Games. Use the Force.
Games are one of the most powerful force that exists in the world. People enjoy playing games and games can motivate us. Games play on our emotions and they can keep us playing for hours. Game can also make us do things we might not otherwise do. Tasks can be “gamified” to make them fun. This is the Mary Poppins attitude, turn the task into a game and it becomes fun. Over the last few years, gamification is becoming recognized as a method motivating people.
New Technology student and iOS programmer Árni Jónsson did research into gamification. In the introduction he explains:
A recent effort by software designers to take advantage of this fundamentally playful mindset of the species in non-game applications has been given the moniker “gamification,” a phrase coined by venture capitalist Timothy Chang. Chang bluntly explained the aim of gamification as such: “Basically game mechanics are a way to get consumers addicted to things”.2 Most of the mechanics are understandably lifted from computer games, but some harken further back to more traditional games and tried and tested marketing ploys.
Paper: Is it All a Game?