Gamification Series -1- Introduction

Games have been a part of human life since the beginning. It is a way of making life more fun and engaging. From shaping anklebone to dice to the design of the PlayStation console we all know, games have changed their appearance but their importance in our lives stayed the same as Johan Huizinga calls ourselves “homo ludens”, “Man the Player”.

Since 2010, we have been hearing about another concept, “gamification”, from different sources including tech, business, science, and most importantly; education. But what is it?

Gamification is a concept that applies game mechanics and dynamics to different processes in life. Since these attributes manipulate human desires and psychology, they do play a huge role in creating inner and outer motivation, and as a result, they help us manipulate people towards the desired behavior change. Though the term “manipulation” feels like it has a negative connotation, it is actually a good and effective way of training. That’s why most of the tech giants and businesses use gamification, especially in employee reskilling processes or in their LMS or LXP.

So what do we mean by “applying game dynamics”? As we all are familiar with, games have different dynamics like achievement, competition, rewards, etc. When these attributes are included in the design of a system, it is seen that the user stays in the system for a longer time. Games also have some mechanics like levels, countdowns, bonuses, points, discovery, etc. These mechanics appeal to different types of users, so they also help with keeping the people in the system in the desired way.

Overall, by gamifying things, we can change the perception of the user and manipulate them to do a certain behavior while making the process fun.

This was just a brief introduction to gamification. In my further blogs, I’ll be digging more into the topics and explain how you can gamify your own systems, even your life.

Stay tuned!