A question I get asked a lot is, “Why does gamification fail?”. Gartner said that by 2014, 80% of gamified systems will fail due to poor design. My question is, what is poor design? I had thought that it was really just implementing “thin layer” points, badges and leader boards to a system that was already not working. Whilst that is true, it actually misses out on some important extra factors.
So, with that in mind, here are some reasons that I feel will contribute to gamification not working.
Lots happening this week, the biggest being the fact that I will be presenting at SocialNow.org this week. As such, it has been mostly prep for that in the last couple of days, so no time for a proper blog I’m afraid. However, I still have some bits for you.
The first. I started writing a little game called the Green Button. It is short and very alpha, but I would love you to have a go and let me know what you think! https://gamified.uk/green-button/index.htm
Next, I have decided to publish my personal code of ethics and offer you all the opportunity to sign up for it (and get a badge for your site 😉 ). No cost, no catch, no qualifications needed. https://gamified.uk/gamification-code-of-ethics/
2012 was a heck of a year for my self discovery. I had not realised until now just how many blogs I had written, covering subjects from video games to social media to gamificaiton and Harry Potter. I was also interesting to see that my switch from heavily blogging about Social Media in 2011 to blogging about Gamificaiton was almost total! Not all of it was good, some was plain wrong, but this synopsis of 2012 really shows my journey through a field that is new and exciting to me and many others. Have a great Christmas, thanks for reading my stuff and I look forward to creating loads of new content in 2013. The year will start with a great interview with Richard Bartle – I can’t wait to publish that!!
Good day and all. Today I am merely rambling to try to either prove or disprove an idea I have.
I was thinking about short definitions for Gamification – outside of the usual
Add game mechanics to non game tasks
The more I look at Gamification, the more unsatisfied I am with that description. There is so much more to Gamification.
I have written in length about that side of Gamification. The use of extrinsic rewards, badges, leaderboards, social elements etc. The more I look, the more I realise how much more we are trying to capture under that one wading of Gamification.