A Guide to Gamification: Principles, Applications, and Misconceptions

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Games are known by most people as a means of fun, a pastime or even a moment to share with family and friends. Despite all the efforts made by academia to show that games can be used for other means than pure entertainment, there is still a preconception on the part of the general population to defend that games are mere hobbies. There are games created specifically to teach and train professionals from different areas of knowledge, unlike entertainment games, serious games are games developed with the aim of educating or training instead of pure fun [1] [2].

Sicko, for example, is a game that shows medical students how It’s everyday life in a hospital [3]. The game simulates patients who are going to a hospital with different symptoms, and the player’s role is to treat everyone within a certain time, otherwise the patients die. This helps medical students get an idea of ​​what a real hospital is like, helping them improve their decision-making and allowing for mistakes without harming a real life.

In the next few sections, the aspects involving gamification will be explored, starting with game elements that include the dynamics, mechanics and components subsections, followed by a dedicated section with a focus on gamification.

Game elements

The three main components used in different gamification applications cited by Werbach and Hunter[4] are: Leaderboards, points and badges (LPB). However, the caveat left by both is that gamification is not limited to just the use of these components, as there are others that may fit better, such as: achievements, levels and characters. This depends, among other aspects, on the objectives to be achieved. The constant use of LPB is due to its ease of implementation in existing systems and easy adaptation.

Dynamic

Dynamics, as defined by Werbach and Hunter is the most comprehensive part of game elements, the one with the highest level of abstraction. And because it is a conception stage, it is often carried out by designers who have a more creative vision within the profiles that involve the development of a game. It is through dynamics that the most general topics of the game are defined, such as the player’s limitations, the game’s story line, the player’s progression, among others. However, dynamics are not limited to these aspects: the same authors list other game elements related to dynamics, namely:

• Limitations (limitations or forced trade)
• Emotions (curiosity, competitiveness, frustration, happiness)
• Narrative (a consistent, continuous story line)
• Progression (player growth and development)
• Relationships (social interactions generating feelings of camaraderie, status, altruism)

Hunicke, LeBlanc and Zubek describe a tool that standardizes the steps of how to create a game and narrows the differences between the design and the developer. The tool named MDA (Mechanics, Dynamics, and Aesthetics) is divided into three areas: Mechanics, Dynamics and Aesthetics[5].

The rules (Rules) correspond to the mechanics, and are the set of components that describe the game at the implementation level, through the algorithms and data that are used in the game. The System is the part corresponding to the dynamics that describes the behavior of the different mechanics that the game may have. And finally the fun part (Fun) which corresponds to the aesthetic part (or components) of the game, and also provides emotional responses according to the player’s interaction.

Dynamics and mechanics walk a fine line and are often treated as the same subject, however mechanics is defined as the player’s behavior and actions. Dynamics are the motivational appeal of the experience that mechanics provides [6]. Werbach and Hunter complement this definition by highlighting that dynamics is something that the player does not have direct contact with despite being part of the game experience.

Mechanic

Brown defines software architecture as the decisions made in a project that cannot be reversed without a minimum level of effort, decisions that require effort to change and that are not easy to change in an afternoon [7]. Just like software architecture, mechanics has elements that require effort to be altered or changed once implemented. However, this does not mean that it would be impossible to change the chosen mechanics at a certain point in time, just that these changes require significant effort.

As a starting point, Werbach and Hunter defined a synthetic list with the mechanics that stand out, and according to the authors, are the most important to consider for a gamification system. Deterding et al. [8] and Stieglitz et al. [9] define gamification as the use of game elements, in a context other than a game. The elements in the list below exemplify some game elements that can be applied in another context.

• Challenges (puzzles or other tasks that require effort to solve)
• Chance (elements of randomness)
• Competition (one player or group wins, and the other loses)
• Cooperation (players must work together to achieve a common goal)
• Feedback (information about how the player is evolving)
• Acquisition of resources (obtaining useful or collectible items)
• Rewards (benefits for some action or achievement)
• Transactions (negotiation between players, directly or through intermediaries)
• Turns (sequential participation by alternating players)
• Victory state (objectives that make a player or group a winner - Draw or loss state are related concepts)

The list created by the authors has ten topics listed, however it is not necessary to use them all at once in a gamification process [10]. Often this choice depends on the gamification objective to be achieved. On the other hand, the authors Adams and Dormans [2] have a broader definition of mechanics, and define it as the rules, processes and data that circulate in the game, in addition to defining how the progression what happens and what conditions determine victory or loss. In other words, the rules define what the player can do and how the game will react.

