Gamification is Hard

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Gamification, in it’s present digital form, is a very new subject. The word itself isn’t even recognized by Websters, Merriam-Websters or American Heritage. Only Oxford among the major English dictionaries lists a definition. According to Gamification.org the term only dates back to 2004 and didn’t enter wide use until 2010. And Gabe Zichermann’s workshop is at present the only course on the subject offering certification, although some colleges have begun to offer gamification classes.

So I don’t feel embarrassed to admit I’m not an expert. I believe in fact my background as a writer gives me a broader perspective on these issues, and I hope some fresh insights into this marketing juggernaut.

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7 Potential Pitfalls of Gamification – a Rebuttal

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In the May 17, 2012 issue of iMedia Connection Chloe Della Costa wrote an interesting piece called 7 Potential Pitfalls of Gamification. The adjective “potential” softens the critique somewhat, but the article has received a lot of attention in the gamification community and I’d like to respond to each “pitfall” in turn.

1. The motivations might be superficial

Of course motivational tools might be superficial. They might not work, they might even backfire. But there are many instances where superficial motivational tools are highly effective such in recreational sports, so that in itself should not be a criticism. There are also many gamification applications where customers are already motivated and don’t need rewards, such as giving to charity or complimenting a helpful employee. In those cases gamified UX is more important than motivational tools.
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Gamification in the Friendly Skies*

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Gamification is the use of game elements like points and rewards to increase engagement, acknowledge loyalty or competence and make life easier and more fun. Critics often regard it in isolation, forgetting the dull and even adversarial reality it is meant to enliven. But the opposite of engagement is not lack of engagement. The opposite of engagement is repulsion. With that in mind, I’d like to offer an example of a recent experience I wish had been gamified.

I know most of you fly frequently and, amid all your war stories, at some point you must have encountered an extremely helpful gate agent. I wonder how many of you contacted the company to let them know about this valuable employee?

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Tipping and Gamification

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How many of you have had the following experience at a Paris bistro? You find a table on the sidewalk and before you’ve scraped your heavy chair across the pavement and sat down a waiter steps over with a menu and says, “Bonjour, je m’appelle Pierre et je serais votre serviteur aujourd’hui.” (Hello, my name is Pierre, I’ll be your waiter today.) 

French waiter

Well, none of you have, because it’s never happened. You may put it down to French rudeness or contempt for foreigners, but the truth is French waiters aren’t friendly because they don’t have to be friendly, because they don’t rely on tips for a significant share of their earnings.

Tipping is one of the most entrenched and successful forms of gamification. It’s a standard game element – a reward – ritually given for satisfactory service at the end of a meal or haircut or taxi ride. As employees we don’t like being dependent on the kindness of strangers. As customers we don’t like forking over that 15%, or having to calculate it every lunch time. But think for a moment what that tip does, how it changes the relationship. 

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Rules Rule (The necessary evil)

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The other day a Singaporean friend posted this complaint on her Facebook page:

“Can somebody tell me where the f*cking link to pay taxes is on mytaxportal? They keep telling me a list of things to do but I can’t find the damn link to enter the info.”

Now this is a smart, computer-literate woman. But what struck me wasn’t that her complaint was so unusual, but that it was so common. We can all think of instances where we’ve been baffled by a site’s labyrinthine UX, or user experience. We just want to complete a straightforward task but we end up back where we started, as if we were navigating a maze.

In the example my friend cited the solution seems as simple as installing a large button that reads: PAY TAXES. But instead the log-in page is a confusion of options that stops the viewer rather than directs her. Why?

Bad, bad UX
Bad, bad UX.

Gamification companies like Badgeville and Bunchville, and writers and speakers on the subject refer to points, badges, leaderboards and rewards when listing game elements. But I realized after reading my friend’s post that I couldn’t recall any of them mentioning what might be the most important game element of all: easy-to-follow rules.

Of course badges and rewards are sexy, while rules are a necessary evil. Who likes writing instructions? But I also realized people who work in the game and gamification industry probably take writing rules for granted because they’re good at it, and might not realize how difficult it is for outsiders to write easy-to-follow instructions.

Unfortunately in most instances we encounter, like that of my friend, the rules aren’t written by game designers but by administrators, bureaucrats, lawyers – by people trained in obfuscation, not clarity. These professionals also have different objectives. If you design a game it’s paramount that players understands the rules. But a lawyer writing the rules for a corporate or government department is more interested in liability than in customer satisfaction.

A frequent complaint about gamification is that it won’t necessarily motivate users. But there are countless cases where users are already motivated and engaged. You just need to keep them from pulling their hair out.

So I believe compliance is as important as engagement, and this as an area where gamification can make an immediate and lasting impact. A lot of games, such as Plants vs. Zombies, make use of stealth tutorials to teach the game as you play it. Game designers have an almost instinctive knack for incremental teaching; that is, ratcheting up complexity and speed without frustrating the player. There’s no reason that the methods they use to teach their games can’t be used to instruct citizens how to navigate a government web site.

Gamification enthusiasts talk about making non-game experiences more fun. But eliminating frustration can be just as important a goal. Paying your taxes doesn’t have to be fun. But for people like my friend, who have no problem playing complicated games like Diablo III, paying her taxes online should be easier than slaying a Skeleton King.