Chapter I
What is gamification?
If we had to define it in a single sentence, gamification would be the addition of game elements to activities that are not playful to begin with. It involves applying game mechanics in education, training or even marketing contexts, in order to boost user engagement and loyalty. Most of the time, the game elements used in gamification are points, badges and leaderboard systems.
The concept of gamification took off with the general public in the 2010s, when it was applied to social networks such as Foursquare. But the principles of gamification were actually set out back in 2003 by Yu-Kai Chou. This prodigy, then just 17 years old, devised a framework for assessing the drivers of gamification: the Octalysis. According to him, gamification rests on 8 universal core drives, which can be combined with one another in gamification systems of varying complexity:
Meaning (Epic Meaning & Calling): the desire to feel that our actions have a purpose
This is the drive through which the player feels the conviction that they are taking part in something greater than themselves, or that they have been chosen to do something. You find this drive behind people who are highly active on forums or in communities such as Wikipedia. You also find it when a player discovers, early in their journey, a gift or an item they believe other players do not have: they then feel they have a great stroke of luck that this drive grants them right from the start of the game.
Accomplishment (Development & Accomplishment): the will to take on and overcome challenges
The accomplishment drive is the internal drive that lets us make progress, develop skills and overcome challenges. Without challenges, badges and trophies lose their meaning. This drive is the easiest to design and underpins most reward systems based on points, badges or leaderboards.
Empowerment (Empowerment of Creativity & Feedback): the desire to choose your own direction and try a variety of solutions to a problem
We talk about empowerment of creativity when users have to explore for themselves and try different combinations before they work things out. The empowerment drive means that people can try things out, see the results of their creativity, receive feedback and adjust. Environments such as Lego or painting are game mechanics that can even be enough in themselves. The creative options are endless, which is why, with this drive, there is not necessarily any need to add content to keep the activity engaging.
Ownership (Ownership & Possession): the desire to own things
With this drive, users are engaged because they feel they own something. If players own something, they will seek to improve what they have and to own even more. This drive corresponds to the will to accumulate wealth, so it relates to virtual worlds that let people accumulate virtual goods or virtual currency. The notion of ownership in a game also appears in the personalisation of the player's profile: the more they can personalise it, the more they feel it belongs to them. Finally, this principle of possession also lies behind the desire to collect something, such as stamps.
Social influence (Social Influence & Relatedness): the will to interact with, help, learn from and compete with others
This drive is rooted in the social relationship elements that have the power to motivate people: the desire for recognition and acceptance, the desire to mentor or help, camaraderie, and even competition or envy. If a friend is very good at something, we will naturally be inclined to want to reach the same level. If they own something extraordinary, we may want it too. This tendency to refer to people and social codes also appears in our natural will to gravitate towards what resembles us. This drive is also the one that draws us towards things that remind us of our childhood or of memories, and it is widely used in marketing.
Scarcity and impatience (Scarcity & Impatience): the will to want things we cannot have
This drive plays on the motivation of wanting what we cannot get. You find it in games that make you wait a certain amount of time before winning something: if we cannot have it straight away, we will only think about it until we get it. This is the drive Facebook owes its success to: initially reserved exclusively for Harvard students, it gradually opened up to a carefully selected handful of prestigious schools. By the time it opened to the general public, success was guaranteed, because its elitist nature had stirred up everyone's desire.
Unpredictability (Unpredictability & Curiosity): wanting to know what happens next
This drive lies behind the urge to want to know what happens next. If we are left in suspense without knowing what is going to happen, there is a strong chance the brain will think of nothing else. This is a principle that binge-watching series relies heavily on and that makes Netflix's fortune, but you also find it in films and reading. In short, this is suspense. This drive lies behind the competitions or prize draws run by brands to engage their audiences, as well as behind initiatives such as story learning. On the downside, it is also the drive behind gambling addiction.
Avoidance (Loss & Avoidance): the will to avoid pain or negative consequences.
On a small scale, this drive lies behind wanting to avoid losing things achieved in the past, such as a house and a community in The Sims. On a larger scale, it relates for example to not wiping out the entire value of a journey by stopping before reaching your goal. This is the drive that marketing uses in the form of flash sales, for instance: if you do not act right now, the opportunity will be gone forever.
Players: typical profiles and motivations
Richard Bartle, professor, author and researcher in the field of games, created the Bartle taxonomy. It is a classification of video game players based on a paper he wrote in 1996, and it still defines player types today according to their preferred actions in the game.
- Achievers
Their goal: to reach a status and accomplish their aim
What engages them: the desire to succeed
- Socializers
Their goal : to socialise and build a network of friends and contacts
What engages them: checking news feeds and friend lists, and interacting
- Explorers
Their goal : to explore and discover the game world
What engages them: being set puzzling objectives
- Killers
Their goal : to win, the leaderboard and direct competition with their peers
What engages them: scores, leaderboards and rankings
The 4 types of "fun"
Nicole Lazzaro, president of XEODesigns, put forward hypotheses about the reasons that drive people to play. Based on her observations of players and non-players, she was able to classify 4 broad types of emotion under the "fun" typology in order to characterise what engages players.
