Games and Gamification: Are They That Different?

Games and gamification are popular buzzwords in education, business, and entertainment. Though they have similarities, their goal, execution, and results can be quite different. So, are games and gamification really so different? This guide delves into their differences, similarities, and uses.

What Are Games?

Games are a form of play, usually for entertainment. They consist of a set of rules, goals, challenges, and interactions that engage players in competition or cooperation. These can actually be physical (for example, in sports), mental (like chess), or digital (such as video games). While their main function is entertainment, they often encourage skills like problem-solving, teamwork, and strategic thinking.

Some key features of games:

• Objectives: Players have a clear target which they strive towards.
• Guidelines: There are rules that govern the actions of players in every game.
• Immersion: Players become engaged with the experience through challenge and reward.
• Story: Almost all games have at least some story-based aspects that enhances immersion.

What Is Gamification?

Gamification is using game mechanics (points, badges, levels, leaderboards, etc.) in non-game contexts to encourage action or increase engagement. While games offer new experiences, gamification adds game-like elements to existing experiences.

For example:

• A fitness app may employ gamification by giving you badges when you complete a workout.
• Companies can introduce gamification to their employee training, such as progress bars or rewards for completing tasks.

Gamification uses our inherent human nature toward competition, achievement, and cooperation and steers them toward a goal. It has become popular in education, marketing, corporate, and also even health care.

Gamify Your Learning: Gamification Increases Engagement

Gamification has become increasingly popular as a viable tool for enhancing engagement within a learning environment. Integrating game mechanics into a learning management system or training program incentivizes learners to become engaged and remain motivated to learn. For instance:

• Achievement badges: A student receives a badge when he or she completes one lesson or masters a skill.
• Leaderboards: These encourage peer-to-peer competition.
• Real-time feedback: Progress indicators offer learners immediate feedback about how they are doing.

In contrast to conventional strategies that can feel boring, gamified systems enable interaction and enjoyment while you learn. There’s also criticism over gamification as it over-simplifies the nature of some tasks to the point of “pointsification” where the thought process becomes less about meaningful learning and more about reward collection.

Serious Games vs. Gamified Experiences

Both serious games and gamification have done well in terms of their applications, but we need to understand their differences. Serious games have a specific purpose other than entertainment, such as education or training, whereas gamification is the application of game-like features to non-game activities.

Key Differences:

Purpose:

• Serious games are designed to teach skills or promote behaviors.
• Gamification adds motivating elements to existing tasks.

Structure:

• Serious games have a defined start, a progression, and a conclusion with clearly defined goals.
• Gamified experiences are less rigid and are integrated into work as an ongoing activity.

Rewards:

• The game itself is the reward in the case of serious games (e.g., developing a skill)
• Gamification is based on external rewards (points, badges, etc.).

Games And Gamification in Practice

Both games and gamification are widely used across industries:

Education:

• Games: Educational games like Minecraft: Education Edition teach subjects like math and history through interactive gameplay.
• Gamification: Platforms like Duolingo use gamified elements (streaks, badges) to encourage language learning.

Business:

• Games: Companies use serious games for employee training (e.g., simulations for customer service).
• Gamification: Sales teams might use leaderboards to track performance and incentivize productivity.

Healthcare:

• Games: Virtual reality games help patients recover motor skills during rehabilitation.
• Gamification: Apps like Nike+ turn fitness tracking into a game-like experience with rewards for milestones.

Marketing:

• Games: Branded mini-games engage customers while promoting products.
• Gamification: Loyalty programs reward customers with points for purchases.

Are Games and Gamified Systems the Same Thing?

These concepts have a lot in common — rewards and engagement, for example — but they are not synonyms. Games are designed to provide an experience, either for entertainment or a specific end goal. Gamified systems blend game mechanics with real activities to add gamification characteristics without necessarily changing the core activity.

For example, a serious game on financial literacy could allow users to manage a budget in a virtual world. Another example is a banking app with a sort of gamification feature might offer points for saving money — but does not simulate budgeting.

This difference is crucial to understand because it actually helps guide the selection of whether to use games or gamification to achieve certain goals.

Why Games-Based Learning is Beneficial

Games-based learning is a method of teaching that uses real games as tools to help teach concepts or skills. There are several benefits of this approach:

• Hands-on learning: Players take an active, hands-on approach to learning rather than passively absorbing information.
• Problem-solving: This means that they must engage in critical thinking in order to play the game.
• Encouragement: Games make it fun for the learner to absorb knowledge.
• Real-world application: A lot of educational games have a real-world simulation that helps learners prepare for what is happening in real life.

However, creating a good educational game needs to be well-planned; an educational game must meet the learning objectives and not just be interesting.

Issues/Shortcomings of Gamified Systems

Gamified systems are a great way to drive engagement, but they have a couple of hurdles:

• Shallow motivation: Over-reliance on rewards may reduce internal motivation.
• One-size-fits-all approach: Not all users react to competitive elements like leaderboards in the same way.
• Complexity vs. simplicity: Poorly designed systems can demotivate users instead of motivating them.

To solve these challenges, designers need to create experiences with a healthy blend of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.

Workplace Gamification for Productivity

Gamification is necessary for productivity in the workplace and has been used by businesses a lot more in recent times. Examples include:

• Progress bars for tracking employee performance.
• Rewarding team-oriented behavior to encourage collaboration.
• Improving onboarding with interactive tutorials.

When done with a thoughtful approach, workplace gamification creates a positive environment among employees that encourages them to pursue their goals without losing the fun of work.

Takeaways

While games and gamification have some overlapping characteristics, they are fundamentally different in terms of what they are and how they work:

• Games are experience-oriented towards entertainment or a particular goal.
• Gamification improves the current tasks by adding a layer of game elements to increase motivation.

Each of these have their own strengths relative to where they should be used. Whether designing a serious game for education or introducing gamified systems in business processes, understanding these distinctions ensures effective implementation tailored to desired outcomes.

In the end, games turn tasks into a completely new experience, while gamified systems add motivation to an existing task – a difference that may seem subtle yet has profound implications on how we learn, work, and play today.

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Sources

• www.blog.mindresearch.org/blog/game-based-learning-vs-gamification
• www.advance-he.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/gamification-and-games-based-learning
• www.elearningindustry.com/what-are-the-differences-between-serious-games-and-gamification

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