Today, gamification is marked by its adoption across almost every industry, from finance and banking to education and mental health care.
Studies have found that, compared to traditional engagement approaches, gamification can boost user engagement by 100%-150%. But how, and why, has the concept reached such heights?
Gamification is the use of game design elements in non-game contexts. For example, set a new personal weight-loss record to level up in a fitness app and unlock some kind of reward or reach a digital milestone.
While these game design elements of gamification exist outside the realm of video games (such as leaderboards, reward systems, and competitive social engagement), it was arguably the cultural phenomenon attached to video games in particular that triggered gamification’s success.
The term “gamification” first emerged in the 2000s. However, it was not until the mid to late-2010s that the concept truly revealed its potential.
This explosion in gamification’s prevalence aligns with the peak of video game culture’s meteoric rise to dominance in the 2000s and 2010s, a culmination of decades of growth from niche subculture to mainstream phenomenon.
Online connection to offline community: Why the video game boom acted as an inspiration for gamification
From Nintendo to Atari, Sega to PlayStation, PCs to Xbox, revolutionary technology and graphics from the 1990s to the early 2010s led to an explosion in digital entertainment.
This technological revolution was accompanied by seismic cultural shifts.
Gaming tournaments drew competitors from around the world, determined to prove their skills before a growing audience. Students organised LAN (Local Area Network) parties, packing rooms with PCs until they were the most prominent fire hazard in a 20-mile radius.
Rapidly, video games were becoming social beacons. The ability to compete online drove obsessive skill development, dedication, and, most importantly, the motivation to engage with a system repeatedly, with the same enthusiasm, day in, day out.
Eventually, the popularity, talent, and entertainment associated with video games became so widespread that video game culture transcended into a global phenomenon. By 2010, video game tournaments could sell out arenas.
Meanwhile, technology was also pushing rapid change across all other industries. Businesses began requiring an online presence to attract, engage, and retain customers. Apps became integral to business development and communication, and increasingly, all business activities moved to the web.
Gaming culture began to provide inspiration.
The popularity of video games, combined with their undeniable ability to capture attention, drive engagement, and spark excitement both on and off the server, could serve as a blueprint for customer experience development.
Play to win: How gamification works
Gamification leverages core video game features in non-game contexts to enhance the customer and consumer experience. It’s essentially used to build engagement, motivation, and connectivity. Here’s how.
Points, badges, and leaderboards
Most early arcade video games relied on point systems to keep players engaged, constantly returning to beat their previous high score.
While individual arcade leaderboards were a natural progression, in the early 1980s, the Twin Galaxies arcade in the USA revolutionised the concept. The store established the first international arcade leaderboard, where gamers would call the venue to report their latest high scores and see where they ranked in the global community.
By the arrival of the 2000s, international leaderboards, points systems, and game-specific achievement badges were commonplace and could be displayed online with pride. Yet they retained influence offline among friends, a survivor of the transition from arcade to digital spaces.
Accomplishment forms the core value of points, badges, and leaderboards. High scores, displayable achievements, and a shiny number one next to a username form visual representations of progress and skill. As such, they encourage progress, reward continued engagement, and create a sense of challenge and competition.
When applied in gamified non-entertainment applications, these same motivations carry over. The result is engagement, connectivity, and incentive to improve.
Isolated learners might struggle to motivate themselves to spend large amounts of time on the app each week.
However, with the addition of a weekly leaderboard, users have a new reason beyond their learning goals to engage. They are not alone. Instead, they can benchmark their own progress against others, often encouraged by their competitors. Suddenly, greater in-app hours appear more worth their while for the sake of not falling to the bottom of the table.
This motivation can be further bolstered by combining points, badges, and leaderboards with another key aspect of gamification: rewards.
Risk, reward, and enticement
Video games often offer rewards for points, badges, and leaderboards to provide a more tangible return on engagement and consistency. Completing an in-game quest might grant players in-game currency or present the opportunity to unlock new cosmetics.
One popular example of a reward structure in online video games is the Battle Pass. Achieving in-game points, completing certain tasks, or even just logging on to a game once per day unlocks game-specific cosmetics, features, or in-game currency.
The extent of reward structures’ successful infiltration into wider consumer culture is particularly vast.
Fortnite, Call of Duty, and Battlefield now share the daily login bonus feature with casino and gambling apps.
Similar to how a full playthrough of Resident Evil will unlock a new outfit for your main character, a grocery restock at your local supermarket will earn you a voucher for your next clothes shopping trip.
From Battle Passes to new cosmetics, human psychology is drawn to the gratification of a shiny new gift. Gamification harnesses and re-applies that power.
Avatars, personalisation, and social recognition
When the video game phenomenon Baldur’s Gate 3 dropped in 2023, players often joked that they had spent hours in the game but had not yet made it past the character customisation options.
It is likely that some (perhaps many) of them were not exaggerating.
There is something uniquely human about wanting to see parts of ourselves, whether our physical characteristics or our personalities, in the stories we engage with.
Personalised avatars not only allow users to place themselves in the world of a fantasy video game, but also help them form closer ties between their real-world selves and the online world where it matters most.
Combined with opportunities for digital social interaction and collaboration, avatars and personalisation can also humanise users to one another.
One user can recognise another by their avatar, just as they would recognise a person’s face in real life. When users of a gamified application are encouraged to collaborate, compete, or interact, personalised avatars add a sense of familiarity, like meeting your friends in an online multiplayer game and instantly recognising their character.