- Hard Fun: feeling pride after taking on a difficult challenge
- Easy Fun: feeling curiosity while exploring role-play and creative possibilities
- Serious Fun: being able to act on a game environment
- People Fun: being entertained by being placed in situations of competition or cooperation
But what are the different forms of gamification?
Chapter II
A brief history of gamification
The use of gamification took off from the 2010s onwards with badge and reward systems on social media, before spreading into many fields, from marketing to training. But the concept did not come out of nowhere. It is rooted in practices observed more than 120 years ago, whose aim was already to create engagement and reinforce positive behaviours.
1896: S&H Green Stamps
The Sperry & Hutchinson company created the first reward programme with these little green stamps. Handed to customers at the checkout in supermarkets, shops and petrol stations, they could be exchanged for products listed in a rewards catalogue.
1908: The Boy Scouts movement is born in the United States
One of the Boy Scout traditions was to award badges to recognise their achievements. To earn a new badge, you had to become competent in a particular activity.
1973: Theorising the power of play to engage employees
Charles Coonradt, the grandfather of gamification, published the book "The Game of Work" in 1973. Its purpose was to address the problem of falling productivity in the United States. In the book, he notes that productivity was declining while sales of sports and leisure equipment were rising. He then suggested that play and entertainment could be the answer to this engagement problem in companies.
1978: The birth of social video games
The ancestor of multiplayer games such as World Of Warcraft or Fortnite, the game MUD1 came to life. Created by Roy Trubshaw and Richard Bartle, this multi-user dungeon game launched the great movement of online social games.
1980: Publication of the essay "What Makes Things Fun to Learn"
Thomas Malone, today a professor of management at the MIT Sloan School of Management, published the study: "What Makes Things Fun to Learn: A Study of Intrinsically Motivating Computer Games".
1981: American Airlines launches AAdvantage
AAdvantage is considered the world's first loyalty programme. It encouraged customer loyalty by offering rewards to frequent customers. A model that is now widespread in almost every sector, from large-scale retail to fast food.
1982: Academics recognise the potential of gaming
Computer games show their ability to engage users. Articles begin to appear exploring the possible uses of play for productivity purposes. As early as 1981, Thomas Malone had published "Toward a Theory of Intrinsically Motivating Instruction" and "Heuristics for Designing Enjoyable User Interfaces", two papers describing aspects of computer games that are applicable to other fields.
1983 and 1987: The first hotel and car-hire loyalty programmes
Holiday Inn launched the first hotel loyalty programme in 1983. Five years later, in 1987, it was National Car Rental's turn to launch the first car-hire rewards programme.
1990: 30% of American households own a NES
Gaming becomes a household norm, and access to games consoles becomes easier and easier from this period onwards. It is the birth of a whole new generation of players.
1996: Classification of video game player types
Richard Bartle, academic and writer specialising in video games, published "Who plays MUA" (MUA standing for Multi Users Adventures, or multiplayer video games). The paper sets out four types of player among video game players, determined by how they approach the game. This model would go on to underpin many gamification systems.
1999: the idea of fun is taken seriously
Stephen W. Draper published a paper arguing that user enjoyment should be at the heart of considerations when designing software.
2002: the term "gamification" is born
Nick Pelling, an English computer programmer and investigative writer, used the term gamification for the first time to describe the concept.
2005 - Creation of the first modern gamification platform
Rajat Paharia founded Bunchball, a platform designed to drive engagement on websites by adding a layer of game mechanics.
2007 - the gamification of household chores
Kevan Davis, a web developer and video game designer, developed Chore Wars. The site set out to gamify the sharing of household chores at home.
2009 - Quest to Learn, the first school to use a game-based environment
The Quest to Learn school was created. It was the result of a collaboration between the Institute of Play and the New York City Department of Education, with the support of the MacArthur Foundation and New Visions for Public Schools. The first school year welcomed a single Year 7 class. Each year it took on a new year group until 2015, when the school became a fully fledged secondary school.
2009: Launch of Foursquare
Foursquare met with massive enthusiasm. The app let users discover new places, while rewarding them for their discoveries or for how regularly they "check in" somewhere. The app ran on a system of badges and rewards that would later be widely adopted by companies across all sectors.
2010: Devhub
Simply by adding a points system to its website, DevHub managed to increase user engagement by 70%.
2010: Gamification Summit.
Gamification Co organised the very first Gamification Summit in San Francisco, California.
2012: Kevin Werbach's gamification course on Coursera
In 2012, 45,000 people signed up to Professor Kevin Werbach's online gamification course on Coursera.
2012: Gartner predictions
In 2012, Gartner predicted that 70% of global organisations would have at least one gamified application by 2014. In 2013, gamification had a wider reach than expected. In 2014, 9 out of 10 companies reported that their gamification efforts were a success.
