What is gamification and how is it implemented into everyday activities and casino games? You may or may not have realized that elements of gamification have begun infiltrating nearly every facet of modern-day life. Aspects of gamification are now used for everything from encouraging someone to keep playing a video game to improving voter turnout to promoting exercise to improving user engagement.
So, what is gamification? Keep reading to learn more about gamification is and how it impacts your daily life.
What is gamification?
In some ways, gamification is what it sounds like – it is essentially using techniques that leverage human instincts for competition, learning, status, and achievement to encourage a person to do a certain thing. Some of the earliest gamification techniques involved encouraging participants or users of a game to complete specific levels, fill a progress bar, compete within a team dynamic, or give users imaginary currency as a reward.
Gamification techniques
A variety of different gamification techniques are used in video games and everyday tasks and activities. One of the most common and fundamental techniques is to create a points system in which participants are rewarded with points after successfully accomplishing specific tasks. Although the points are illusory, they provide a numerical system in which a participant can conceptualize their progress and success.
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Similar techniques include the creation and use of leader boards and progress bars, or other performance graphs. These techniques help users visualize their progress through specific tasks or activities and help generate some feelings of competition, however subconscious or superficial, to encourage active interest, engagement, and participation in the task. These are all techniques that you have likely seen used in games, along with in courses, tasks, and other activities.
Another tool that is used is that of badges or other reward systems. After completing certain levels, users may receive a badge of some sort, which symbolizes an achievement. These badges represent an individual’s levels of accomplishment and achieved goals and can even help to symbolize an individual’s involvement with a specific group.
Finally, narratives, avatars, and teammates can also all be utilized as gamification techniques. Meaningful stories and narratives, even if portrayed in highly symbolic pared-down terms, can encourage users to continue with the task to achieve the sense of completion and satisfaction that accompanies the end of a narrative.
Casino games and online gambling
Over the course of the last ten years, the online gambling sector has exploded in popularity. A global loosening of gambling restrictions has conveniently coincided with an increased innovation and development of gambling platform technology to lead to this moment where online gambling has begun to eclipse traditional brick and mortar gambling in popularity.
There are now so many online casinos and gambling apps that it can
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be difficult to find the online casinos with the best registration bonuses, selection of games, and features. BonusSeeker.com does the research for you by collecting and collating the important information related to online casinos, so that you can find the casinos that most fit what you are looking for, such as those with no deposit bonuses.
The Gamification Research Network has extensively studied the relationship between gamification and online gambling. The Network has studied how video games like Overwatch are increasingly innovative with payment methods which, in certain aspects, mirror online gambling. They have also considered how online gambling platforms have utilized features like VIP levels, bonus features, and the characteristics of the games themselves to boost the gamification aspects of the online casino platforms.
Other applications for gamification
Once you know what gamification entails, you will likely start seeing it everywhere, in little ways. Perhaps your workout app gives you a “thumbs up” or a “badge” or a “score” once you have completed an exercise, or maybe you collect points on a learning app that you can watch accumulate and then subsequently compare your points with other app users.
The applications for gamification are virtually limitless, especially as humans respond positively to gamification aspects and motivation. In fact, gamification has become so popular that some academics have warned of using gamification too often. In a paper presented at the GamiFIN Conference in 2017, a team of researchers warned that there is a “dark side” to gamification.
The researchers do not argue that we should avoid all gamification, but rather that more research is required so that we can fully recognize the importance of gamification and its application to elements of everyday life.
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