Final essay demo version: Usage of gamified applications at work and in sports

(Reading pdf from course dropbox is recommended)

The aim of this work is to show how the phenomena of gamification influences our performance at work and in sports. The reason for writing about it is a notion that in the next few years “Playbor (play plus labor) and weisure (work and pleasure) will be ubiquitous” (Rey in Andreson, 2012). Therefore, I will demystify the idea of gamification itself and give a few examples of how it is used now in the field of sports and on the professional level at work. Before that however, I will place gamification in the broader context of new media theory to show its origins in the digital age.

New media context

At first we have to specify what media we call ‘new’. Lev Manovich (2001) presents five principles of new media which distinguish them from traditional ones.

The first principle is numerical coding that uses algorithms to manipulate the content which therefore, becomes programmable.

The second principle is modularity of media elements (such as images, sounds or text), which are represented as collections of samples (such as pixels, characters or polygons), that are placed into a large-scale objects but still remaining as separate identities.

The third principle of new media is automation enabled by the first two principles that allow automation to happen in media creation, manipulation and access.

The fourth principle is variability as new media objects are far from being fixed pieces once and for all and may exist in many different versions. The third principle is possible due to:

·         The media elements storage in databases where “a variety of end-user objects, which vary in resolution and in form and content, can be generated, either beforehand or on demand from this database” (Manovich, 2001:37).

·         The same data may generate a number of different interfaces.

·         Personal information about user might be used by the computer to create customized media composition or media element.

·         Branch tree structure is a base for programmes where all the possible objects a user can visit via menu-based interactivity.

·         Hypermedia where “the multimedia elements making a document are connected through hyperlinks, thus, the elements and the structure are independent of each other rather than hard-wired together, as in traditional media” (Manovich, 2001:38).

·         Periodic updates (patches).

·         Scalability where the same media object can have different versions due to various sizes, levels of detail.

The fourth principle is argued to denote the correlation between changed in media technology and in society, “If the logic of old media corresponds to the logic of industrial mass society, the logic of new media fits the logic of post-industrial society, which values individuality over conformity” (Manovich, 2001:41).

The fifth principle is transcoding which is a digital data conversion from one encoding to the other that the same data could be store and used on different devices.

The place of gamification in new media context

The abovementioned principles fully fit to the construction and idea of gamified applications: as fully digitalized forms they depend on algorithms, modularity, automation, variability and transcoding. Gamification itself is a concept presented by many professionals and scholars however the one made by Anderson and Rainie describes its complexity and applicability in a clear and comprehensive way:

“The word “gamification” has emerged in recent years as a way to describe interactive online design that plays on people’s competitive instincts and often incorporates the use of rewards to drive action – these include virtual rewards such as points, payments, badges, discounts, and “free” gifts; and status indicators such as friend counts. Retweets, leader boards, achievement data, progress bars, and the ability to ‘level up’”.

(Anderson and Rainie, 2012)

What in other words means, that the system of game play and reward is applied to non-gaming content, as in the topic of this work: sports and work, to amplify the intrinsic motivations of the users.

But what is equally important, is the ‘spirit’ of new media objects that “assure users that their choices – and therefore, their underlying thoughts and desires – are unique, rather than preprogrammed and shared with others” (Manovich, 2001:42). And this is one of the strongest advantages of gamified applications: they help you to progress in your speed, they let you make decisions and set your own goals that can be later on shared with others. The path you have taken using gamified application is an illustration of your individual journey, your unique set of experiences and results.

Gamified applications at work

A report called “Demystifying Enterprise Gamification for Business” was a base for Liyakasa (2012) to share her thoughts about gamification in her article which outlines six key elements that drive engagement of individuals, groups and communities, these are: intrigue, reward, fun, challenge, community and status. The question however is why people need to be entertained by gamified applications during work while performing their duties? Why does the phenomena of gamification arise now? And finally, why serious companies, big corporations spend their money on gamified applications? David Carr (2011) argues that “One reason all this is important is that young people entering the workforce have been raised with computerizes games as a primary form of entertainment. They expect fast-paced action and continuous incremental reinforcement”. Thus, the changes in the working sphere were caused by the changes in society that shares the new media logic.

The other important factor for gamified applications at work is the fact that they serve as a safety net for the workers to learn and try out new possibilities without harming the company budget and image with unsuccessful decisions. Bajor (2011) examined risk management companies and admits that “Risk management today is a very popular  concept and virtually every company employing a number of people trying to create a sustainable security system for its employees and the nature of its activities”.  