2016: Gamification gains value
The gamification market is estimated at 4.9 billion dollars.
2021: the global gamification market is estimated at 11.94 billion dollars
Impressive growth that has only kept gathering pace.
2023: Generative AI enters gamification
The rise of large language models opens a new era: gamified content (quizzes, scenarios, challenges) can be generated and personalised in real time, considerably reducing production costs.
2024: Gamification establishes itself in frontline training
With the rise of Mobile Learning, gamification is becoming the standard for training frontline teams. Specialist platforms combine microlearning, rewards and Social Learning to reach operational teams wherever they are.
Chapter III
The pros and cons of gamification
Gamification is fun!
The first advantage of gamification: it is fun, when it is done well. An activity that feels like a game brings pleasure to whoever completes it, and a good reason to come back to it. The idea of play is universal. If gamified activities can become addictive, it is first and foremost because they generate positive emotions.
Gamification boosts motivation, engagement and productivity
With its system of objectives and rewards, gamification works directly on user motivation, whether they are consumers, company employees or learners. Engagement is the cornerstone of many systems, starting with productivity in the workplace. In a learning context, it is proven that learners are more likely to spend time on a learning game if it draws on a reward system. Badges and points provide a tangible reward. A 2006 study on video games identified three motivating factors that drive players to engage with a game:
- The desire for accomplishment: players want to succeed and show that they can take on the game's challenges.
- Social factors: players are motivated by contact with other players and by team spirit.
- Immersion: players are motivated to explore the game's possibilities and create personal experiences.
On the productivity side, the principle is simple: the more motivated you are, the more productive you are. Game dynamics create a relaxed environment that supports skills development.
Gamification has the power of positive reinforcement
Gamification, when used well, can help bring about a positive shift in users' feelings, attitudes and behaviours. Play is often used in a context of positive reinforcement, particularly in prevention, but also in raising awareness of safety rules or of internal policies.
Learning retention and cognitive development through gamification
Play makes learners active participants in their own learning. By mobilising them, it allows for greater attention and better retention of training content, compared with simply reading or sitting through a lecture (much like informal learning). What is more, gamification contributes to cognitive development. A 2013 study by Blumberg & Fisch explains that games which invite critical thinking and problem-solving improve learners' ability to process and retain information. Training that uses gamification also captures attention more quickly.
Gamification makes learning visible
A progress bar on the screen, a points system, objectives to achieve, levels to complete and unlock: game environments, or those inspired by games, let users see their progress in real time, along with the skills they have acquired and their level. In a learning context, gamification makes it possible to track how concepts are being absorbed, but also to track your own level of progress relative to other learners. This information can, for example, prompt the learner to redo quizzes or activities to get a better score.
Gamification eases the fear of failure and dropping out of learning
Failure is part of learning, but in a training context it can cause embarrassment for learners. In a game, by contrast, failure is most often an invitation to try again and do better. Who, when they were younger, just threw in the towel at the first "game over"? With gamification, the learning dynamic changes: it follows that of the game, in which failure is part of the process. A 2013 study by Huang, Hsin-Yuan and Soman explains that gamification encourages learners to fail and retry learning tasks without embarrassment.
Gamification fosters social connections
Leaderboards and points systems let players place themselves within the group, but also interact with its members. In certain contexts, gamification encourages people to interact with one another, whether to form teams, collaborate on challenges or take part in healthy competition.
BUT...
Poorly executed gamification has negative consequences
What are the limits of gamification? Applying gamification mechanics to training or marketing requires you to understand what you are dealing with. Gamification is not just about slapping game mechanics (points, leaderboards, badges) onto a training course or a campaign. If it is not properly executed, gamification can have harmful consequences, potentially even achieving the opposite of the intended effect. "Bad" gamification can encourage unhealthy competition, put users off a product, frustrate users or generate hostility, make people lose sight of the activity's primary purpose (which is not the game), or simply fail to suit the target audience, who then turn away from it. To avoid such pitfalls, it is advisable to work with specialists who are familiar with gamification, or to call on solutions that specialise in gamifying training or marketing.
Gamification can cause an attention deficit
In a training context, for example, learners who are used to a fast pace and immediate feedback on their actions may show a certain impatience or frustration when faced with longer formats. To avoid falling into the trap of snacking in a training context, it is advisable to use gamification phases intermittently, alternating more in-depth theoretical training (for example via an LMS) with gamified microlearning, as found in a blended learning context.
Engagement that can wear off once the novelty has passed
Over time, any game can become tiresome if it does not renew itself. Witness the world-famous Farmville, which bid farewell on 31 December 2020. Maintaining user interest over time is the great challenge of gamification, because while it does deliver real engagement, it must constantly renew itself to keep it. To survive over time and keep users, consumers or learners engaged, gamification must be able to deliver useful benefits and a constant flow of fresh content.
