A journey into Gamification ( Part 1/2 )
The 4 Ws : (What ? Why ? HoW ? Where ?)
Exploring, learning and trying through the creation of CRIKOUR, a gamified project management tool.
In the continuity of the project(s)-based pedagogy of the Master EdTech at the CRI — Center for Research and Interdisciplinarity , we had to prototype a game for the Game Design course taught by Mourdjen Bari and Anne Lautrou . But as we have been sensitized, game design and game mechanics are not only present in games but also in many daily experiences, even if we don’t notice it. So with Pau Fabregat , Pascal Kolbe and Filareti Paka we decided to conceive CRIkour, a project-management tool which would allow CRI students to connect, motivate themselves, share in the jungle of projects we work on using Gamification.
In part 1/2 we’ll explore gamification and then in part 2/2 we’ll see how we have tried to implement it prototyping CRIkour.
Definition (What)
“Gamification is the application of game-design elements and game principles in non-game contexts”(1). If this definition describes the basic principles, Yu-kai Chou , a renown specialist of gamification gives us a deeper one :
“Gamification is the craft of deriving all the fun and addicting elements found in games and applying them to real-world or productive activities. This is what I call “Human-Focused Design” as opposed to the “Function-Focused Design.” It is a design process that optimizes for the human in the system, as opposed to pure efficiency of the system.” Yu-kai Chou
So, an other way to call it could be Human-Focused design, a design that remembers people “have feelings, insecurities, and reasons why they want or do not want to do things, and therefore optimizes for their feelings, motivations, and engagement.”
What for ? (Why)
Ok, it seems cool, it’s a trendy and maybe overused concept. But is it really working ? What effects does it produce ?
The best answer to those questions is probably the TED talk given by Jane McGonigal, a famous game designer and researcher who teaches Game Design and Game Theory at UC Berkeley. She exposes at an individual level how it has changed her life and beyond it the scientific evidence that proves the effects of gamification on motivation, habits changes and psychology.
HoW ?
HoW does it work ? ( HoW 1.0 )
It is all about Dopamine and compulsion loops, as Sebastien Samson explains in a detailed and well-documented article .
To try to simplify, performing certain actions activates the reward system, a group of neurons in the brain responsible for motivation, desire and positive emotions, particularly ones which involve pleasure as a core component such as joy for example. This activation releases Dopamine, a neurotransmitter involved also in addictions, creating an association between doing the action and this release. The more you do the action, the more you release Dopamine and you have to do the action again to release Dopamine. Actually you begin to release Dopamine even before you execute the action, this phenomenon is observed in craving situations, when people with addiction feel an intense and irrepressible desire to do an action / consume a substance. You can easily imagine how powerful it could be ! Obviously it is way more complex and inter-connected with other systems in the nervous system but this simple modelization allows us to be efficient enough in different fields, such as how to increase motivation.
Gamification principles ( hoW 2.0 )
Gamification isn’t just about giving points, badges and rewards. Actually, it’s the main misconception about it and some people, as a criticism, call it “scorification” . A good listing of all potentials mechanisms that could be implemented in an experience to gamify is Octalysis :
As we see successful experiences like Superbetter by Jane McGonigal , narration is a key aspect of gamification. It gives meaning, sense of accomplishment, escape from daily life, will to excel and just fun ! As said by Game Design teacher Mourdjen Bari and Anne Lautrou , “Fun” is the Graal and the obsession of game designers. In fact, fun is associated with pleasure and we all know when someone feels pleasure doing an activity, this person will desire to execute this action again and again. (Dopamine, remember ?)
All the little visual animations, the tiny sound effects, the music and much more other mechanisms I am forgetting you can experience in video games, they’re actually parts of what Steve Swink calls “Game Feel” in a classic book he has written in 2008. Some others game designers call it “juiciness” , a concept that is well described by Martin Jonasson & Petri Purho of Grapefrukt games in this talk. If you want to experience it, play for free the very simple pong game they have designed with and without animations here.
Where ? — 3 examples of Gamification in Health
SuperBetter
We have mentioned earlier the great example of Superbetter , an application that includes challenges, quests, power-ups and where you can “recruit allies” to play it with your friends or “battle bad guys” if you want to change bad habits. Backed by science, it has proven its impact in 2 clinical studies and is designed to improve mental, physical, emotional and social resiliences.
Pain Squad
Pains Squad is an application that tackles the problem that children who have cancer are tired to evaluate continuously their pain using visual or numerical evaluation scales. To gamify it, they have imagined a story where the child is a full member of police squad specialized in “hunting down pain”. To have more clues and go forward, the squad needs the help of the child ! To refine the narration they have included videos of police officers talking directly to the child.
Triumf in me
Triumf in me is a mobile application in development, that will provide support to children with cancer. They will earn points for the goals they achieve, for the time they spend at hospital or taking treatments. This will allow to develop “their inner superhero by taking care of themselves and their health”. The app will also provide them a social network for asking help, collaborate or compete with friends ! A great example of narration.
The hands-on
During the next step of this journey into gamification, we will analyse the creation process of CRIKOUR, a gamified project-management tool.
Let’s continue the journey which is just beginning in: A journey into Gamification ( Part 2/2 ) !
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