The idea of a safety net is not the only one behind the gamified applications. There are also several tools for sales representatives and one of them is called Nitro made by Bunchball which operates on salesforce.com. The way it works in different fields of sales for different teams is the fact that the challenges and contests are customized by the employer and at the end of the day when employees close sales they earn rewards. The score board shows how many rewards you gained, how many others have and how well is your team doing. Swan (2012) argues that “The rewards, challenges and competition create real-time engagement to work toward short- and long-term goals”, which however, will be debated later on.

Another piece of argument for gamified applications at work was given by Anderson and Raine (2012) who said that “Technology consultancy Gartner has projected 50% of corporate innovation will be “gamified” by 2015”. Another example sustaining this idea is Pakra Games application used in call centers on the earliest stage of employment. Pakra programme is used to interview future employees and its aim is to simulate interactions with clients and check the future worker’s ability in customer service field. The company was forced to find an effective way of employing people due to huge workers’ rotation and the difficult character of work. The other possibility they used for already prepared programme was also training for already employed workers to improve their decision making and interpersonal skills.

Gamified application in sports

The funniest gamified application for runners I have seen is called ZombiesRun and resembles The Walking Dead series aesthetics. If you have problems with motivating yourself to keep fit this application may help you achieve your goal as it is an iPhone app that provides you with sounds of chasing zombies, flying helicopters and radio podcasts urging you to get to the destination point to survive. It simply makes you run for your life. Why zombies would help you achieve you goal of being fit? Because “when well done, gamification helps align our interest with the intrinsic motivations of our players, amplified with the mechanics and rewards that make them come in, bring friends, and keep coming back” (Zichermann and Cunningham, 2011:x). After a run with zombies you can upload your score to the official zombierun board and see how good you are in running away from zombies, getting to the destination point and surviving invasion of zombies.

More advanced tool which helps you to keep fit is Wii Fit with its balance board. This games takes your measurements and asks you to specify your goal (e.g. 3 kg less in 2 months). The programme calculates for you the route of how to achieve it: intensification of exercises, type (there is yoga, aerobics, strength training, etc.) and frequency. The main technique Wii Fit uses are four most common mechanisms of gamification specified by Zichermann: points, badges, levels and challenges (Zichermann in Bajdor, 2011). You can create your own account and observe your development, goals for the next game, levels passed and your place on board among your friends that also exercise. This games tries to make exercising funnier, more rewarding and engaging.

Critique of gamification

There are lots of doubts shared by professionals and scholars whether gamification process is just a temporal fad or a direction where most of our professional and private activity will go. Anderson and Raine’s (2012) research quotes many different arguments of why people will not let the gamification evolve to an omnipresent social phenomena. First of all, some interviewees noted that people become irritated with being played when they recognize it and there are many who do not like this kind of game system at all.  It is also argued to be deskilling in social psychological skills and people become easy to be manipulated via neuromarketing tools. The more pragmatic argument is the fact that engaging and effective games are expensive and difficult to produce which ultimately will limit its broad applicability (Lebowsky in Anderson and Rainie, 2012). Judd Autin suggests that “offering one-size-fit-all rewards may motivate certain people while putting others off” and the fact that “Game dynamics, on the other hand, offer rewards that can be comparatively superficial and short-term” (Antin, 2011).

So far no one is able to estimate if gamification will be used more often in the future and if it is a right direction to go. Most definitely gamification in sports and as a working tool passes the usability test as more and more applications and games are created for these two fields. As long as people find it funny and entertaining to use applications will improve our scores at work and in sports however the spread of these to other spheres of life might get annoying for some losing the potential of being an effective tool.

References:

• ·       Anderson, J. and Raine, L. (2012) Pew Research Center’s Interest  and American Life Project. Gamification: Experts expect ‘games layers’ to expand in the future with positive and negative results.
•  Bajdor, P. (2011) Annales Universitatis Apulensis Series Oeconomica. The Gamification as a tool to improve risk management in the enterprise.13(2).
• ·         Carr, D. (2011) Gamification: 75% Psychology, 25% Technology. United Business Media LLC.
• ·         Judd, A. (2012) Technology Review. Toy Psychology, Vol. 114 Issue 5, p11.
• ·         Liyakasa, K. (2012) CRM Magazine. Turning Business into Pleasure, Vol. 16 Issue 3, p14.
• ·         Manovich, L. (2001) The Language of New Media.
• ·         Swan, Ch. (2012) Communication World. Gamification: A new way to shape behavior. Vol. 29 Issue 3, p13-14.
• ·         Zichermann, G. and Cunningham, Ch. (2011) Gamification by Design: Implementing Game Mechanics in Web and Mobile Apps. Preface. 1^st ed. O’Reilly Books.