The Era of Gamification

1. What is Gamification?
Gamification is the use of game play thinking and mechanics to solve problems and engage audiences. It strives to encourage users to engage in desired behaviors in connection with the applications.

Gamification works by making technology more engaging, and by encouraging desired behaviors, taking advantage of humans’ psychological predisposition to engage in gaming. The technique can encourage people to perform chores that they ordinarily consider boring, such as completing surveys, shopping, or reading web sites.

 

So why would we want to use Gamification on our sites? Well it’s simply really. To grow the traffic to our site, to make the clients feel as if they are part of something bigger, building a community and to rewarding users as they browse. Any gamer who’s been playing Modern Warfare 2 or Xbox online can tell you how gratifying it is to gain that “Killed 200 with a knife” or “Bought 250,000 different dresses” in a game badge.

Gamification just makes life more fun, so why not put it into our businesses and reward people with a bit of fun and a few specials.

The world of social networking seems to be down pat and according to a speaker, Seth Priebatsch, Facebook has already set down the foundations for social networking. So the next best thing which is growing rapidly on the interweb is Gamification, be sure not to be left behind.

 

2. Different Techniques

Early examples of Gamification are based on rewarding points to people who share experiences on location-based platforms.

Badges for achievement

Gaining Levels as your experience grows

Leader boards to show who’s making the most progress

Systems for awarding, redeeming, trading, gifting, and otherwise exchanging points

Task Bar

Many sites have tasks which they want you to perform. With the task bar, they show you how many you still have to do. This is a great way of persuading you to follow the tasks. I don’t know about you, but when I see something which isn’t 100% finished I like to do anything possible to get it done.

 

3. Facts

• “One site, DevHub , increased the number of users who completed their online tasks from 10% to 80% after adding Gamification elements.”

• “Microsoft announced plans to use Gamification techniques for its upcoming Windows Phone 7 operating system design.” – Windows

• “If it’s your first time on the site, you get 10 points; if you’ve been there before, you get 1 point for each new page you visit within a certain domain. Those who share a link — on Twitter, Facebook or Delicious, the bookmarking site — are awarded with five points. People whose links actually drive traffic back to that website get one point for each click. The scores reset every two weeks.” –CNN,John D Sutter

• “Eric Marcoullier, who co-founded OneTrueFan with business partner Todd Sampson, says the points create a sense of competition and community among users and could also result in real prizes.”

• “This creates an ambient feeling of community — much the way shopping in a crowded store makes a person feel part of a group.” Marcoullier

• “Trip Hawkins, founder of game companies Electronic Arts and Digital Chocolate, says that compelling games need to be “simple, hot, and deep.” They should be easy to pick up, instantly engaging, and offer you somewhere to go once you are engaged.” – Mashable

• “One of the greatest risks is being unoriginal” -Gabe Zichermann

• “Online shoppers can be motivated by game mechanics. Market research firm Interpret released the report called “gCommerce: the “Gamification of eCommerce” that says gamers are 20% more likely to be an online shopper than the average non-gamer, and 50% more likely to be influencers among their friends.”- Auctionbytes.com

• “Gamification Encyclopedia is now one of the most-visited sources of Gamification information, featuring over 200 articles and growing traffic by an average of 333% new visitors per month.” –Gamify

• Over 60% of Facebook traffic comes from people playing games (avg social gamer is a 43 year old women)

 

4. Respected Gamification Speakers:

Gabe Zichermann

5. Plug-in’s

Big Door WordPress Plug-in sets new boundaries for site owners who want to gamify their website. The steps are easy and in a few minutes you can set up the mini bar on your site for clients to start their Gamification experience. After signing up with Big Door, they will give you a “Studio” to work with so that you can access the badges and experience points for your site. When you’re happy, you take the code they give you and insert it before your body tag.

Although Gamification seems to be only in its infancy stage you can bet on it that it will be growing at an enormous rate with the interest web owners are showing. Some people were skeptical about the social media boom and just look at where a few social media giants are standing today. Gamification still has to take a few learning steps but with the help of companies such as BigDoor,Foursquare and Badgeville you should be seeing more of this next generation technique pretty soon.

Original article found at Seoblog

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