book starts with an overview of the Octalysis Framework and the 8 Core Drives that can be used to build strategies around the various systems that make games engaging. As the book progresses, each chapter delves deep into a Core Drive, explaining its design and how it should be used. Finally, to apply all the concepts and techniques that you learn throughout, the book contains a brief showcase of using the Octalysis Framework to design a project experience from scratch. After reading this book, you'll have the knowledge and skills to enable the widespread adoption of good gamification and human-focused design in all types of industries. What you will learnDiscover ways to use gamification techniques in real-world situationsDesign fun, engaging, and rewarding experiences with OctalysisUnderstand what gamification means and how to categorize itLeverage the power of different Core Drives in your applicationsExplore how Left Brain and Right Brain Core Drives differ in motivation and design methodologiesExamine the fascinating intricacies of White Hat and Black Hat Core DrivesWho this book is for Anyone who wants to implement gamification principles and techniques into their products, workplace, and lifestyle will find this book useful.

Organizations are facing an engagement crisis. Regardless if they are customers, employees, patients, students, citizens, stakeholders, organizations struggle to meaningfully engage their key constituent groups who have a precious and limited resource: their time. Not surprisingly, these stakeholders have developed deflector shields to protect themselves. Only a privileged few organizations are allowed to penetrate the shield, and even less will meaningfully engage. To penetrate the shield, and engage the audience, organizations need an edge. Gamification has emerged as a way to gain that edge and organizations are beginning to see it as a key tool in their digital engagement strategy. While gamification has tremendous potential to break through, most companies will get it wrong. Gartner predicts that by 2014, 80% of current gamified applications will fail to meet business objectives primarily due to poor design. As a trend, gamification is at the peak of the hype cycle; it has been oversold and it is broadly misunderstood. We are heading for the inevitable fall. Too many organizations have been led to believe that gamification is a magic elixir for indoctrinating the masses and manipulating them to do their bidding. These organizations are mistaking people for puppets, and these transparently cynical efforts are doomed to fail. This book goes beyond the hype and focuses on the 20% that are getting it right. We have spoken to hundreds of leaders in organizations around the world about their gamification strategies and we have seen some spectacular successes. The book examines some of these successes and identifies the common characteristics of these initiatives to define the solution space for success. It is a guide written for leaders of gamification initiatives to help them avoid the pitfalls and employ the best practices, to ensure they join the 20% that gets it right. Gamify shows gamification in action: as a powerful approach to engaging and motivating people to achieving their goals, while at the same time achieving organizational objectives. It can be used to motivate people to change behaviors, develop skills, and drive innovation. The sweet spot for gamification objectives is the space where the business objectives and player objectives are aligned. Like two sides of the same coin, player and business goals may outwardly appear different, but they are often the same thing, expressed different ways. The key to gamification success is to engage people on an emotional level and motivating them to achieve their goals.

This compendium introduces game theory and gamification to a number of different domains and describes their professional application in information systems. It explains how playful functions can be implemented in various contexts and highlights a range of concrete scenarios planned and developed for several large corporations. In its first part the book presents the fundamentals, concepts and theories of gamification. This is followed by separate application-oriented sections – each containing several cases – that focus on the use of gamification in customer management, innovation management, teaching and learning, mobile applications and as an element of virtual worlds. The book offers a valuable resource for readers looking for inspiration and guidance in finding a practical approach to gamification.

Provides information on creating Web and mobile applications based on the principles of game mechanics.

This book explores how gamification techniques are used to leverage users’ natural desires for achievement, competition, collaboration, learning and more. Compared to other books on this topic, it gives more than just an introduction and develops the readers understanding through frameworks and models, based on research to make it easier to develop gamified systems. The concept of gamification achieved increased popularity in 2010 when a number of softwares and services started explaining their products as a ‘gamification’ design. Gamification Mindset explains how game elements and mechanics are important, how video games are learning systems and examines how video game aesthetics are vital in the development of gamification. The book will challenge some common beliefs when it comes to gamifications’ abilities to immerse and change the user’s intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. Gamification Mindset aims to develop new models in gamification to enable easier gamification scenarios. It is a comprehensive analysis and discussion about gamification and serves as a useful tool, since it acquaints readers with gamification and how to use it, through illustrated practical theoretical models. Academic researchers, students, educators and professional game and gamification designers will find this book invaluable.

Gamification marks a major change to everyday life. It describes the permeation of economic, political, and social contexts by game-elements such as awards, rule structures, and interfaces that are inspired by video games. Sometimes the term is reduced to the implementation of points, badges, and leaderboards as incentives and motivations to be productive. Sometimes it is envisioned as a universal remedy to deeply transform society toward more humane and playful ends. Despite its use by corporations to manage brand communities and personnel, however, gamification is more than just a marketing buzzword. States are beginning to use it as a new tool for governing populations more effectively. It promises to fix what is wrong with reality by making every single one of us fitter, happier, and healthier. Indeed, it seems like all of society is up for being transformed into one massive game. The contributions in this book offer a candid assessment of the gamification hype. They trace back the historical roots of the phenomenon and explore novel design practices and methods. They critically discuss its social implications and even present artistic tactics for resistance. It is time to rethink gamification!

In today’s digital society, organizations must utilize technology in order to engage their audiences. Innovative game-like experiences are an increasingly popular way for businesses to interact with their customers; however, correctly implementing this technology can be a difficult task. To ensure businesses have the appropriate information available to successfully utilize gamification in their daily activities, further study on the best practices and strategies for implementation is required. The Handbook of Research on Gamification Dynamics and User Experience Design considers the importance of gamification in the context of organizations’ improvements and seeks to investigate game design from the experience of the user by providing relevant academic work, empirical research findings, and an overview of the field of study. Covering topics such as digital ecosystems, distance learning, and security awareness, this major reference work is ideal for policymakers, technology developers, managers, government officials, researchers, scholars, academicians, practitioners, instructors, and students.

Gamification for Business shows how games and game-based design can be used to effectively tackle business challenges and improve organizational performance. From siloed working and information overload to the clash between ongoing operations and innovation, this book shows how to identify what type of game is best suited to each business issue. With guidance on online games, simulations, event-based games and gamified training, this book ensures that business leaders and senior decision makers feel confident in their ability to assess the opportunities of each type of gamification for their business. Including case studies from more than 20 organizations who have implemented a game-based solution, this book outlines the business issue in each company and the aim of the game, the impact the game had and key learning points to help readers implement a similar type of game in their own business. Based on extensive research into the effectiveness of games and real-world examples from companies who have experienced the benefits of serious games and design thinking, Gamification for Business is essential reading for all business professionals looking to improve employee motivation, boost engagement, create a cohesive team environment and facilitate innovation in their company for improved business performance.