Keeping Gamification Fresh

[bryanalff]

Hi Everyone,

The concept of gamification seems to be an excellent idea.   In fact it's something my company is giving serious thought in doing because it encourages a positive behavior from everyone involved.     I am however, curious about one thing.   Over time, the concept and novelty of playing the same game begins to wear off.   Does anyone have any suggestions about how to keep the gaming concept fresh so new positive behaviors can be re-enforced?

Thanks

[Uncle Rob]

Reward performance improvement as well as top performance.   That keeps everyone interested, even the non-top performers.

Also, if the game isn't linked to tangible rewards / results, I can see the allure tapering off pretty quickly.

[lawrence_eng]

When I discuss gamification, I always emphasize it's not about creating games per se. It's about using game design principles to encourage specific behaviors (in non-game contexts) that benefit everyone (even the people who aren't actively "playing").

Instead of gamification being used to make things "fun", for me it's more about making things count. So, as rfedoruk said, as long as the gamification initiative is tied to long term incentives (whether it's tangible/intangible rewards, recognition, and/or influence), that will keep people interested. In general, short term rewards (like gift cards) are less ideal for generating long-term engagement. Alternatively, you could offer things that persist--like special access, reputation, and influence.

Adding to rfedoruk's suggestion above, it's a great point that new users shouldn't feel like they can't participate meaningfully compared to the top performers who have been participating for a lot longer. In addition to highlighting improvement, you could highlight top performance within shorter, more recent time frames. For example, if you use leaderboards, instead of just showing an "all-time" leaderboard which is hard for newbies to get onto, a "monthly" or "weekly" leaderboard would give active users (even new ones) a chance to shine.

[rajatrocks]

I wrote a book all about gamification: http://loyalty30.com - in it I talk about using "arcs" - either content or time (like a frequent flyer program resets every year, and enterprise sales reps get reset every quarter) to keep things fresh. Thing of them as "campaigns" - you can have some that last forever, some that last for the quarter, and some that are themed around timely and topical events, like the World Cup or Tour de France for instance.

btw - as a proof of concept I built a gamification integration into ServiceNow. It looks really good, and can tie into Business Rules and Script Actions to get user activity data. Ping me at rajat <[ at ]> bunchball.com if you're interested in learning more.