Chapter IV
From education to the workplace: a gamification approach that appeals
From the first gamification experiments to today, the market has grown to a global scale, driven by widespread digitalisation. If gamification works, it is not only thanks to points, badges, leaderboards and challenges. It is also because it lets users acquire new skills while playing. Today, the player profile bears no resemblance to yesterday's clichés: players are everywhere, across all ages and all profiles.
Gamification in the workplace
Gamification contributes to the digital transformation of the workplace, while opening up new ways to drive productivity. It works on employee motivation and engagement. Having fun at work is no longer frowned upon: it has even become an expectation, driven by generations for whom socialising, collaboration and enjoyment are an integral part of the professional experience.
In 2013, the American operator T-Mobile [reported impressive figures] linked to the implementation of gamification on its internal collaboration platform: employee contributions reportedly jumped by 583%, and customer satisfaction scores by 31%. The result: reduced costs, improved customer service and more engaged teams. A return on investment that is hard to ignore.
Applying gamification in marketing
Digital has given marketing a scale never seen before, opening up new ways to drive user engagement and boost sales. In fiercely competitive markets, customer loyalty is the prize that advertisers fight over. In this context, gamification has proved to be a tool of choice for building long-term relationships with customers, as shown by programmes such as Starbucks', which is a worldwide success. In some cases, gamification within marketing can even deliver the viral effect that every advertiser dreams of.
Gamification in learning
Gamification is now the new bet of education and training. With the digitalisation of training and the rollout of fully digital or blended learning programmes, one of the greatest challenges for trainers is to capture and hold learners' attention. So, how do you prepare your trainers for gamification? You need to create programmes that are engaging, interactive and easy to access and use. With remote learning and increasingly self-directed learners, the engagement challenge has grown even greater. Gamification offers a universal answer to these challenges, making it possible to design programmes suited to every generation, in a game language that is easy for everyone to grasp. From gamified learning modules such as mobile learning to immersive, multi-level serious games, play is taking over learning, or rather the other way round.
Platforms such as Beedeez build these mechanics in natively for frontline teams: short gamified modules, team leaderboards, progression badges, all accessible from any device, without a permanent connection.
Chapter V
How do you bring gamification into the professional training of your frontline teams?
Frontline teams are the hardest to engage in training: 54% have already given up on a training course for lack of time, and 52% find courses too long and unsuitable (IFOP x Beedeez 2024). Bite-sized formats, immediate rewards, peer-to-peer learning: gamification answers precisely these barriers.
Identify the business objectives and challenges the gamification programme must address
These objectives must be specific (who the training is aimed at, what to teach, with which tool), measurable (the outcomes must be assessable) and realistic (achievable given the company's context). An unattainable objective demotivates more than it engages.
Examples of such objectives might include:
- Improving the customer satisfaction rate for an after-sales service by xx%
- Increasing the proportion of sales staff who are proficient in English by xx%
- Improving team management by managers
- And so on.
Know your learners' profiles
Gamifying training means getting to know the players, and therefore the learners. Whether they are head-office teams or field teams such as the sales force, employees on building sites and so on, it is important to take everyone's needs and constraints into account.
Who are they? What motivates them? Creating learner personas within the company helps you understand the reality of their profile and their work, then put yourself in their shoes to grasp what might spark their engagement in gamified training. In the same vein, age and professional profile can change a great deal in how gamification is received. As we have already said, play remains a universal language. Among the criteria to look at when establishing learner profiles is their professional and academic background, which helps identify communities of players by job type. Players' psychological profile, whether they are more competitive or more collaboration-focused, is another important criterion. Finally, gender and country can be another way of segmenting players, although more and more training tends to address audiences without paying attention to their origins or gender.
Define the intended flow of the learning
This step involves defining how the gamified learning experience will unfold, and drawing up a training plan. It is not about sprinkling scored quizzes here and there, but about determining which game mechanics will be used together to create a coherent, engaging experience that meets the objectives set beforehand. Training in the form of gamification might, for example, feature storytelling that immerses learners in a mission or a learning adventure. Determining the path also involves a choice of game mechanics: will learners be invited to compete with one another or to collaborate? Finally, it is about determining the rewards and the degree of gamification of the training. This part of defining the learning path also involves deciding how learners will complete missions as part of the learning. Whether it is quizzes, challenges, puzzles to solve or narrative play that follows a story-driven path, each choice made according to learner profiles determines the future success of the gamified training. In any case, it is not necessarily essential to create immersive game worlds to deliver an effective gamification experience in training. It can also be about adding a playful dimension to regular training on safety, legislation or any other subject which, over time and because of its repetitive nature, demotivates learners when it is still delivered in the "traditional" way.
