In today’s market, so many services are trying to be a game in some way or another. Even traditional games are bringing in video game progress elements. Learning a language? Playing blackjack, or chess? Trying to get fit? Trading stocks? You’ll probably find the app for that is filled with videogame style elements on top of the core activity. Progress bars, XP rewards, unlocks, streaks, leaderboards – all of these are common in a diverse range of digital services today.
But why is that? How did it get this way? And where are things going in the future? Answering those questions means looking into psychology, economics and the history of game design.
The Attention Economy and Engagement Metrics
The understood idea is that gamification (when done properly) increases engagement, and that’s what app developers want. Because the higher the user engagement, the more eyeballs on adverts. Or the more premium subs sold to avoid those adverts.
Some studies have shown that gamification can increase time spent by users up to 1000%, although it is rarely this effective or simple for most developers.
The attention economy, based on holding engagement or attention for as long as possible, is now massive. Companies spend $700 billion on digital advertising yearly, according to market research.
You’ll even find games that spend money on marketing, while also receiving money from marketing firms for ads in their product.
However, digital apps especially are a cutthroat market. Some 25% of apps are only used once on average by any given individual user. And now with AI on the market, they’re easier to develop and put out than ever before.
Customers are also becoming wary of gamification in some cases. So many sectors, even services that require spending to play games already, have added in these extra gaming elements. And because they’re now so widespread, a lot of developers are not doing them well.
Business Sectors That Use Gamification, and Why
Even casinos and gambling platforms use this strategy, despite already being real money games. For example, the casinos that are best rated in the US by comparison sites often have daily regular rewards, and XP meters that fill up to unlock potentially bigger prizes. Players use these expert resources to see all the bonuses, game collections and payment options in one place – so casinos add extra gamification elements to stand out in their lists.
If you know online casinos, you might remember they often used to offer weekly cashback. Now they’re much more likely to offer a tiered reward system with daily offers, that provide steady prizes throughout play and can be used to unlock varying rewards like free spins, bets or cash prizes. Even land-based casinos in the US now often have gamified reward points systems.
Other sectors that use gamification extensively in the modern day include:
- Finance
- Education
- Health and Fitness
- Retail
- Other games like chess
- Social media for creators
Things like daily rewards first really began in MMOs and are now common across many of these businesses. World of Warcraft and MapleStory in particular were pioneers of this model. Something that many people who use a fitness or language learning app for example might well not know.
The Risks and Where it Goes From Here
However, gamification is not as simple as it seems. You can’t take a bad app or useless service and slap some streak rewards and a progress bar on it and suddenly everyone will be spending 18 hours a day on it.
It can also lead to fatigue among users, when they become aware of the endless treadmill nature of the beast. Especially in services where users have paid a premium to avoid adverts, over gamification can come back and bite. Or things that entail some financial risk like trading or gambling.
However, when it works well, the rewards are huge. Daily quests have basically kept (retail at least) World of Warcraft as big as it is for years at this point. Duolingo’s streak system is so infamously engaging it has become a meme.
Although not simple, there are companies that have seen 100x on engagement metrics using gamification concepts. The key to real reward systems that players engage with is actually offering tangible rewards.
The most recent Call of Duty – Black Ops 7 – for example, was criticized for using AI-generated unlocks that players said were uninspired and they didn’t feel were worth unlocking. Another example has been ecommerce giant Amazon. The global retailer has been steadily gamifying employee workflows at its massive warehouses, which has been controversial with workers and in the media.
Casinos get around this because their rewards do sometimes pay decent prizes, and little cash wins can add up. Meanwhile, language learning and fitness apps come with real life progress in the skill. However, people see through excess gamification when the juice isn’t worth the squeeze.
Nevertheless, gamification is not going away anytime soon. It will just become more personalized and subtle.
