How Gamification Is Changing Fitness July 2012
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POINTS FOR PUSHUPS: HOW GAMIFICATION IS CHANGING FITNESS JULY 2012 Presented by Timothy Herman in association with Algonquin College Executive Summary Gamification is the application of game design elements in non-game contexts. Hundreds of companies are finding ways to apply “Games are the new these game elements to their products and processes in order to better motivate and normal.” engage with their clients. Some of these processes have been in common use for - Al Gore, decades, but the past few years have seen a Former US Vice-President rapid increase in gamified processes.This trend appears set to continue in the future. Game elements, such as points, levels, and badges, are used to meet universal basic human needs and desires. By meeting these desires, such as the needs for status or achievement, users will be more engaged with the process, and even tedious tasks can be made enjoyable. One company is applying these principles to personal fitness with great success. With the motto ‘Get addicted to your fitness’, startup Fitocracy’s goal is to use the principles of gamification to promote fitness and health. Section I. What is Gamification? At the most fundamental level, Gamification can be defined as “the use of game design elements in non-game contexts”1. These game elements are used to change people’s behaviour. Game elements can be anything from aesthetics common to games, such as graphics “Play is not the and progress bars, to the inclusion of overarching goals, plot, rules, levels, quests and opposite of work.” achievements all powered by real actions. Gamifying something consists of adding - Dr. Stuart Brown a number of these game elements to a non- game context, such as education or fitness, in order to enhance the users’ experience or increase their motivation and engagement with the experience. 1. Sebastian Deterding et al, “Call for Participation”, Gamification Research Network , http://gamification- research.org/chi2011/cfp/(accessed 12 July, 2012) 1 The overall goal of gamification is to increase user engagement, participation and interaction in a given activity or community. While gamification is becoming a marketing buzz-word, it is nothing new. Humans have been playing various forms of games since prehistory. Fast forward to the modern era with the significant free time that people have today, and gaming has become a hugely popular and tremendously profitable industry, with annual revenue of $74 billion per year. Given this wide acceptance of gaming and the increasing role of the internet in society, people have become more open to game mechanics in other parts of their lives. As a result, “gamification” is becoming a powerful tool through which organi- zations teach, persuade, and motivate people. Many different activities that people do today incorporate game mechanics, including tasks that you might never even think of as games. Every month, we see hundreds of startup companies using gamification launch. Thousands of marketers, strategists, and game designers attend events like the Gamifi- cation Summit in order to build a vision for this growing industry1. Existing companies are also seeking ways to apply the principles of gamification to their products or processes. In 2010, corporations spent an estimated $100 million on gamification, and that figure is expected to climb, reaching $2.8 billion by 2016.2 By 2015, Gartner Inc., a leading information technology research and advisory company, forecasts that 70% of the Forbes Global 2000 companies will use a gamified app by 2015. While gamification will become more common in the future, it has already been part of our lives for decades. One of the earliest and most common examples of gamifi- cation is Frequent Flyer Programs (FPP). Originally, airline customers enrolled in the program accumulated frequent flyer miles (or kilometers, points, or other units) based on the distance they flew on that airline or its partners. Today, over 100 million people are accruing frequent flyer miles in more than 70 FFPs around the world, offered by nearly every major airline3. These programs have many of the game mechanics that we will discuss in the next section. Customers earn mile (points) for every flight they buy, as well as the use of co-branded credit and debit cards. By earning more points, customers can move from Bronze to Silver or Gold status, which parallels the ‘levelling up’ mechanic of games. The miles that users accumulate can be cashed in for free air travel, or other goods or services, giving them a reward to keep them motivated. 