More than 10,000 players participate in the World Series of Poker. The ultimate motivation for the top pros is the prize money. But for many beginners, it is the satisfaction of mastering and expert application of the poker rules. For Indian gamers too, creativity and/or self-expression are among the top three motivations for playing games online.
As a multi-billion-dollar industry, games have been successful for its instant attention-grabbing capacity. This aspect of games has been adopted by many other industries, and this adoption has benefitted them immensely. Businesses try to replicate the basic mechanics of the gaming industry and use it for their operational benefits. No wonder 70% of the top 2000 companies in the world are using game mechanics.
Using Game Mechanics
With more than 83% of internet users playing online games at some point, almost everyone is familiar with gaming mechanics. There are challenges and quests to be achieved in games. You also achieve points and rewards to show for your top gamesmanship. The achievements are then reflected in leaderboards. Gamers who are not on the leaderboard aspire to be on it one day. Along the way, beat the gaming levels, which helps you progress in the game.
The challenges and quests, points and rewards, leaderboards and levels – these are the simplest of gaming mechanics that have proven to be so useful even outside the world of gaming entertainment. When translated into a business setting, game mechanics have proven to be a masterstroke for many strategists.
If you are using one of those wellness smartwatches, like Fitbit, you would know. You are jogging and running but also achieving daily challenges and rewards. You are even beating your friends and family on your way to the fitness leaderboard. It’s your fitness, but it’s also a game within it!
Gamifying Your Experience
Like Fitbit, Nike has also introduced the Nike Run Club to motivate runners. The Nike+ FuelBand tracked the runner’s progress, milestones and rewards. When it comes to an academic course, it can be difficult to keep the attention of students intact. E-learning platforms like Khan Academy and Duolingo have used game mechanics to make learning more interesting. Khan Academy courses have integrated gamified features like badges and progress trackers that make studying fun for the students. Language app Duolingo has points and levels you can achieve and a leaderboard you can vie for.
Gamification is also helping companies engage with customers and attain their loyalty. Loyalty programs, in particular, are universally used by businesses of all types. From spinning the wheel of fortune on your favourite e-commerce app to accumulating reward points on online purchases, businesses engage continually with customers through gamified techniques.
The Starbucks reward program is often quoted as an effective example of the successful use of game mechanics. The membership program does the whole drill of scanning member codes, adding funds, paying with a Starbucks card and earning ‘stars’ that are redeemable on future food and drink purchases. 52% of Starbucks’ sales are through this program. IDFC FIRST Bank credit cards have a slab-based rewards program, where your reward points can increase by five times if you spend beyond a monthly threshold level.
In the meantime, the use of game mechanics in the gaming industry is not limited to the playing experience. For instance, gamers can use their poker rules expertise to win game sessions on the poker platform Pocket52. But they can also win rewards with the app’s Pocket Vault loyalty program. The Pocket52 rewards or coins can be used for a quick cashback.
Gamification, in all its forms, is receiving a lot of positive responses from the target audience as well.
The Audience and the Enforcer
The positive response from the target audience is reflected in the findings of a survey, which states that 70% of online shoppers want gaming elements as a part of their shopping experience. 36% of them would even prefer them during their in-store shopping experience.
Thanks to this popularity, gamification is a market in itself, valued at $10 billion as of 2022. Given its rapid expected growth of nearly 28% CAGR, the gamification market could be worth $116 billion by 2032. Many service providers provide gamification as a service. Even top IT companies like Wipro offer gamification services that cover employee experience, training and customer loyalty. Many game development companies have also started ‘gamification as a service’ as a vertical.
Beyond Entertainment
Using the game mechanics, businesses are gamifying the everyday lives of their consumers and enhancing the customer experience in the process. It is also resulting in improved customer engagement and retention. When applied internally, a gamified experience has been linked to employee productivity and motivation as well. Given these benefits, game mechanics continue to pay rich dividends to industries beyond entertainment.