Determine the gamification reward system
Gamifying training necessarily rests on a reward system: it is the engine of engagement. The most widely used reward systems in gamification are points, badges and leaderboards, which can be applied within training without any problem. Depending on the type of reward chosen, the game dynamic will differ for the learner. You have to choose wisely, depending on whether you want to create a dynamic of competition between teams, of personal challenge, and so on. A points system sets up a dynamic of gratification, a level system creates a notion of status, badges create a dynamic geared towards recognition, and finally leaderboards bring a dynamic of competition between learners. Once the reward mechanic has been decided, the next step is to design a scale to set the reward for each learner action. The whole challenge at this step lies in setting a scale that does not encourage the learner to repeat simple actions with no learning value, just to earn points. You have to keep in mind the objectives set before designing the training in order to determine how to reward each action. Finally, this step is also where you choose the substance of the rewards. Do you stick to points? Do points unlock concrete rewards such as gifts or access to exclusive content? Are the rewards thanks or congratulations, or even social recognition such as likes from other learners?
Determine the gamification engagement loops
Drawn from the world of games, engagement loops aim to capture the player's attention and keep them engaged for as long as possible. A rather interesting mechanism if it is successfully reproduced in a training context. With gamification, engagement loops make it possible to give value to the learner's actions as well as to their level of progress. They help the learner realise that their knowledge is growing as they advance through the training. Engagement loops involve progression phases, which let you chain together loops at increasingly difficult levels so that the learner can progress in terms of skills. At this step, the main difficulty lies in designing suitable content, at a level high enough to drive learning and create engagement, without discouraging through too much difficulty or demotivating through steps that are too simplistic. This is also the step where you determine how the learner will be able to track their own progress in the game, whether they are at the start or the end of their learning path.
Design rules that are easy to grasp and that meet the gamification objectives
Some people delight in board games that require two hours of poring over the rules beforehand (it is worth noting that when it comes to what governs the legal aspects of e-learning, it is a little, well, a lot, longer). When it comes to gamifying training, you should rather take the opposite approach to that kind of game. Not understanding demotivates, so the rules to follow must be presented clearly, and be intelligible and understandable by everyone. In this respect, you have to keep in mind the learner profiles identified beforehand. Furthermore, the rules of the game must serve the training objectives. They therefore specify the expected behaviours and how they will be rewarded, the points scales and the rewards to expect. The rules must clearly determine what is expected of learners.
Create an engaging visual environment
At the heart of gamification that works, you find engaging visual worlds that draw in the player-learner and keep them engaged. Bringing gamification into training means designing visually playful interfaces with intuitive, game-friendly ergonomics. As with any digital experience, friction in use is demotivating for learners. Training that uses gamification effectively knows how to make the most of the best of today's game interfaces. This is even more the case when it comes to mobile learning, since more and more game users do so on their smartphone, via apps. Whether it is the choice of colours or words, nothing should be left to chance, and everything can have an effect on learner engagement.
Three concrete examples for frontline teams
Sales challenges: A sales challenge turns a business objective into a gamified competition over a short period: a week, a day, a product launch. For example: the sales assistant who achieves the most upselling on a new product line during the week unlocks a "Launch Expert" badge and earns points on the team leaderboard. What makes all the difference compared with a traditional objective: the learner sees their progress in real time, places themselves relative to their peers, and receives an immediate reward. The sales challenge works particularly well on mobile, because sales staff can check their score between two customers, from the shop floor.
In-store competitions: Inter-team gamification creates a dynamic of healthy competition between shops, departments or sites. In practice: a weekly quiz on the new collections or on job procedures, with each shop building up collective points. The shop at the top of the leaderboard on Friday wins a team reward. This mechanic develops both product knowledge and internal cohesion: you no longer play for yourself, you play for your team. Frontline managers naturally become facilitators of the scheme, rallying their teams and commenting on the scores.
Badges by job skill: Rather than training on abstract subjects, badges by job skill reward the mastery of very concrete skills that are directly tied to the role. Examples: a "Customer Welcome" badge after completing a module on the 5 steps of welcoming a customer, a "Safety Gesture" badge after passing a quiz on emergency procedures, a "Peer Trainer" badge awarded when an employee shares a best practice in the community. Badges can be organised into levels (Bronze, Silver, Gold) to create visible progression over the long term. This system meets a strong need among frontline teams: to see that their skills are recognised, even without a diploma or formal certification.
Chapter VI
The different digital and non-digital tools for gamifying training
What do mobile learning and a board game have in common? Quite a lot, in fact. People talk a great deal about gamification in a digital context, but in reality, play existed long before video games and the internet. When it comes to gamifying training, there are many tools, some digital, some not. So, which tools should you favour for gamification? In fact, in recent years a renewed interest in board games has led people to turn to more traditional game formats with a view to gamifying training. In any case, each type of tool serves a purpose depending on the objectives and the learning context in which it is used.
Non-digital gamification tools
Board games
Board games used in a professional training context make it possible to convey training content or to put strategic learning into practice. Well-designed board games mimic the real world, where decisions and projects are made in collaborative environments. This kind of format gives the trainer the chance to observe how participants handle communication, collaboration and competition. Another distinctive feature: the board game format is time-limited, which makes it possible to test concepts within a fairly short space of time.