1. Gabe Zichermann, “Gamification is Here to Stay (And its not Bullshit)”, Kotaku, http://kotaku.com/ 5833631/gamification-is-here-to-stay-and-its-not-bullshit?tag=gamification (accessed 20 July, 2012) 2. Jason Tanz, “The Curse of Cow Clicker”, Wired, www.wired.com/magazine/2011/12/ff_cowclicker/ all/ (accessed 19 July, 2012) 3. “History of Loyalty Programs”, FrequentFlier.com, http://www.frequentflier.com/ffp-005.htm (accessed 20 July, 2012) 2 Section II: The Elements of Gamification Game Mechanics & Game Dynamics Game mechanics are the rules and rewards that make up gameplay. These are the aspects that make an activity challenging, fun, satisfying, or whatever other emotion the game’s designers hope to evoke. Game mechanics are the basic building blocks. They can be combined in various ways to guide users through very complex sequences of actions, in a variety of different contexts. What does that mean? By using these game mechanics, people can enjoy even tedious tasks. For example, the gamification of education can result in children who want to go to school and learn, who are more highly motivated, and who enjoy it more. The founders of Fitocracy, with their gamer background, have used these mechanics to increase their users’ motivation and engagement with personal fitness. These game mechanics include: •Points •Levels •Challenges • Leaderboards • Competitions Game dynamics are the desires and motivations that make the experience compelling to users. Game dynamics include: •Reward • Status •Achievement • Competition Points Points are one of the most basic game elements, and people love them. We love to earn points, to achieve them and see our score go up. Often, points are displayed as a progress bar, graphically displaying the points earned so far, and the amount needed to level up, which we’ll discuss next. This makes points incredible motivators. Some systems, like the FFPs discussed earlier, allow users to ‘spend’ their points, to turn them in for some form of gain, whether virtual or real. Points don’t need to have any monetary value associated with them though. Studies done by IBM Research and the University of Chicago describe the dramatic effect that earning points can have on user behaviour, even if they have no value outside the game. 3 Levels Levels are another common feature in games. Examples of levels in our daily lives are different classes in frequent-flyer programs, different coloured belts in martial arts, even job titles in your career. They are all ways to indicate you have reached a milestone, a level of accomplishment in a community and should be afforded a certain amount of respect and status as a result. Levels in games are often gained by passing a point threshold, so users can level up based on their participation and performance. The US edition of Google News offers badges that let people “level up” by reading articles online.1 Challenges, Trophies, Badges, Achievements Challenges, which can also take the form of trophies, badges, or achievements, give people set goals to accomplish and reward them for doing so. Challenges provide users with goals and the sense that they are making progress towards something. The general approach is to design achievable, but difficult challenges, and reward users for their accomplishments with trophies, badges and achievements. Trophies, badges, ribbons, etc. are forms of visible recognition for users who have reached new levels or completed challenges. One of the keys to making levels and challenges effective is providing a means for users to show off their achievements, like a trophy case or user profile page that displays their badges. Examples of these in the real world include Scout merit badges, coloured credit cards that indicate high spending limits, or the aforementioned coloured frequent flyer cards that indicate one’s member status. Leaderboards Many classic video games that made their debut in arcades implemented a “high- score table” which provided players a goal to aspire to. Having one’s initials emblazoned in lights would give one bragging rights and a modicum of ‘fame’ in that community. Leaderboards can also allow users to compare themselves against their friends and other players. In the context of gamification, leaderboards are used in order to track and display individuals’ progresses, and use competition to increase the desired behaviour. Competitions Competitions allow users to challenge each other at some activity. Each user is given a chance to compete, and generally the user with the highest score wins some form of reward. This is a great method to enable “multiplayer” in single player games and other experiences. For example, it might not be feasible to compete directly against a friend in person, but by providing a challenge framework that allows users to compete 1. Jason Tanz, “The Curse of Cow Clicker”, Wired, www.wired.com/magazine/2011/12/ff_cowclicker/ all/ (accessed 19 July, 2012) 4 on their own schedule, sense of community is increased and competitive users will be more satisfied. Game Dynamics Satisfy Desires Why do these game mechanics motivate us? Why do we crave points and badges? We are driven by these mechanics because of game dynamics. All of us have fundamental needs and desires, which are universal, crossing cultural, generational and gender divides.