You’ve Won a Badge (and Now We Know All About You)
Is gamification over saturating the market? As discussed in this NYTimes Article we are quickly approaching a time when tangible rewards are being overshadowed by those that return no value to the individual.
“There is probably a backlash coming,” Ms. Robertson says. Pretty soon, she predicts, companies may differentiate themselves with anti-gamification promotions like “No points. No annoying missions. Just clean services.”
Gamification of Diapers
As a new parent I have just started the task of purchasing diapers for our daughter. How do you make an unpleasant task more palatable? Gamify it of course.
Both Huggies® Brand and Pampers offer rewards programs that provide payoffs in real-world goods. Both remain more closely on the traditional loyalty side of gamification, and although the differences between the two programs are subtle, there are some key points of interest within each.
12 Gamification Platforms And The Start Of A $1.6B Industry
A major sign of the explosive growth that lies ahead for gamification, or making a non-game application more engaging by adding game-like features, is the packaging of game mechanics as an off-the-shelf solution by several emerging gamification platform vendors.
Just because you can offer gamification doesn’t mean you should. Companies must carefully weigh the pros and cons of adding gaming elements to their site otherwise I fear we could end up with a web experience that resembles a trip to Vegas.
via Technology and Online Audience
… gamification isn’t gamification at all. What we’re currently terming gamification is in fact the process of taking the thing that is least essential to games and representing it as the core of the experience. Points and badges have no closer a relationship to games than they do to websites and fitness apps and loyalty cards. They’re great tools for communicating progress and acknowledging effort, but neither points nor badges in any way constitute a game.
via the Hide and Seek.
I think there are some really great points in this article. As product designers we really need to think about how the experience fits together as a whole. Basing too much emphasis on the idea of gamification can put your product in some tight places without a lot of room to maneuver. Remember if your product is actually a game then it makes sense to gamify it. However, if you product delivers something of value beyond a game then think long and hard if you what parts of a game you want to add. Don’t trade short term gains for long term growth. Thoughts?