Seeing a friend’s profile with a shiny achievement next to their name, a special banner or piece of equipment, may encourage them to pursue one of their own. This is akin to chasing the best gear in the early days of World of Warcraft. You see someone running around with a lavish cloak, you want a lavish cloak of your own. It’s motivation through gamification at its finest.
Therefore, for companies looking to cultivate a sense of connectivity, adding avatars and personalisation enhances both self-visualisation and recognition of others.
The value of seeking joy
Perhaps the most important fundamental of video game design that transitioned into gamification is the value of consumer joy.
From achievement to reward to familiarity, gamification seeks to replicate aspects of entertainment and gratification that are exemplified by video games. Even design choices, such as visually stimulating graphics or satisfying audio design, accompany a new milestone, helping create a more positive user experience.
The psychology of video game art has long acknowledged and embraced the complexity and capabilities of sensory input in experience and engagement. Many of the most iconic video games, such as Tetris, Super Mario, and Sonic, are known for their vivid colours and satisfying sounds.
Now, in a world of gamification, these features have been successfully adopted in a plethora of contexts.
88% of employees report feeling happier when working with gamified software. A study on challenge-based gamification demonstrated a 34.75% improvement in student performance, with other research suggesting up to 89.45% improvement in performance compared to traditional lectures.
From reaching a new savings goal in a financial management app to picking up the basics of a new language, gamification has navigated its way into positive case studies with a colourful, joy-focused intent.
Case studies on connectivity: How are modern gamification successes underpinned by video game inspirations?
Standard apps and websites for task management, learning, igaming, and more all existed and functioned before the era of gamification. However, gamification transformed how these online platforms engaged users, retained their interest, and enhanced their user experience.
As a result, there are incredibly dynamic, uniquely gamified versions that now serve as great representations of why core video game elements underpin gamification’s success:
Finch: Gamified self-care through emotional connection and reward
Avatars, colour, reward, interwoven narrative, and emotional connection form the core structure of Finch. Styling these video game elements into a self-care and habit-building app with over 10 million downloads yields a motivating engagement model that centres on the care of a small bird, which becomes the user’s in-game companion avatar.
Just as those who play the video game Crimson Desert have lovingly kitted their in-game cat companions with their own armour, Finch allows you to purchase seemingly endless combinations of outfits and accessories for your bird companion. This accessorisation system feeds back into coin-based reward structures, enabling increasing levels of customisation and achievement with repeat engagement.
Finch celebrates the value of staying connected with yourself and others, continuing the history of gamers loving and sharing their video game companions – whether human company or in-game side-kicks.
GGBET: Using gamification to maintain ties between a community and its passion
Video games lie at the heart of many in GGBET’s user community. Therefore, gamers themselves lie at the heart of GGBET. Finding new ways to implement video game features into its gamified platform is a point of both passion and necessity.
One project strengthening the connection between the GGBET community and its passion is GG.Leagues, which adopts points systems, community leaderboards, competitive spirit, ranks, badges, and familiar video game icons to create a more engaging, connected experience tailored to users.
GG.Leagues implements a Pretender, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Diamond, and Major ranking system, reminiscent of classic video game ranks and categories. Each has an associated leaderboard where player points trigger movement up the ranks, with a quarterly progress reset.
Ranking up will reward users with unique bonuses for player profiles, increasing competition with easy achievement sharing.
Alongside their competitive systems, GGBET also offers a wide range of video game-inspired avatars. Through this, individual personalities and game-related identities can be expressed throughout the GG.Leagues system, ensuring that viewing their position on leaderboards holds greater personal association.
Just as gamers battled for decades to feel the satisfaction of reaching a top rank, members of the GGBET community can track their progress, compete, and showcase their achievements with personality and pride.
GGBET reapplies these familiar video game-associated pursuits in a vibrant community where esports fans and sports enthusiasts come together for an immersive experience – not only to enhance their emotions while watching their favourite players, but also to dive into the game mechanics themselves on the platform.
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Duolingo: Characterisation, competition, and crafting a cultural icon through gamified learning
Since Duolingo’s humble beginnings in 2012, the language-learning app has evolved into a trailblazer in gamification.
Perhaps the most iconic feature to emerge from this evolution is the brand’s figurehead, an owl named Duo. This green owl’s epochal internet memeification defined the app’s ability to engage and interact with its users through a characterised avatar with an aggressive attitude.
In the same way that gamers build their own humour on the back of Resident Evil’s quips (courtesy of the character Leon Kennedy), social media accounts constructed long-running jokes around Duo’s reminders to complete daily lessons.
Although unconventional, this aggressive avatar is a raging success. Duo humanises the language learning interface with a diva-like personality.
Internet obsession marks the ability of successful gamification to connect with communities beyond their pre-existing digital spaces, reminiscent of how video games burst out of their niche to reach mainstream culture in the 2000s and 2010s.
It’s hard to find someone who doesn’t recognise Mario, and equally as hard to find someone nowadays who has never seen Duo.
Why should we pay homage to video games for their contributions to gamification?
It cannot be forgotten that video games and their communities are continually evolving. As such, the inspiration for gamification is also in continuous motion.
Forgetting the ways in which video game culture propelled gamification into the spotlight would be like stopping the placement of wood on a fire. Eventually, without fuel, progress would burn out.
Video games, with their continuing place at the forefront of culture and entertainment, continue to hint at where engagement might lie next.
Perhaps, with a glance at some of the most popular game releases in the 2020s so far, narrative strength will be the next focus in wider industry gamification.
Regardless, the power of video games continues to drive gamified connectivity. What that looks like in the future is unknown, but it holds a style of engagement that packs a punch.
Author: Hannah Marie ZT.
Sponsored content: This article was produced in partnership with GGBET.
