Infinite Gamification

I have to admit that even after 46 years in education, 36 years teaching 7 to 13 year olds mainly mathematics and science, and the last 10 years challenging pupils with puzzling, I had not come across the terminology, Gamification, until I received Toby Beresford, book, “Infinite Gamification”. When I found out the definition and how it is related to education I was much relieved because that has been my philosophy on teaching and learning throughout my career. “Today’s football practice game we will be using two balls!” – a different perspective to keep the interest going.

The book is comprehensive with clear models of gamification with little jargon, if any. From my perspective this work is a must in education which will enhance teaching strategies but also look at the structure and workings of the staffing structures.

The analogies cover a broad spectrum of life which gives one a tool to improve gamification in any task they are tackling.

This book is about Gamification and its application to improve the motivation of your team. It talks about the 3 phases that are required to complete any Gamification program. These phases are - Analysis, Design and Evolution.

I have never read a book on Gamification and after reading the title of this book, the first question that came to my mind was - What is Gamification ? Is Gamification good or bad ?

With a little bit of research I found that Gamification may be a new term but the idea of using game-thinking and game - mechanics to solve problems and engage audiences isn’t exactly new. The Military has been using games and simulations for hundreds of years. These days It can be used to increase engagement in any area like online marketing of a product or a service or to increase learner’s engagement in education.

Gamification is also being used heavily in the health sector to change behavior, to aid in cognitive and physical development of children.

Humans like playing games. And, Gamification works by encouraging people to engage in desired behaviours by taking advantage of this tendency of humans.

A typical finite Gamification program has a beginning, middle, and end. The end reflects in an epic win, a top level, a complete collection of badges.. But, an infinite Gamification program works well in situations where you desire a continuous improvement and the program is designed to continue forever. The book talks about both of these two concepts but it’s main focus is on Infinite Gamification.

As I said earlier the Most of the programs fit into the finite gamification model and the programs end when the learner passes the final hurdle and achieves supposed mastery.

But, in real life, mastery doesn’t happen just because you have completed the education process - there is still the need to adopt the skills into your day to day life and then perform them well.

It is in these two latter stages - adoption and performance - that infinite gamification becomes more important.

The Book says - A sustainable program that motivates teams and individuals to continuous improvements is the goal of infinite gamification. Examples of infinite gamifications are -
-- The Oscars - where status is awarded every year
-- Time Magazine’s person of the year - where status is accorded based on the media coverage
-- English Premier League - where status is based on the results of games played.
-- Transparency Index - where countries compete not to be shamed at the bottom of the index.

In Fact in most businesses you can find infinite gamification such as -
-- Employees of the month
-- Scores in loyalty programs and so on.

The next question comes to mind, why does a manager, a marketer or a leader need to Gamify ? the author answers this by saying that - Leadership usually involves an infinite gamification program to influence colleagues or direct subordinates and infinite gamification equips them with a new powerful influence tool. At some level leaders signpost the behaviour they want to see in others. It might be as simple as ‘doing or not doing’ with a graded level of achievement. One example of this could be whether a salesperson contacts 10 prospects or not per day. In return we calibrate our behaviour to the score given to us as we all are sensitive to scores from childhood. And this is where Gamification becomes a powerful effective tool for leaders.

Most Infinite gamification programs are based on scores, be it the Oscars or the English Premier League, Because consciously or not we all keep track of the score that matters to us. With the rise of the digital world, we are now presented with more scores than ever. How many followers do I have, likes for the post etc. the book says that a well- designed score enables you to succeed. A badly designed score drives negative behaviours - like apathy, cheating, or other wrong behaviours.

Sometimes, the badly designed scores can wreak havoc. For example - People taking selfies from roof tops risking death in the quest for more social media likes.

So a badly designed infinite gamification program can kill you. It’s worth taking the time to design the score well.

The book says that any new Gamification program comes into fruition in three main phases -

-- Analysis
-- Design and
-- Evolution

What is done in the Analysis phase ? In the analysis phase the requirements are clarified. Target players are located. And, Existing infinite gamification programs, score cards, leagues are identified for the target players. In this phase you will hear the terms like - Prime Directive, Data Sourcing, Score Context, StakeHolder Analysis, Player Motivation, Players Opt-in Spectrum etc.

The Next phase is Design. In this phase you would come with a design for a Scorecard and a League. A Scorecard will be based on some score algorithm evaluating many metrics. Using Score card players will get feedback on their progress. And using League, Players can compare their progress with others. Please note that, A player can be an individual person or a team who is participating in the league. In this phase you will talk about - Vanity and Clarity Metrics, Lag and Lead Metrics, Score Methods, Ranking methods, Later Arrival Handling, Leaderboard Layout, Scoreboard Layout, Badge Design etc.

The third phase is - Evolution. The infinite gamification program iterates and changes over the time. The best programs have processes in place to manage change. Without Evolution, Program can break and result in unwanted side effects and disengagement. In this phase you will hear about the maturity model, Metric Maturity, player Maturity and committee which will affect Evolution.

Finally the verdict on this book. This book is nice and it can give you ample information to start an infinite gaming program to change the behaviour of your team or their responses in certain situations. The book nicely explains the basics of Gamification.

You may want to explore another book on the same subject - Gamification by Design: By Gabe Zichermann.

Great book, shows a plethora of tips and tricks on gamifying things in life, would highly recommend, Can't wait for more books from this author.