This is a primer on gamification, why its important and how it can be used in the enterprise.

1. Gamification Innovation and the
Enterprise
Javed Mohammed
Innovation and Marketing Consultant
k2film@live.com
alchemyofinnovation.wordpress.com
A K2Vista Production

2. Agenda
• Games Vs. Gamification
• Why it’s important
• How does it work
• Where doesn’t it work
• Conclusions

3. 72% of American households play
computer or video games
• Soon we will all be gamers

4. One Billion Gamers

5. Demographic Shift
• Generation Y:
• (Echo Boomers or Millenniums:
Born: 1977-1994)
• Sophisticated, technology wise,
immune to most traditional
marketing and sales pitches...
exposed to it all since early
childhood.
http://www.socialmarketing.org/newsletter/fe
atures/generation3.htm

6. Demographic Shift
• Generation Z
• Born: 1995-2012
• Gen Z kids will grow up with a
highly sophisticated media and
computer environment and will
be more Internet savvy and
expert than their Gen Y
forerunners.

7. 92% of two-year olds play games!

8. 10 benefits of playing games
1. Joy • Curiosity
2. Relief • Excitement
3. Love • Awe & Wonder
4. Surprise • Contentment
5. Pride • Creativity

9. Enterprise and Gaming: like oil and
water? Not really

10. Games vs. Gamification
• Games: getting people to voluntarily engage in
an activity or goal with certain rules and
results.
• Gamification: embedding game mechanics
and game design techniques into new kinds of
work that engages employees, customers and
partners.

11. Games vs. Gamification
Games Gamification
Leader Leader
boards boards
Narrative Points Useful Points
FUN
Activity
Levels Levels
Engagement Engagement

12. Why Gamification is important
• Avg 21 yr old
spent 10,000
hours gaming.
• They are
tomorrows
workforce.
http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=16292
14s http://researchkart.wordpress.com

13. Levels of engagement at work
• Frustration/Anxiety
• Boredom
• Somewhere in the middle
• Fully Engaged

14. Why Gamification is important
• Only a 1/3 of the
workforce is engaged
(lost productivity
costs the US
economy $370B
annually. (Gallup)
http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=16292
14s http://researchkart.wordpress.com

15. Why Gamification is important
• By 2015, more than 50% of organizations that
manage innovation processes will gamify
them (Gartner)
• By 2016, 70% of Global 2000 companies will
have at least one gamified
application(Gartner)
• ResearchKart says Gamification industry to
grow to a 3.6 billion dollar market between
2012-2017
http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=16292
14s http://researchkart.wordpress.com

16. Web users trading Virtual Goods grew
from 13% to 21% in 2011

17. What if we could bring the positive
benefits of gaming into the real world?
• Greater productivity
• Employee satisfaction
• Solve real world problems
• Continue innovation legacy
• By adding game-like elements we can
increase participation and
engagement in any experience

18. Kinds of engagement
• Engage the senses: watch video, listen audio,
see photo
• Volunteer information
• Answer a survey
• Visit/Recommend affiliate sites

19. The Challenge is to find common ground
Games Gamification
Useful
FUN
Activity
Individual Business
interest interest

20. Successful use of gamification in
business
• Frequent Flyer programs
– Earn travel miles
– Earn badges, silver, gold, platinum
– Challenges: fly 2 segments and earn a bonus 5000
miles
• Credit Card rewards
• Nike+ and iPod
– Gamified exercise
• Salesforce leaderboard

21. At its core gamification
• Engages the ego by challenging it in someway, so
that you can be ranked doing an activity wrt your
peers.
• There’s a goal and there’s competition.
• If you can be the best xyz player in your family,
friends, co-workers, city, country, universe,… you
get the picture.
• As a business your goal is to engage the user to
perform a particular behavior. Sounds nasty, but
if used for good they can become fans or even
evangelists.

22. To make applications more engaging
• Pay attention to visual design
• Build in novelty/uncertainty
• Incorporate social elements

23. Incentive
• Reward
• Status
• Achievement
• Self Expression
• Competition
• Altruism

24. Creating incentives
• To get people to participate in innovation,
requires different incentives.
1. Recognition: A mention in the newsletter,
lunch with an executive, Leaderboard
2. Competition: Leaderboard
3. Economic incentives: A financial or other
type of gift
4. Altruistic reasons: if self motivated no need
for rewards

25. Game Mechanics: Intrinsic &
Extrinsic motivation
• Points
• Levels
• Challenges
• Virtual Goods
• Leaderboards
• Gifting & Charity

26. Gamification Mechanics: Progress
• Badges: Goals, Rewards, Status
• Leaderboards Comparison ,
Competition
• Points Tracking & Feedback
• Incentives Rewards

27. Personalization, Pride & Pace
• Players should be allowed to customize &
express themselves – eg Username, Avatar,
Look/feel
• Need to build a connection with the user and
appeal to their pride, ego.
• The pacing and rewards should be in the
sweet spot to keep them hooked and become
a repeat customer

28. Mastery & levels
Master
Expert
Novice

29. The Journey and Experience
• The whole experience of
onboarding , and the journey
through the game must be a
narrative that piques their
curiosity and has sufficient
attraction or rewards that it
keeps them coming back.

30. Gamification: finding the zen
challenge > talents + abilities => Stressed
challenge =talents + abilities => Flow
challenge < talents + abilities => Bored
Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

31. Intrinsic motivation and the 16 basic
desires theory
1. Acceptance, the need for approval
2. Curiosity, the need to learn
3. Eating, the need for food
4. Family, the need to raise children
5. Honor, the need to be loyal to the traditional
values of one's clan/ethnic group
6. Idealism, the need for social justice
7. Independence, the need for individuality
8. Order, the need for organized, stable,
predictable environments
Professor Steven Reiss

32. Intrinsic motivation and the 16 basic
desires theory
1. Physical activity, the need for exercise
2. Power, the need for influence of will
3. Romance, the need for sex and for beauty
4. Saving, the need to collect
5. Social contact, the need for friends (peer
relationships)
6. Social status, the need for social standing/importance
7. Tranquility, the need to be safe
8. Vengeance, the need to strike back and to compete
Professor Steven Reiss

33. Can apply Crowdsourcing
and Gamification to address
innovation
 Idea Generation
 Enterprise Collaboration
 Idea Markets
 Prediction Markets
 Jams
 Challenge Events

34. Things to beware of in gamification
• Bolting on points, reward, badges does not
create gamifcation experience
• Bribing with real or virtual currency and
rewards may only work in the short term
• Reputation online is not equal to achievement
offline
• In order to compete people can game the
system so spam filters need to detect this

35. Parting thoughts
• Gamification as with all new concepts and
technologies is cool and can solve, improve,
address some real world challenges.
• Many practioners of alchemy pursued the
elixir of life or immortality but it is not the
path to utopia
• The following are some questions to think
about.

36. Parting thoughts
• How will your customers, users experience in the real
world the challenge you are trying to address?
• What other forms of media are involved?
• Is your core product, service compelling? If its not
gamification may provide the sizzle but not the steak.
• Gamification is a long term outlook, rather than a
short-term fix so look at your time horizon and what
resources you can commit to it.
• As with innovation, ROI using gamification is hard to
measure. There are quantitative and qualitative
measures. Define your success.
Reference: Gamification 101 by Bunchball

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Copyright 2012