I can go back and forth on this one, but I’ll go along with the idea of it being a deliberate exploitation of human nature (play). There are, as this video discusses, plenty of points of view. It’s just 10 minutes and run’s at a fair pace, but does manage to use some in-game footage and overlays to explain how it relates to the real world.
2 thoughts on “What is gamification?”
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Playable 
This is a black and white view. I agree with a lot of the caution expressed here but… blanket statements about gamification are as useful as the obligatory “must have” marketing ploy. Game inspired design (my preferred term) is proving to be effective but I do not think we know enough yet about how, where and for how long this effectiveness can be sustained. No it is not about game design but it is about engagement or activity design. From my experience, case studying educational programs for community building where game inspired approaches have been used, there are some clear benefits. These successes appear to be best seen in onboarding (Amy Jo Kim 3 player phases onboarding, habit building, mastery). Where in a program, project or course, participants getting on board are tasting new experiences and a measure of success while developing a positive disposition to the topic, community, activity or initiative. I worry however that people see that onboarding success and project it across all the phases of activity to want to build a gamified system. We di not really know yet whether game inspired design can cultivate habit forming let alone mastery of a body of knowledge.
I don’t think all gamification is just about getting people to do what they don’t want to do. To me it is more about encouraging people to explore what they yet may not know is of value to them and that’s a BIG difference.
Thanks Bron. I thought it would promote discussion. It’s very much opinion and doesn’t really address the issue of much of accreditation being highly structural and games being post-structural in nature. Gamification can be an entirely different way to think about a problem for example. There is limited Cognitive Media Theory to swing for or against right now … but clearly the ‘old’ way isn’t the only way.