Does gamification make sense in the company? … 3+3 questions to decide what to do and how to approach it – Part 1
Gamification at enterprise, what can be found? How is the world of gaming evolving for companies/enterprises? This post is talking about aspects, nuances and realities of the video game and the serious game world. An attempt at answering “What for” could be good for corporations.
We can place gamification halfway among three concepts: the experience of video game as entertainment, the learning experience through playing and the digital evolution.
Considering the great growth of video games and the challenge of the digital evolution that organizations are facing, we may have doubts about the effectiveness or the lack of that with regard to gamification at the company.
Let’s see a little what is happening, what is their impact and what value they bring us, in order to find answers and take a decision.
What gamification surely requires is to have a mentality of growth and expansion. So, the first thing to do for getting into this world is:
Welcome creativity!
3+3 questions to decide what to do and how to approach it
Question # 1: ARE YOU WILLING GIVE FREE REIN TO CREATIVITY?
History teaches us the great amount of games invented and those that are still being invented for having fun. Whatever your context is, “having fun” is intrinsic to the concept of playing. And creativity is the key to developing fun and attractive games.
Answer #1:
Only if you are willing to “let go” and drive changes in the organization, will you find a thousand ways to apply the game in your company.
Question # 2: WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT GAME AND VIDEO GAME?
A little bit of context about games:
Games stimulate our emotions, if we are more or less competitive, if we are more or less creative, if we manage to win, or simply if we are passionate about participating. They show us just the way we are.
Let us take as a reference what Plato already said to us: “You learn more about a person playing an hour than speaking a year”
Therefore, in the corporate world, many of the activities that are done to develop people and their skills have a good basis in games. With different nuances, either focused on cooperation and development of teamwork or on competition, or the combination of both.
That is nothing new!
What is happening at world of videogame? Could you live on being a VideoGame Player?
As a matter of fact, yes! There are competitions, companies that pay experts of the game, which show how far a videogame can go.
Being as it is, an entertainment industry, it has its own TV channel on streaming and allows to follow live competitions:
- Photo of League of legends championship
- Channel of competitions of videogames and live emission: twitch.tv,
- Video of a final, at the moment of its beginning. You can watch the first 3 minutes and see the organization of the event: Heroes of the Storm fall championship finals: Ballistix VS Fnatic
Answer #2:
The game exists since the human being exists, it is associated with our own nature. The evolution of technology has allowed us to reach video games, and are one more element in our environment. Like sports, it has its followers. And will continue to develop and grow in variety and content.
Question #3: HOW DO WE THINK ABOUT A GAME FOR A SPECIFIC COMPANY?
To answer this, we should consider three definitions:
- What does a game include?
- What does a videogame add?
- What is a serious game?
If we analyze what makes up a game, we see 5 key elements:
- Goal: purpose of the game
- Rules that we must follow
- Feedback on how we are scoring
- Competition: there are always opponents
- Want to participate: I do it because I want to participate
What does a videogame have in addition?
Basically, two aspects:
- A lot of technology, from devices to networking on computers,
- A story. And in many of the stories created, the concept of the hero’s journey is applied. The player is invited through the tale, to live an adventure, with many tests, allies, enemies, aids, stages and levels, with different types of rewards and transformations of the hero, until reaching the final stage.
And what is a serious game?
As described by Jeroen Jansz, professor at Erasmus University Rotterdam, what is apparently an oxymoron, when speaking of “serious” and “game”, has its raison d’être in not considering the last of the key elements: voluntary participation.
In a serious game, it is basically intended to train, to facilitate the learning of specific topics, increase know-how and develop abilities in an environment of entertainment: the game. It is not a voluntary participation, but fun learning. That is the main change. It also allows the person to be actively involved in decision making processes, all the time.
Answer # 3:
You should think about what do you want to achieve, the goal pursued, first. The “how to do it” must consider all the characteristics that we have seen in a game, with the particularity that the participation is not voluntary, but obligatory. This great difference must be taken into account in all the objectives that you want to boost and achieve with the experience of gaming.
The 3 outstanding questions dedicated to explain specific initiatives in the organization will be found shortly in part 2 of this article.
I encourage you to experiment with gaming initiatives in your company. If you have doubts you can write me ( Conxi@conxiperezandreu.com ) and we comment on how to approach it.
