You've probably heard this word: gamification. It is an ideal solution to boost your business. Gamification has become a method of enhancing the experience through the techniques originally used in games. But why has this new approach become so popular? What are its mechanisms and benefits?
What is gamification?
Gamification is basically the use of game mechanics in experience design to engage and motivate participants to achieve their goals. Gamification does not introduce new concepts in terms of mechanics, but reuses those that have already existed for hundreds of years. What is new today is that we have invented a digital engagement model, notably through video games.
This approach is based on what we all have: our predisposition to play. It is a natural mechanism that allows us to better understand the things around us since our first years of life. Play remains one of the most powerful tools for cognition and, at the same time, distraction. Why deprive ourselves of this experience when we become adults? Indeed, the majority of people continue to play. In America, the country with the largest video game market, over 69% of adult males play video games. Here are some other interesting statistics:
One in five gamers is over 50
40% of gamers are women
97% of young people play video games
Most gamers want to continue playing for the rest of their lives.
In short, almost 3 billion hours are played in a week worldwide. This figure means that reality as we know it today is "broken". And games are used to fix it.
Why does our reality not work anymore?
The gamification trend arrived in the US in 2010, and the release of Jane McGonigal's book "Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World" gave a good impetus for its development. According to McGonigal, our reality does not satisfy us as much as virtual reality. Why is that?
A game offers us rewards that our reality is not able to offer. Games inspire us, they engage us and teach us, in a way. Game developers know how to inspire people to make an effort and how to facilitate collaboration. They invent various methods to motivate players to do harder and harder challenges. Games show us that people like to solve complicated problems, but not quite like those in our reality.
To understand why, let's look at the elements of a game. First of all, a game includes a goal, a feedback system, rules and voluntary participation. The goal is a result that is intended to be achieved at the end of the game and for which we work. The rules of the game impose a limitation on how the players can achieve the goal. The limitations free up creative ways of solving problems and achieving goals. The feedback system guides us when we reach our goals and takes the form of points, levels, progress bars or other. Voluntary participation requires players to recognise the rules of the game and accept them voluntarily in order to participate.
Yes, a game asks us to make efforts that are sometimes unnecessary. Nevertheless, we do it voluntarily! How else can we explain the fact that players can put in so much effort and overcome so many painful failures to succeed? Thinking that it is the feedback system (points, bars etc.) that attracts us the most is not quite right. When we make an effort, we want to be rewarded and this is perfectly normal. What is most important is the feeling that we are finally achieving a complicated goal. This is the feeling that makes us happy. Games make you feel better and you want to work for a good cause. So "the opposite of play is not work, but depression".
COVID-19: the new game changer
Recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has turned the world upside down. Global containment has deprived the entire population of social contact, thus lowering the level of well-being for most people. Brian Burke, the author of "Gamifiy: How Gamification Motivates People to Do Extraordinary Things", sees new possibilities in this situation. The pandemic, he says, changes the rules of the game, our goal is to find creative solutions to adapt to and overcome the situation. This could be our response to Covid as a new challenge with the new rules. Several solutions have been put in place, including tracing applications to track the chain of contamination. But, according to Burke, this will not slow down the epidemic: people's habits remain the same. The purpose of gamification in this context is to change people's habits to stop the spread of the virus.
This is why several companies have started to act on their own to find better approaches to beat the epidemic. For example, at Squadeasy, we have set up the Petits Pas Solidaires challenge to support hospital staff by making donations to medical associations. The Vivons Vélo application sends donations to the Pasteur Institute if users pass the monthly milestones. Other companies have decided to shift their focus to producing goods needed by hospital staff or supporting their employees by creating more gamified experiences.
Being happier at work
What is the benefit of this method for companies? According to many statistics, about 95% of employees love using gamified applications. Gamification is a way of getting people to focus on a specific goal while having fun! The principle is very simple: you give employees the opportunity to achieve their goals, and then through them you achieve yours. Why is gamification at work so effective?
Simply because real world work is not hard enough for us. Yes, you weren't mistaken when you read that last sentence! Employees can feel bored by the routine, which happens quite often in large companies. Feeling appreciated for what you do is natural: it is the basic need in Maslow's pyramid! This is why games are able to reward us for our efforts.
Gamification in the workplace is very effective in making employees less stressed and more productive. It is also a good way to rehabilitate the love of collaboration and increase team cohesion. Let's not forget that we spend more than 35 hours a week with our colleagues. So it's better if it goes well! The logical question is: how do you start?
Start with sport!
Sporting activities such as running, walking and cycling are known to be effective in combating stress and fatigue. There's no need to join a gym or buy additional equipment to start moving and doing something good for yourself. And why not do it in a group? Usually, our chances of continuing our workouts are 90% higher if we train in a group than if we train alone.