Card games
Card games have the particular advantage of being extremely easy to pick up and of having a fairly universal, cross-generational appeal. Card games can be particularly effective in three training areas: sales, negotiation and leadership. In sales, for example, the cards can be used to present scenarios to respond to within a set time. In the same vein, they can be used to learn negotiation techniques by setting challenges for the players. Finally, in a leadership training context, there are card games that teach strategic and critical thinking on leadership issues.
Role-play
As its name suggests, role-play makes it possible to run scenario-based exercises. It places the learner at the centre of the learning process by prompting them to make strategic decisions in the moment and to be a fully active participant in their own learning. In this context, the trainer is a facilitator. This gamification format is particularly suited to training contexts that touch on activities such as sales, soft skills, personal development or even management.
Escape games
The ultimate level of immersion for training that draws on gamification, the escape game immerses the learner totally and physically in a world. The learner teams up with other participants to solve a puzzle within a set time. In this kind of exercise, it is the ability to collaborate, the powers of observation and critical and strategic thinking that are called on most.
Digital gamification tools
Mobile learning
Mobile learning is often used as a gamification tool. It allows for short, engaging formats thanks to microlearning.
In a frontline context, gamified mobile learning takes very concrete forms: a "product of the day" quiz sent each morning before opening, a leaderboard between sales staff updated in real time on the app, or a weekly challenge set by the manager for the whole team. These short formats (under 5 minutes) fit naturally into the quiet moments of the day without affecting productivity.
LMS and LXP
Today most Learning Management Systems and Learning eXperience Platforms offer a gamification layer. They make it possible to design gamified training sequences and modules, most often using points, badges and leaderboards.
Online game or app
There are gamification platforms that let you develop bespoke games. These platforms for creating simple educational games make it possible to round out the training or the teaching sequence. With such a platform, the trainer decides on the content and learning objectives and creates exercises accordingly.
Virtual reality
Virtual reality is, almost by definition, a game. In training that uses virtual reality, the same fundamental principles as in a game are employed: an objective, rules, decision moments, resolution mechanics and feedback. In a gamification context, virtual reality places learners in a variety of scenarios involving puzzles, adventures, role-play, strategies, actions or simulations. This tool can be used in contexts such as flight training, or law-enforcement training.
Augmented reality
Augmented reality uses mobile technology readily available on a phone or tablet to provide additional information about the player's environment. This tool is used in a variety of contexts: sales simulation, managing complex situations in store, safety-gesture training, law-enforcement training or flight training.
Chapter VII
What gamification brings...
...to social learning
Social learning is an essential partner of gamification in training and learning. If you look at the global adoption rate of social networks, you quickly understand that social interaction, whether virtual or not, also has an important role to play in a training context.
It is therefore no surprise that social learning and gamification coexist so harmoniously. More and more trainers are calling on the creation of groups, virtual or not, in a training context in order to drive learner engagement. Learning communities form. Social learning shifts the centre of gravity of learning: the trainer is no longer the only source of knowledge, the group becomes one in its own right. The interaction between the trainer, the learners and their learning environment forms a social learning network, at the heart of which sits collaborative learning.
More and more platforms and learning ecosystems are building in social-network elements such as adding friends or a news feed. With this social "layer", they combine gamification elements such as points or badge systems. Gamified lessons become quests, and the social learning added on top opens up further possibilities. Learners can team up to complete levels or solve puzzles in order to move on to the next lesson, for example. Some learning games built into training can draw on social learning to drive interaction between learners. Social learning in a gamification context also makes it possible to instil notions of mutual help or healthy competition, with the help of forums or challenges set between participants.
...to blended learning
In a blended learning context, training content is delivered both through "traditional" training methods and through methods that draw on digital and online learning. Gamification lends itself particularly well to blended learning: it introduces game mechanics into a set-up that lacks them, and gives learners a degree of autonomy over their own path.
In a blended learning context, gamification drives motivation and gives learners work goals, whether that is winning a place on the leaderboard, levelling up or earning points and badges. Gamification carries training beyond the classroom, letting learners continue or consolidate what they have learnt from anywhere.
Gamification used with blended learning enables a first step towards learner autonomy in their training path. With play, they engage more readily in modules such as quizzes, often based on microlearning, which allow for a degree of self-regulated learning. Points and leaderboard systems can also let trainers track learner progress almost in real time, in order to adjust concepts or instructions if needed during in-person or synchronous training phases.
In other cases, gamification in blended learning makes it possible to identify and overcome the barriers faced by learners who are struggling, and to put in place support in the form of tutoring. Gamification fosters the independence and flexibility expected in blended learning.
...to team building
Gamification applied to team building boosts its effectiveness considerably. In recent years, digital tools have been used more and more in a team-building context. Tablets and smartphones have often stolen the show from pens and paper.
