What is Gamification?

‘Gamification’ is a relatively new term – coined in 2008 – it relates to adapting game mechanics into non-game settings, applying game design thinking to non-game applications to make them more fun and engaging.

The process of gamification is not new – it has been in use in different forms since many years. A common example of Gamification in the real world is Frequent Flyer Programs of airline companies where usage is converted to points and these points can be used for getting discounts and special offers. After accumulating a certain number of points the users will be ‘leveled up’ – i.e. moved to a higher level with better benefits and facilities. A more recent example is ‘foursquare’ – an example of gamification well integrated with social media and smartphones. Users earn points for checking-in their locations based on available registered options. They are incentivized to check-in by giving them an option to unlock badges based on visiting new or unique places, number of visits to a place per week etc. It does not end there – they tie-up with local retailers to provide offers to users based on the badges they unlocked.

The three key aspects of the gamification process are – Points (or credits), Badges (or awards) and Leader Boards (or score boards).

Why Gamification?

Gamification is being popularized as the next big thing in marketing. It leverages the increasing usage of social media and uses game design principles to capture attention, increase user involvement, improve commitment and gain loyalty. It also provides an important and much needed link between social media usage and monetization – allowing the relevant retailers to provide targeted offers to the most relevant customers based on usage parameters tracked by the points and badges.

Gamification and Commercialization

The process of commercializing technologies and inventions is a highly selective and a closed process. In general research commercialization rate is highly dependent on businesses or entrepreneurs who can find a way of (and are willing to) utilize the technology to create and sell a real world application. The process of gamification can be used to open the process of commercialization to more brains and pockets – to use the power of crowdsource to find innovative ways to utilize a technology and commercialize it and to use the motivation of points and awards to promote healthy competition among the crowd.

Another angle of gamification can be from the researchers’ point of view. The Technology Licensing Offices and Technology Commercialization Offices of universities can create a virtual points system where the researchers are awarded points for successfully commercializing their research – since the researcher’s career is long term this point system can be divided into multiple stages of the commercialization process spread over the long term. The badges or awards serve two purposes – they will be viewed as recognition of their achievement in the internal community and will be used for providing relevant rewards to the researchers.

Challenges of Gamification in Commercialization

The commercialization process is usually long and time consuming – sometimes spanning over a few years – thus it is challenging to measure or ‘grade’ the success of a commercialization project in the near term. On the other hand in the gamification system the points or rewards earned are relatively in a much shorter time frame – this short time frame is needed to make sure the users’ interest or commitment is not diluted. Thus an adaptive solution has to be developed as part of the gamification process so that the rewards can be divided into short term and long term and maintain a balance between the two.