52 Insight | the big issue
ILLUSTRATION: MATT MANLOVE
I’
ve got more Badgeville Badges than a Girl Guide, uploaded my daily 26-mile run onto Nike+, and I’m Four Square mayor of YOUR FACE. Ahem. Sorry. Gamification is everywhere these days and it really brings out my competitive side. Everyone – from global brands and environmental campaign groups to employers and research scientists – has been borrowing tricks from game developers in order to hook consumers and increase engagement and, by Jove, it seems to be working. At first glance, the term gamification (first coined in the mid-noughties) is pretty straightforward. It’s the act of turning an activity into a game. It can apply to employers raising productivity by making mundane work tasks fun,
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marketers trying to encourage brand interaction, aspiring fitness fanatics looking for motivation and more. But the precise definition of gamification is the subject of some debate, with purists arguing that a project must fulfil certain criteria (such as the possibility of failure) before it can truly be considered gamification. However, some of the most commonly cited examples, like Four Square, don’t really fit the most stringent definition. Jani Cortesini, senior strategist at creative agency Inferno, can see merits in both sides of the argument and feels that the key to a good gamification project is that it focuses on providing an engaging experience. “There’s the game designer camp versus marketing or motivational
09/07/2012 14:12