The Board Game Design Course

You’re a game designer. So naturally, you may often think about gamification.

But what is gamification?

Well, it depends on who you ask. But if you think about it, you’ll start to see this everywhere. It’s all about applying elements of game design outside of games.

There are different ways to use gamification and for different purposes.

One way we often see this used is by incentivizing people to do something by giving them a reward. Gamification is often used as a marketing technique to persuade people to try a product or service, or to provide feedback.

Have you ever been asked to fill out a survey for your chance to win a prize or gift card? This type of gamification can definitely incentivize the wrong thing.

Are you filling out the survey because you care about the product or service, or do you just want the chance to win something for free?

This is a particularly important question if the prize is completely unrelated to the survey. It’s one thing to give away a print and play version of your game or offer the chance to win an expansion to a game people already own by providing feedback on your game and another thing to offer an iPad related to your grocery shopping experience.

It’s the same thing when trying to build an email list, perhaps with the intent to create a buzz and grow your following before launching a Kickstarter project. People may enter a contest to win a completely unrelated game you are offering but will they be there for you when you need backers for your campaign?

Maybe or maybe not. These are all examples of extrinsic motivations and rewards, which I would argue is not usually the best approach.

What you really want is for people to play your game, try your service, or buy your product because they feel they will benefit from this. If what you’re offering is good enough to stand on its own, you won’t need to offer any external rewards.

These internal benefits are known as intrinsic motivations and rewards.

They are more based on personal achievement and accomplishment.

This isn’t to say you shouldn’t offer food and drink to playtesters when they come to your home to try your game. That’s just being a good host. However, after that initial encouragement for them to attend, make sure that your game is great (or at least has the potential to become great), so that the players enjoy the game and want to play again because it’s just a great experience.

There’s also a difference between gamification and game-based learning that should be mentioned here. The distinction is that gamification is more about rewarding the behaviours you want to encourage, often through badges, leaderboards, loyalty rewards, chances to win products, etc. This approach can be effective for loyalty programs and other business endeavours. Almost any activity can be gamified in some way.

However, “The definition of GBL (game-based learning) is taking an actual game and using it within the learning process”, according to Gamify.com. It’s more about teaching a skill rather than rewarding behaviour.

What are some examples you’ve seen of gamification done well? How are you incentivizing players to try out your game?