Gamification is gaining more momentum. Link with AI Virtual Agents inevitable!
Source: http://tiny.cc/vklxc Guardian
Author: Cath Everett
Date: 27 June 2011
Key extract
"Gartner named it among the top CIO trends to watch and predicted that more than half of organisations wanting to encourage innovation would 'gamify' their supporting processes by 2015.
Brian Burke, a Gartner analyst, defines it as taking one of the four main computer gaming techniques and re-applying them to a non-games environment.
The first comprises accelerated feedback cycles. These are necessary to maintain motivation and engagement but contrast with real world situations where feedback, for example in the shape of annual performance appraisals, is often slow.
The second is setting clear goals and having well defined rules of play to ensure that users feel able to achieve the objectives. The third is about creating a compelling narrative to encourage individuals to get involved and hold their interest.
The final must-have is ensuring that tasks provide participants with continual challenges that are neither so testing that they are discouraging nor so easy that people lose interest. The ideal is to include multiple short term, achievable goals in any given system or process.
As to the point of all this, James Riley, managing director at digital marketing agency Effect, says it is to create "fun in things that traditionally weren't by playing to human nature. So what you're really trying to do is to create an experience that people engage with emotionally – that's when you get real success".
The gamification concept has to date been employed mainly for marketing by business-to-consumer companies, particularly within social media. The objective is to make it more enjoyable for consumers to interact with their brands in a bid to foster loyalty.
But both Riley and Burke believe expect gaming techniques to make their way into all kinds of areas, ranging from training and innovation to boosting employee performance and engagement. With this in mind, Burke advises IT directors to try and get some hands-on experience as soon as possible so they can educate business colleagues and work with them on evaluating possible opportunities.
"Gamification is set to become an important trend, impacting many areas of business and society. I believe that game mechanics are going to have a huge impact on the way organisations engage stakeholders, innovate and evolve, and we are just on the leading edge of that trend," he says."
