Chapter Two
2.4 Gamification
2.4.1 Overview of the Gamification Trend
The industry of games is undoubtedly appealing and it has been just a matter of time until their alluring power entered in our day by day activities. The concept of gamification may look as a new idea at a first sight, but if you track down the history of gamification it is evident that this notion of using game mechanics and dynamics has always been in our lifestyle. However, technology has been progressed, thus creating new opportunities but the foundation of gamification remains the same: Gamification applies game dynamics and mechanics to activities beyond traditional games. Assuredly, the idea is very promising and it is too worthy to be ignored.
According to Medland (Medland, 2013), a great amount of time and money across the globe are spent on games, being one of the world’s largest forms of entertainment. Taking into account that games are played during our free time, at our own expenses and often requiring repetitive tasks, we still pose an unbelievable drive for gaming. The Gamification’s purpose is to make real life activities more engaging, by harnessing the psychological predisposition to engage in gaming using the same motivational mechanisms.
The industry practitioners and academics have taken a stab at trying to define Gamification. Howsoever, among different opinions on usefulness it has been found a unifying theme.
The jointing point in all the definitions is the focus on the use of game elements (mechanics, dynamics) in existing surroundings. Many definitions comprise as well the purpose for the use of these elements, and all agreed: to change behavior.
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..., it is still required a trigger at the right time in order to bring out the behavior predictably. The definition of a trigger could be anything that alerts the player to execute the target behavior in that moment. In this regard, the most significant thing for the trigger is the right timing, due the fact that a good timing will lead to the inception of the predictable behavior and it further makes the player have good emotions while perform it. Nevertheless, a poorly timed trigger leads to adverse effects, and in the end it probably will not produce the desired outcome.
The importance of the trigger is further stated from another point of view, as being a necessity for a player due the fact that even if the user has the ability and the motivation required to perform a task, they howsoever might be unaware of they own ability, might be hesitant or distracted.
Back in the day, gamers would use dials and keyboards to move simple two-dimensional shapes across a tiny pixelated screen. Since then, forty years later, friends and family are able to play together in ultra realistic virtual realities. Games are no longer only played by geeky teenage boys spending the day at an arcade. Video games are now for men, women, boys, and girls of all ages. According to a survey taken by 23 participants at McHenry County College on April 22 2014, 96% of them have played video games before, 61% play video games weekly, and 9 of the 16 women surveyed currently play video games. These results show that not only are video games extremely prevalent in modern day life, contrary to popular belief, a good portion of women play them as well. Many different types of personalities play video games as well. Video games are no longer an activity only desired by introverts. Not since the internet has allowe...
Determinism and free will are incompatible. The events in people’s lives are already chosen for us, or determined. The expected behaviors of people are explained by natural laws and by experiences that they were exposed to. But this viewpoint does not explain people’s intuition. Although, there is a chain of physical causes that lead into people’s intuition.
The term “gamer” tends to be synonymous with “geek” in many people’s minds. They see gaming as a device that absorbs the majority of the time of the user, leaving them as mindless empty, pale husks with no ambitions other than beating that next boss or shooting the enemy in the face. However, few gamers waste their life away. On the contrary, many of these so-called geeks tend to be more social than the average person, and farther down the technological curve than most. For the truth is that gaming is a rather useful and beneficial hobby. It gives people an outlet to focus on, and can connect them with many others worldwide. It can teach and entertain at the same time, and can be a useful distraction at other times. In this essay then, closely examining the gaming hobby in comparison to other methods of entertainment will show that gaming is obviously the better method for using free time and connecting people.
People need to posses this skill in order to survive in the wild. If they don't, then they will not be able to survive in the harsh conditions or fight against animals and other things for food. This will cause them to surrender from the harsh conditions and they would not be able to survive, and they would leave, not finding any gold and not accomplishing their mission. An example of someone who owned this skill was Thornton. He was very brave and courageous.
Most systems are “function-focused” designed to get the job done quickly, however, Human-Focused Design remembers that people in the system have feelings, insecurities, and reasons why they want or do not want to do things, and therefore optimizes for their feelings, motivations, and engagement. Inside the games there are “objectives”, such as killing the dragon or saving the princess, or in Math Games like dreambox to learn/practice Math, but actually the main purpose of a game is to please the human inside, to keep the player happily entertained. Through games, we are learning how to master motivation and engagement. Games have the amazing ability to keep people engaged for a long time, build relationships and trust between people, and develop their creative potential. In a nutshell, gamification is a way to engage people by making something that’s not a game feel like a game.