In a context such as team building, escape-game-style mechanics meet with huge success, because of the way they mobilise people as a team. They let participants step into different game worlds and take on fictional roles while developing technical, interpersonal and leadership skills.
Combining gamification and learning creates a context that supports team consolidation, because stakeholders work together towards a common goal while having fun with the game. In this context, a group victory is all the sweeter, because the "fun" has been shared, whatever the players' profiles and personal motivations in the game. Shared fun creates a bond between participants, and the feeling of having achieved something together, rather than each on their own, is precisely what team building seeks to produce.
Chapter VIII
Serious games: definition and use in gamification
The main purpose of serious games since their creation has been training or the transfer of knowledge, along with putting it into practice. Even though the word "game" appears in their name, that is therefore not at all their primary function. They are geared more towards professional development than entertainment. Serious games are most often used by companies in a context of complex training. You find applications in the education, government, scientific research and even healthcare sectors.
Why use serious games?
Serious games have a strong power to engage learners. They can be used in several contexts.
- Performance management
The serious game is well suited to a performance-management context, because it makes it possible to identify areas for improvement in the learner-employee. It helps spot bad habits, limiting beliefs or mistakes the employee was not aware of, and which were limiting their effectiveness without them knowing.
- Knowledge reinforcement
Serious games can serve a knowledge-reinforcement function, by immersing the learner in a world where they have to draw on knowledge acquired in the past in order to mobilise it again.
- Application in real conditions
The serious game makes it possible to create conditions close to reality so that learners can put into practice the theoretical knowledge gained in training. The serious game also makes it possible to test theories or take risks, in an environment that carries none. Think, for example, of conflict-resolution contexts.
- Risk mitigation
As mentioned above, a serious game environment removes the risks linked to decision-making mistakes. In a training context that involves making legally risky decisions, for example, the serious game provides a right to make mistakes so as to learn safely. At the same time, this virtual context lets the company avoid taking risks or exposing learners to them.
Why do serious games work?
For the same reason that immersive games appeal, serious games take people away from the real world and make it possible to break down many barriers and many fears about taking action. Real risk is removed, the player gains confidence and can express their instincts. What is more, serious games provide instant feedback, by allowing or not allowing the player to move up to the next level, through a message that flags up their mistake. The learner gets instant feedback on their performance in order to understand and adjust it.
Serious games have the particular ability to tap into intrinsic motivation: that of doing as well as possible, fulfilling yourself or being the best. Indeed, one difference with certain other gamification techniques in training is that the serious game does not call on peer recognition or on monetary or points-based rewards. The player competes with themselves. In this context, success carries all the more value and gives the player a strong sense of achievement. Once completed, serious games provide greater self-confidence: knowing that you have succeeded in a mission in the game gives you greater confidence to face a similar situation in a real work context.
Used remotely, in a context of remote-working learning or digital onboarding, serious games make it possible to recreate a professional environment for learning. They allow for better engagement, compared with LMS-based training, which does not have the feature of being immersive.
Serious games and gamification: are there any differences?
Some people distinguish serious games from the rest of the learning mechanics that use gamification. Often, gamification is regarded as a holistic design methodology, whereas serious games are a single unit of learning. Here are several points of differentiation:
- Structure
A serious game is standalone and it is an individual activity. Gamification is a "layer" built into the design of a course or a training programme. A serious game can be built into gamified training, but not necessarily the other way round.
- Learner motivation
Serious games will tend to call more on intrinsic motivation: completing the game is the reward. On the gamification side, you tend to seek extrinsic motivation based on reward or recognition systems.
- Design
Serious games can be developed independently of a training programme and can exist in their own right, meeting very specific training objectives. Gamifying a whole training programme can mean completely rethinking an existing strategy or modules that did not previously include any gamification.
- Use in training
Serious games and gamification do not serve the same function: the former are used more to bring about behaviour changes or introduce new subjects. Gamification, for its part, makes it possible to track learning and drive learner engagement throughout the training.
Where it gets complicated is that a serious game looks just like a game, in its design, its game and reward mechanics. The virtual worlds of serious games are complex and appealing, as are the characters. These games are extremely scripted and entirely geared towards learning: every action, every message serves a learning objective. Serious games have the ability to bring about behaviour changes and to enable positive reinforcement in their users when that is the intended aim. It is gamification taken to a point where the learning is no longer felt.
Why use serious games?
Serious games have a strong power to engage learners. They can be used in several contexts.
- Performance management
The serious game is well suited to a performance-management context, because it makes it possible to identify areas for improvement in the learner-employee. It helps spot bad habits or limiting beliefs, or identify mistakes in their ways of working that they were not aware of and which were limiting their effectiveness.
- Knowledge reinforcement
Serious games can serve a knowledge-reinforcement function, by immersing the learner in a world where they have to draw on knowledge acquired in the past in order to mobilise it again.
