How Gamification Creates Engagement(getbadges.io)
getbadges.io
How Gamification Creates Engagement
https://getbadges.io/blog/why-gamification-works-part-2-engagement
4 comments
I setup ZohoCRM for one or my clients and it's been great, but by default their "game" was on. I have it turned off but have debating if it would be beneficial to have the employees using it. Not sure if it would produce better results or shift their focus into getting badges in the game as fast as possible (reducing quality of their updates to the crm or worse impacting how they interact with contacts/clients)
Seems like the badges were not aligned to the results you wanted. Good badges would be related to the company goal (selling products) instead of housekeeping the CRM. Some early badges can be related to keeping the CRM updated to create some habits, but long-term objective is definitely different.
Besides that gamifying sales is promoting individual achievements and creating a competitive environment, whereas in IT it should be oriented to building a reliable and happy team.
Besides that gamifying sales is promoting individual achievements and creating a competitive environment, whereas in IT it should be oriented to building a reliable and happy team.
I have a problem with people adding gamification in an attempt to increase engagement. Often times this means stimulating the same dopamine reward responses that people get from gambling. I see this in particular with apps geared for children, and it bothers the hell out of me that it's completely non-regulated.
Does it really have to be regulated? I don't like it either, but don't parents have a role in children's lives? When a child asks for money to purchase microtransactions, a parent can simply say "no." Think of a world where if you want to add this type of functionality, and you're not marketing to kids, you still have to go through some additional licensing or legal step to add a few lines of code to your product...
The Overjustification Effect says the opposite to this, basically saying gamification would actually decrease engagement over time
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overjustification_effect
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overjustification_effect
The complaint about gamification on that page is:
> gamified contexts such as foursquare might provide expected rewards for activities that do not adequately meet self-determination theory’s three innate needs for intrinsic motivation—relatedness, autonomy, and competence—and therefore reduce intrinsic interest in those activities.
The article kind of addresses this, discussing how you get someone interested with a long term narrative or goal rather than numbers. This would mitigate issues with autonomy and competence that are created in a numbers only environment.
> gamified contexts such as foursquare might provide expected rewards for activities that do not adequately meet self-determination theory’s three innate needs for intrinsic motivation—relatedness, autonomy, and competence—and therefore reduce intrinsic interest in those activities.
The article kind of addresses this, discussing how you get someone interested with a long term narrative or goal rather than numbers. This would mitigate issues with autonomy and competence that are created in a numbers only environment.
In those cases I would say it's not gamification that creates engagement. Rather, these people already want to be engaged, and they're using these badges as a tool for themselves. Basically it's being used as a way to accelerate engagement but it CANNOT create engagement that doesn't exist. The difference between the two is very important because most "gamification" companies confuse the two and end up failing thinking they're doing the right thing. Instead, what they're doing is starting from a wrong assumption, and wrong assumption never leads to good results.
It is a good idea to use a tangible milestones mechanism to motivate people who are already motivated, or who will do those things anyway. For example, I visit coffee shops in the morning to pick up coffee. This need already exists. So that's why a coffee shop providing "buy 10 get 11th coffee free" stamp card can make me come back. It doesn't "create" engagement, since it's not like I would go to a coffee shop 5 miles away just for this coupon deal. It simply makes it easier for me to make the decision I already make.
However it is arrogant to think that you can "create engagement" this way, and you are doomed to fail. Because you're nothing more than a gimmick. I have never seen anyone succeed with this philosophy.
It is a good idea to use a tangible milestones mechanism to motivate people who are already motivated, or who will do those things anyway. For example, I visit coffee shops in the morning to pick up coffee. This need already exists. So that's why a coffee shop providing "buy 10 get 11th coffee free" stamp card can make me come back. It doesn't "create" engagement, since it's not like I would go to a coffee shop 5 miles away just for this coupon deal. It simply makes it easier for me to make the decision I already make.
However it is arrogant to think that you can "create engagement" this way, and you are doomed to fail. Because you're nothing more than a gimmick. I have never seen anyone succeed with this philosophy.
Justyna, the style of „quoting” you’re using is correct for Polish, but not English, which uses a pair of upper quotation marks, like so: “”. Good luck with your startup.
Thanks, I've fixed that :)