In society’s current era of technological advancement, video games have gone a long way since they were first created. Video games in the twenty-first century are no longer just toys or junk in the lifestyles of the youth. They have become innovative inventions that not only entertain its users, but also help aid the people in both the academic field and in jobs. The influences that video games bring about in the culture of the youth today are, in fact, not the negative influences that most people think. Video games are actually this generation’s new medium for educating the youth. The information they learn are also mostly positive and useful things that they may apply in their future lives (Prensky 4). In a generation that revolves around technology and connectivity, developers and educators have already been able to produce fun and interesting games that can teach and train people. Video game developers and educators should continue to collaborate in order to create more positive, educational, and appealing games.
Bedard (2015) takes an interesting approach to understanding motivation; she talks about gamification, which refers to the use of game elements in contexts other than entertainment. Businesses, she says, are increasingly “bringing game elements into the work place to motivate employees to engage in numerous kinds of efforts, from learning to creative idea generation to quality improvement” (Bedard, 2015, p. 43). It makes sense that games can serve as illustrations of motivation: people are drawn to playing games for a reason, and that reason is –often- to seek new challenges and become winners. Bedard (2015) uses the game Candy Crush Saga to analyze the different factors that motivate people; candy crush saga is a game that consists of a board
Bell, Chris. "Video Games: The Sport of the Future?" The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 26 June 2013. Web. 11 Dec. 2013.
Role-playing games are becoming increasingly popular in this age due the assistance of the Internet. In these types of game a person can assume a character and give this character a personality, physical features and “live” through them. All though in past years “pen and paper” types have dominated the rpg world, now MUDs are making it possible to role-play along with thousands of others A MUD is a network-accessible, multi-participant virtual reality that is primarily text-based. (Bruckman, 1992). Although the term “virtual reality” often refers to a computer-simulated environment that contains varying degrees of audio/visual interface, this form of virtual reality is mainly text-based. Elizabeth Reid further explains by saying:
Video games have been around about 50 years and they contribute a big part of the U.S. economy. People interact with video games every day throughout different ways, such as cell phone devices, computers, consoles or whatever which has a screen on it. In fact, it has always affected people’s lives. However, not so many people understand the benefits of video games. With video games, people can not only relieve themselves from stress and suffering, but it also improves people’s social experiences while they are exchanging and absorbing knowledge with other people; more than that, people can learn many other things from video games which can help them to achieve great things in lives.
There are two approaches to games and learning, namely, Game-Based Learning (GBL) and gamification. GBL, also referred to as 'Serious Games', which are computer or video games designed for a primary purpose (education or solving a problem) other than entertainment. This involves the use of simulations to support teaching and learning. Gaming simulation is an interactive-learning environment that makes it possible to cope with authentic situations that closely mimic reality. According to Kip Kelly (2013) “serious games can allow players to apply what they have learned in an L&D [Learning and Development] experience and apply it in a safe, simulated environment. For example, health care professionals can practice a new medical procedure using a serious simulation game before introducing it in the workplace”.
... immerse us in the situation, but when the game is over, we realize that it is over. In real life, no one is invincible. Bad things can still happen to you.
There are several negative stereotypes associated with video games and those who play them; some of these may often hold true. However, there are plenty of learning opportunities in video games. While the direct purpose of some games is to educate or train, other games that do not directly have this purpose can still become a learning experience for the player. As Ntiedo Etuk, president of the educational video game company Tabula Digital said, “The traditional view of video games has been that they are distractions from the task of learning” (Electronic Education Report 1). Video games are an effective tool for learning and retaining skills both inside and outside the classroom environment. The basic cycle of game play--the introduction to the game, game play, collaboration, improvement of these between each round, and evaluation at the end of the game (Klievink and Janssen 159)--are nearly parallel to the traditional classroom learning cycle of reading a textbook or listening to a lecture, taking a quiz, studying, focusing on items missed on the quiz, and taking a test or exam. Within this cycle, there are many opportunities to develop and perfect both educational, life, and occupational skills.
The concept of “edutainment”- the hybrid of education and entertainment has existed almost as long as video games have. Evidence of this is The Oregon Trail, a game about the colo...
One of the attributes of gamification of education is that it lends itself to reinvention. When innovation is reinvented within public schools, adoption was more likely to continue (Rogers, 2003). Gamification is a general concept and as such very tailorable to specific problem sets and is therefore highly amenable to reinvention. In the Practitioner’s Guide to Gamification of Education, the first three steps of the model all address the need to tailor (i.e. reinvent the innovation) the application of gamification to the specific problem set of the school. The steps of the model required that the target audience and context are understood, that learning objectives are specified and defined, and that the experience is structured to address the specific problems of the learner experience (Huang & Soman, 2013).