- Application in real conditions
The serious game makes it possible to create conditions close to reality so that learners can put into practice the theoretical knowledge gained in training. The serious game also makes it possible to test theories or take risks, in an environment that carries none. Think, for example, of conflict-resolution contexts.
- Risk mitigation
As mentioned above, a serious game environment removes the risks linked to decision-making mistakes. In a training context that involves making legally risky decisions, for example, the serious game provides a right to make mistakes so as to learn safely. At the same time, this virtual context lets the company avoid taking risks or exposing learners to them.
Why do serious games work?
For the same reason that immersive games appeal, serious games take people away from the real world and make it possible to break down many barriers and many fears about taking action. Real risk is removed, the player gains confidence and can express their instincts. What is more, serious games provide instant feedback, by allowing or not allowing the player to move up to the next level, through a message that flags up their mistake. The learner gets instant feedback on their performance in order to understand and adjust it.
Serious games have the particular ability to tap into intrinsic motivation: that of doing as well as possible, fulfilling yourself or being the best. Indeed, one difference with certain other gamification techniques in training is that the serious game does not call on peer recognition or on monetary or points-based rewards. The player competes with themselves. In this context, success carries all the more value and gives the player a strong sense of achievement. Once completed, serious games provide greater self-confidence: knowing that you have succeeded in a mission in the game gives you greater confidence to face a similar situation in a real work context.
Used remotely, in a context of remote-working learning or digital onboarding, serious games make it possible to recreate a professional environment for learning. They allow for better engagement, compared with LMS-based training, which does not have the feature of being immersive.
Serious games and gamification: are there any differences?
Some people distinguish serious games from the rest of the learning mechanics that use gamification. Often, gamification is regarded as a holistic design methodology, whereas serious games are a single unit of learning. Here are several points of differentiation:
- Structure
A serious game is standalone and it is an individual activity. Gamification is a "layer" built into the design of a course or a training programme. A serious game can be built into gamified training, but not necessarily the other way round.
- Learner motivation
Serious games will tend to call more on intrinsic motivation: completing the game is the reward. On the gamification side, you tend to seek extrinsic motivation based on reward or recognition systems.
- Design
Serious games can be developed independently of a training programme and can exist in their own right, meeting very specific training objectives. Gamifying a whole training programme can mean completely rethinking an existing strategy or modules that did not previously include any gamification.
- Use in training
Serious games and gamification do not serve the same function: the former are used more to bring about behaviour changes or introduce new subjects. Gamification, for its part, makes it possible to track learning and drive learner engagement throughout the training.
Chapter IX
The future of gamification: no more learning without fun?
Today, playing, learning and working sit side by side in virtuous systems. The question is no longer whether gamification will establish itself in training: the figures speak for themselves: 15.43 billion dollars in 2024, 48 billion expected by 2029, with annual growth of 25.8% (Markets and Markets). Gamification is not about to stop its progress in the learning and training sector.
With the spread of hybrid working and BYOD (Bring Your Own Device, that is, bring your own device), self-directed learning is growing and posing significant engagement challenges. On top of this comes the growth of LMSs and learning experience platforms, which face the same engagement challenges that gamification answers with documented results.
When you go through the literature dedicated to e-learning and gamification, it emerges that gamification used for training purposes will grow stronger across all fields, particularly education, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, financial services and so on. On this momentum, gamification is finding increasingly widespread use in an onboarding context. This context of training in company culture and processes, coupled with gamification, is proving its effectiveness in talent retention, since it provides an engaging and motivating integration environment. Sector data indicates that new recruits are 69% more likely to stay more than 3 years if their onboarding was a good experience.
Technology in the service of gamification
Immersive technologies in a learning context are still in their novelty stage and used in very specific conditions such as safety training. We should therefore expect significant growth in learning contexts that draw on gamification coupled with technology, as it becomes widespread across all markets and all fields. By combining game elements and immersive technology such as augmented, virtual and mixed reality, learning contexts are increasingly grounded in the real world and in everyday life. Meta (formerly Facebook), Microsoft and Samsung have already introduced combinations of software and hardware based on virtual, augmented and mixed reality, with products such as Meta Quest for Business or Gear VR.
Generative AI, the new engine of gamification
Generative artificial intelligence is transforming the creation of gamified content. Contextualised quizzes, role-play scenarios or personalised challenges can now be generated in a matter of minutes from a business brief. For frontline teams, this means content that is always up to date, rooted in their day-to-day reality, without the costs and lead times of traditional production.
Increasingly advanced learning personalisation
Personalisation involves creating learning experiences tailored to each individual, thanks to data analysis, machine learning and artificial intelligence.
Personalisation will increasingly let companies and training organisations put in place scalable learning solutions, based on the behaviour of learner-players. This personalisation may depend on time spent on the platform, on the activities completed, on the learner's interests, and so on.
Personalisation in a learning context lets learners set personalised learning objectives, learn at their own pace, select learning paths that match their own abilities, get personalised feedback based on their actions, and so on.
