Gamification - not a new swear word

Published: 26 May 2014

You would be forgiven for thinking that gamification describes a new type of weapons technology to shoot gamma rays. It is in fact a lot kinder than that: Gamification simply means using games to expose concepts in different settings. It refers to the use of game theory concepts and techniques for non-game activities. This week’s newsletter looks at the growth of gamification, its use in business and learning environments, as well as the design of games to drive behaviour.

The growth of gamification

More people are starting to integrate games into their learning. They also use strategy simulation and complex real-time games to simulate learning. Organisations realise that linking products to games, and putting in an educational context drives adoption better.

The idea of using simulation for learning is not new. Apprentices and artisans who copied their masters have practiced it for a long time. After many years of learning how their masters did it, they could finally venture out on their own to create their own work.

The idea of simulation entered the modern age when fighter pilots crashed planes. The military realised that the best way to teach people to fly is to give them more time behind the controls. The first flight simulators were boxes with sticks and plane-like controls. After successive generations of refinement they have now become more lifelike than planes. Simulation also allows trainers to set up often hard to replicate conditions such as storms, multiple systems failures and even terrorist incidents. This type of training is ‘real’ because quick decision-making, multiple attempts at a scenario and lifelike conditions prepare pilots and crew to deal with most situations. As such, this training provides a strong experience base.

In the 90’s a lot of experimentation was done in emergency management situations with games. We have all seen a show where fire fighters enter a burning building and extinguish the fire. To prevent loss of life, a lot of these life-threatening situations were transferred onto computer simulations, and later into virtual reality simulations. The same has been done for police services, crowd control, and many other areas.

Most of us will hopefully never end up fighting a fire or having to calm a crowd. Yet, in recent years, consideration has been given to how this applies to business.

The entire generation who grew up with video games is now using this method to learn how to run their life, do business and manage organisations.

Gamification in the business world

Games and simulations are being used to teach people how to manage their personal finances, how to better recruit staff, and how to talk to their bosses. You can get simulations and coaches to take you through most business scenarios and you need to see the solution in a given parameter set.

A common type of game is one with limited resources where a solution is needed for a static or evolving scenario. Only by applying your management skill can you make the right decisions in terms of procuring more resources or producing more output. The typical aim of these games is to shift an individual's behaviour from being a producer to being a resource manager. The manager soon realises that you can only win the game if your focus is on employing your resources more effectively.

Other gamified scenarios highlight the effect of competition, co-operation, the impact of different changes, and acting with particular behaviour patterns. One consulting company used a game to assess their consulting behaviour. You are given scenarios with possible outcomes where each outcome leads to an evolution of the scenario. If you choose the wrong path, you land up in front of the media to explain your actions. If you take the right path, you get to the interview.

It also seems that gamification is becoming popular in general marketing and communications. A loyalty scheme is also a type of game: get points and you get a reward. Using an interactive game to sell means you are translating into retailers who offer game-type settings where people can buy groceries. Why should it not be fun? Why can't you do it from the comfort of your own home?

Gamification in a learning environment

Gamification is attractive in a learning context because players do not get penalised for being bad. Instead they get more points when they improve. This idea is called levelling up. The idea is attractive because it promotes learning. While everything cannot be taught by entertainment, games have always proved useful in transferring key learning concepts.

Regenesys has always used games; interactive exercises; and workplace-based learning to enrich both facilitated and online classroom experiences. By drawing on the skills and experience of adults, these games create an environment where people can add to each other’s knowledge rather than breakdown their understanding of a concept in the hope to figure out how to integrate it into their own practices.

The dynamics of a game

Games are designed to work on people's desire for reward, achievement, competition, status, and self-expression. Sometimes it is also designed to work on fear and the absence of punishment. It means linking these dynamics to learning concepts. In this way you get conditioned to prefer a specific behaviour or action. Through repetition you increase your ability to do this at pace.

Some newer behaviour patterns that have been found to drive people in a more social and open sharing world include making new connections, and strengthening existing links. This is done via shared experiences, values-expression, altruism, co-creation and collective problem solving. In effect, this is the new category of emerging drivers in game dynamics and communities.

To make the game work you need game logic, which refers to the rules by which the game is played. Game logic may be as simple as a game-controller or as complex as a manual describing what is allowed and not allowed.

The game is then linked to a reward system such as points, leaderboards, badges, levels, challenges, and rewards. As you proceed through the game, you may have to increase your capabilities which may have other impacts.

Once people are involved in a game, the game designer uses peer pressure, time, specific starting conditions, specific ending conditions, increased reward frequency, exclusivity, show and tell, and other dynamics, to embed the idealised behaviour.

Virtual reality also adds to the potential of gamification as new technologies are likely to enter the mainstream and as they become a lot more accessible.

Companies use games to collect customer information, get a clearer sense of customer preferences and to drive a clearer understanding of customer metrics. This represents a whole dimension that is often lost to the game player. Why should a product not work better if the user helps to design it? Games also represent opportunities for in-game advertising. Increasingly, games are becoming revenue generators in themselves with participants paying for in-game goodies.

People will remember the game long after the learning event. When you engage in a learning environment and it stimulates your interest, you form more direct and permanent bonds. It seems as if nature hard-wired us to value experience above learning. By participating in learning experiences we can actually learn more about ourselves and train ourselves to react better in different circumstances.

Conclusion

While it would be tempting to have a game that runs everything, we must never forget that the ‘real world’ still remains. Or is the real world also only a game? The translation of learning to the real world is a key metric for any learning system.

Gamification certainly does not apply to every situation. Increasingly, we will see highly engaging content and simulations becoming a common interface to interact with complex ideas and concepts.

These experiences only work well if they are designed to be effective, and consumers will only adopt them if there is a highly engaging experience on the other side. The challenge for businesses and learning institutions is to create valuable games and learning experiences that support behaviour, and values that are useful in the working environment.
- Regenesys