Components

Finally, the components are the last part of the whole, which are the game elements explored in this work. In the same way that dynamics is the most abstract model of elements, components are the opposite. They are the most concrete part of the dynamics and mechanics elements [4]. User interaction is done through components, to describe what is possible to accomplish within a gamified system or a game. The following list illustrates the fifteen most important components that must be present in gamification. Just like the mechanics, it is not necessary to have all the components illustrated, this depends on the objective to be achieved.

• Achievements (defined objectives)
• Avatars (visual representation of the player character)
• Badges (visual representation of achievements)
• Boss Fights (especially difficult challenges at the culmination of a level)
• Collections (sets of items or badges to accumulate)
• Combat (a set battle, usually of short duration)
• Content unlock (aspects only available when players achieve objectives)
• Gifting (opportunities to share resources with others)
• Leaderboards (visual displays of player progression and achievement)
• Levels (defined stages in the player’s progression)
• Points (numeric representations of game progression)
• Missions (pre-defined challenges with objectives and rewards)
• Social graphs (representation of the players’ social network within the game)
• Teams (defined groups of players working together towards a common goal)
• Virtual Goods (game assets with perceived or real money value)

Gamification

Gamification has been applied on a large scale by several researchers and professors in academia as an alternative to the traditional teaching method, in order to increase student engagement, as for example seen in the work of Lima et al. [11], (missing reference) and Marques et al. (missing reference). A more complete set of references is included in the literature review presented during the development of this work. In general, the term gamification has been gaining popularity among researchers in different areas [12]. To move forward with the proposal of creating a gamified tool, it is necessary to search for a definition of the term gamification, as this term can be misinterpreted by people inside and outside academia.

Deterding [8] and Stieglitz et al. [8] define gamification as the use of game elements, in a context other than a game. For example, the use of a card game in an educational context to teach the history of computing [13]. In this context, cards are the element of the game and the history of computing is the subject to be taught.

Kapp, Blair and Mesch [10] have a more comprehensive definition, they define gamification as the use of game mechanics, aesthetics and game thinking to engage people, motivate action, promote education and solve problems. According to the same authors, it is necessary to differentiate between what is a game, a gamification and a simulation so as not to cause any confusion between the definitions. Continuing with this line, the characteristics of a game mentioned by the authors are illustrated in the following list:

• There is a defined game space in which players agree to engage in game activities
• There is a clear beginning, middle and end to a game
• There is a defined winning state
• Players know when they have completed the game
• A game usually has several game elements
• Games contain challenges, a mechanism for multiple attempts, some type of reward system, a clear goal that players work to achieve, and an end goal

Gamification is commonly confused with the application of games, but it has some key topics that differ, as seen in the following list. In gamification it is possible to use only one game element (but it is not restricted to), such as badges to engage a person to achieve a goal, while in a game it is commonly used more than one [10].

• The intention is not to create an independent unit
• It is possible to use only one game element to engage
• The intention is to use game elements to encourage people to engage with the content and progress towards a goal

Finally, simulation is the one that presents a greater degree of differences between games and gamification, whose aspects are [10]:

• A realistic environment
• Players can practice behaviors and experience the impacts of their decisions

Simulation has the primary objective of providing a realistic environment to facilitate learning. As an example, simulation is a means used by airline companies to reduce costs and mainly to train pilots with little experience, thus reducing the rate of accidents and procedural errors when commanding an aircraft. To this end, the set of software and hardware needs to faithfully simulate what the pilot will go through in the real world. On the other hand, Werbach and Hunter [4] identified three types of gamification, internal, external and behavioral, each with a different objective aimed at the corporate world, but not exclusive to it.

• Internal gamification: There are two distinguishing attributes of internal gamification. The players are already part of a defined community and the second is the motivational dynamic (the motivation to play).
• External gamification: The external gamification is related to customers and the goal of achieving a higher rate of profit.
• Behavior change: The goal is to change the behavior of a population. For example, improving the quality of life or building systems that help people’s financial situation.

In addition to defining what gamification is, it is also necessary to make clear what gamification is not. Werbach and Hunter [4] emphasize that it is necessary to keep in mind that gamification does not have as its ultimate goal the construction of a game using all existing game elements, or that the end result will be an entertainment game with several animation effects or the use of complex game engines that perform physics calculations. Following this same reasoning, [10] highlight the wrong reasons for choosing gamification. Among them are:

• Games are cool/fun
• Everyone is using gamification
• Everyone loves games
• It’s easy to make a game

The work of Brum and Cruz [14], for example, shows data that not every gamification strategy reaches one hundred percent of students’ perception of learning, some even claim that the method of using gamification does not change their perception of learning, and on the other hand, some need a parallel between the game and the real world[15].

