We live in an era where gaming continues to create a massive appeal to a large demographic, especially millennials, Gen Z's, and Alpha. From pre-pubescent kids playing the Pokemon games to soccer moms hypnotized to their phone screen trying to beat their previous high score in Candy Crush, video games genuinely appeal to a large audience.
Previously noted as a hubbub of fun and leisure, the gaming industry is revolutionizing into the latest media to experiment with, racking in enormous revenues and colorful clientele for the industry.
Gamification has become seminal and creates excitement and mania among business owners or entrepreneurs, despite losing traction and being scrapped from the vernacular of modern user experience (UX) design.
Also, marketplaces employ this concept to increase their app use, and luxury brands collaborate with world-renowned games, all in the quest for customer engagement. An archetype of this process is the infamous Roblox Gucci collaboration that has translated Gucci's products, not just as customized fashion items in the game, but helped amass more than 3 million dollars in just two weeks!
Breaking Down Gamification.
This buzzword may appear self-explanatory or complex, but the basic concept is straightforward. Imagine living in a video game with multiple digital rewards and incentives for real-life successes; you'll be more driven to act. We are all naturally drawn to the prospect of obtaining rewards for our behaviors, which is the foundation of the gamification ideology.
Gamification is a technique for engaging and motivating individuals while promoting user retention by incorporating unique and tempting game mechanics and design into non-gaming apps. It's literarily stating, "I'm going to figure out what motivates you, and then I will utilize that driving factor to get you to do something you wouldn't normally do." Then wind up and repeat, this time with a different motivator.
Incorporating this technique is a strategic attempt to augment either systems or activities in such a way as to propel engagement, collaboration, sharing, and interaction among consumers, employees, and partners, facilitated by enticing incentives. These incentives involve the association of gamification badges, points, rewards, and leaderboards, among other incentives to products, where users get rewarded after performing a task. Points and badges are all components of Gamification, but the veridical truth is that you need some strategies if you want Gamification to work for your business.
Practical Application of Gamification Strategies to Business Processes
People enjoy competitions, but they appreciate rewards even more. If you think about it, this is how our society operates. The theory behind implementing this technique is to create an emotional connection with the audience, a long relationship, and commitment instead of simple brand awareness.
If you gamify your sign-up forms, you can easily attract many subscribers to your mailing list. To illustrate this, ask your potential users to spin the wheel. They will almost certainly do so because they find it entertaining. As a result, they'll be cool with you asking them to join your mailing list to claim the reward!
Gamification is a spectrum ranging from outright games to subtle implementations that are not a game. If you consider the national defense sector a business, the FPS American Army game is a sublime example of Gamification for the recruitment team of the US Army. The military primarily created this game to familiarize the younger generations with the US Army while psychologically embellishing their interest in joining the army. A pure instance of using game mechanics to drive engagement.
After building a leadership training rubric for senior executives, Deloitte turned to Badgeville to introduce gamified elements like badges, leaderboards, and status symbols that measured the participants' performance.
There Are No Silver Bullets Here
As a digital solution provider, I would say Gamification is a powerful tool. If used correctly, it can help keep people engaged with your products while teaching them and, most importantly, giving them a sense of fun. With Gamification, we can look through a lens to understand the combination of different game mechanics and techniques that help form a soothing and satisfying experience.
Rather than just looking at Gamification as an engagement problem solver, we have come to understand that it will be one of the most powerful strategic tools in the future for businesses to drive growth and profitability. It will also provide relevant experiences for consumers and employees, alongside building a substantial retention rate through integrating Gamification in education.
Pondering on this, what other innovative gaming business model have you seen, and would you love to see?
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