In the topic “It is easy to create a game” there is another argument that needs attention. The creation of a game itself can involve parts of “classical” software engineering that encompass different areas, such as requirements analysis, planning, design, architecture, development, testing, among other aspects that are further detailed by Pressman [16] and Sommerville [17]. It is also necessary to add some fields in order to have a complete game, such as audio management, use of physics and mathematical calculations, artists, among others [18]. Thus adding more complexity to the development of a game, which makes this task something non-trivial to produce [19].

The literature shows us with data that gamification can be effective [4], especially with regard to motivational aspects. In the corporate world, companies such as Nike, American Express and Microsoft, for example, have obtained positive results by including gamification in their businesses. In addition, there are results found in the literature review presented in this work that show us positive results in the academic field, indicating that students have a greater perception of learning than with traditional teaching strategies.

How and when to use gamification

The first step in knowing when to use gamification is to identify whether the objective to be achieved is in fact a suitable candidate for gamification.

The use of gamification seems to be a reasonable choice once the literature has been analyzed, with several studies that apply it to increase student engagement and show generally positive results. The following table 2 created by [10] help in choosing between game, gamification or simulation through the objective to be achieved. The column on the left illustrates the objective to be achieved, and the column on the right suggests the most suitable candidate (game, gamification or simulation).

According to the same authors, the term Collect has the objective of collecting the largest number of objects of a certain type in the game, the same mechanics used in the game Pacman. Finally, Allocate Resources is the topic where balance is the key to success. In SimCity the player needs to balance the different variables in the game to be successful. The player must balance the need to build basic infrastructure with the need to have education, health, parks and leisure [10].

Related projects

Flexbox froggy

Flexbox Froggy is a game that aims to teach the properties of the flex box for programmers, to play it is necessary to have prior knowledge of the technologies HTML, CSS and how they talk to each other. There is no explicit restriction, but the lack These requirements can frustrate the player. The theme of the game is to use the properties of the flex box to position the frogs in their due place, which are marked by the vicoria regia plant. The different phases of the game demonstrate small snippets of how properties work together, in total there are twenty-four levels. The difficulty increases with each level gradually, and properties demonstrated in previous levels are reused in subsequent levels as a way of fixing what happened during the game. There is no barrier between levels that requires a linear progression from the player, and You can view the next levels at any time through the menu. Flexbox Froggy is free software and its source code can be accessed through GitHub, the source code repository has more than three thousand stars and due to the community’s contribution the game has been translated into several languages ​​such as Spanish, French, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean and others.

How HTTPS Works

With the expansion of the internet, concerns about the security of data being transmitted received attention until the launch of the SSL (Secure Socket Layer) protocol, and subsequently updating it to TLS (Transport Layer Security). Like these two terms refer to the same thing, the following text uses only SSL (missing reference). For the end user to identify whether they are accessing a secure website or not. two steps:

• The website address must start with https:// (and not just http://)
• Check for a green padlock in the browser’s address bar

Using a secure website prevents any malicious user from being able to access spy on the data being transmitted from the user to the server. This type of Protection is necessary mainly to process sensitive user data, such as for example, credit card data and credentials to authenticate to a service. However, among the advantages described here and the need to use a protocol safe, its use in the Chrome browser in Brazil until March 2014 was 41% 5. To encourage the use of a secure protocol, some initiatives were made. The first mentioned here is Let’s Encrypt 6, which allows the use of SSL without the need to have a certificate. One of the hypotheses for the lack of adoption of SSL is the lack of knowledge about the subject, and to bring a solution, How HTTPS Works provides a way to understand SSL through comics.

Regex Crossword

Regular expression is used to find patterns in texts, and this type of technique It is often used by programmers. However, regular expressions have They have a reputation for being difficult to learn and apply correctly. The Regex proposal Crossword – and use gamification to transform the practice of teaching expressions regular. The inspiration came from the game Sudoku. Instead of numbers, expressions are used regular. The expression must fit horizontally and vertically. However, there is a difference with traditional Sudoku, the expressions included can be repeated horizontally and vertically. The main rule of Regex Crossword is to fill in the boxes that match with the necessary standard. The patterns that are located at the beginning of each line and each column, it is the regular expressions that need to be satisfied.

Closing notes

The universe of serious games and gamification was explored, these two topics that, in the eyes of laymen, are often interpreted as the same subject. However, the two approaches have differences and are used for different purposes.

On the one hand, there are serious games, which are games created with a focus beyond pure entertainment, and on the other hand, gamification, which uses game elements in a context that is not a game. In addition to the distinction between the two terms, a section was dedicated exclusively to exploring the game elements that are used in gamification strategies, which is the purpose of this work.

References

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