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The introduction of gamification: A review paper about the applied

gamification in the smartphone applications

Conference Paper · October 2016

DOI: 10.1109/CogInfoCom.2016.7804551

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Áron Tóth Sarolta Tóvölgyi

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 The Introduction of Gamification
A review paper about the applied gamification in the smartphone applications

Áron Tóth Sarolta Tóvölgyi PhD

Budapest University of Technology Budapest University of Technology
and Economics and Economics
Department of Ergonomics and Psychology Department of Ergonomics and Psychology
Budapest, Hungary Budapest, Hungary

The paper is about gamification, that recently became a new only in 2010 [6]. It is difficult to find the only definition of
phenomenon to motivate and alter favorably the behavior of the gamification, since the idea is quite new. Vendors and
users. Gamification is a new tool for boosting user engagement in consultants have tended to describe gamification as the
various fields. First the definition, then the elements, later a adoption of game technology and game design methods outside
descriptive gamification model is going to be introduced. of the games industry [7].
Furthermore, information about the connection between motivation
and gamification can be understood. In the second part of the Among the different definitions, a definition by Sebastian
article examples of applied gamification in the focus of smartphone Deterding [7] in the use of game design elements in non-game
applications are going to be given. contexts, seems to be mostly accepted. Based on this,
gamification is using most of the elements in video/board
Keywords — gamification; motivation; smartphones; games and using it outside of the game world.
applications;
Gamification within the last decade has become a modern
business practice that uses game mechanics and game design
I. INTRODUCTION elements to measure, influence and reward user behaviors. It
People, including children, participate in online interactions takes the essence of the game characteristics like – goals, rules,
via blogs and microblogs; social networking sites; online playfulness, elements of fun, feedback, reward and promotions
forums; chat rooms; and gaming for various purposes such as - applies them to solve the real-world business problem. These
keeping up with professional developments, hobbies, playing, game mechanics when applied in the non-gaming context, may
or making friends [1]. Among the different usage of the digital result a higher level of engagement.
world, games have spent decades learning how to master
motivation and engagement, and now we are now learning To use the benefits from games, it is important to
from games says Yu-Kai-Chou [2]. Deterding [3] raises a understand the differences in playful games and serious games.
question that people already spend countless hours and dollars Playfulness, in other words, can be a positive feature in
performing often menial tasks, certainly, there must be some products that goes beyond pure entertainment [8]. Serious
way to use this power for other purposes. Hence videogames gaming in scientific and educational aspects can be defined as
are highly motivating and engaging systems. Moreover, games the use of game principles for the purposes of learning, skill
are complex systems, using several components, such as acquisition, and training [9].
designed aesthetics, meaningfulness, skills, rewards etc. These
game mechanics when applied in the non-gaming context, B. Game elements
work as a catalyst for making technology more engaging by Components of gamification are appearance like user
influencing user behavior and social interaction methods [4]. avatar, levels of game, process-bars, badges that can be given
for achievements, leader-boards, quests, virtual goods [6]. I
In this article the definition behind gamification, the game
will discuss these in detail:
elements, a gamification model and examples of gamification
focusing on the smartphone applications are going to be • Loyalty: Loyalty or engagement is an element that gives
introduced. the site loyal users. This element could be measure for
the daily activity and old/new user rate.
II. THE THEORY • Points: Points are part of the reward system. Points are
given to the users for their actions that we (the
A. Gamification definition developers) think is important for the
It is important to realize that this term has no formal platform/application. Points are actually immediate
definition. It has been applied so broadly as to include feedback given to the user for their actions to
everything from Farmville to LinkedIn’s profile completeness understand the correlation between effort and rewards.
bar [5]. “Gamification” term was invented by British computer
programmer Nick Pelling in 2002, but became widely used
 • Leaderboards: Are exactly like in games, where the action and context. In our model, a point p∈P is assigned to a
users can compare their rank among the other members member's engagement using a rule rp∈Rp which can be
of the community. This element is using the basic idea, represented as a mapping function:
which is that the people want to be the best, to be on the
top of the leaderboard. rp: f(m,a,c) p (2)

• Badges: Badges are given to the users in order to give Notation Meaning Example
them something that they can show off. It is working M number of members using the
on the similar principle as the medals in sports or The platform
Boy Scouts of America began handing out merit
A actions Login, comment,
badges in 1911 [3]. Badges can be earned permanently participate in a challenge,
or just for a temporary time. etc.
C possible contexts in which a Comment, support, like
• Avatar: The way the users choose to express themselves member can participate etc.
to the other members of the community. This is a
P points that can be assigned to 1,2,3,4, … 7, … etc.
graphical representation of themselves in the game. the members for their actions
• Levels: In real games, levels serve a purpose that the B badges that can be assigned to Tools expert, comment
game stays challenging and makes the players to learn the users king, support expert, etc.
new skills. In gamification usually it is used to show
Rp rules for giving points for the 7 points to submit a new
how experienced someone, how long has the user been actions of the users idea
“playing”.
Rb rules for giving badges to Comment king badge for
• Process bar: Process bar is part of the feedback system, members writing many comments
just like the previously mentioned points. On the Rl Rules for reaching the next Having enough points to
process bar the user can follow easily the progress they level reach the next level
made in the past and also the user would know how far a.
Description of notations based on [10] with on completion
the next level/step is.
A gamified environment builds up from these elements. IV. MOTIVATION AND GAMIFICATION
The weight of these elements are based on the aimed actions To be motivated means to be moved to do something. A
for the users from the creators. So, the elements would help the person who feels no impetus or inspiration to act is thus
website / application creators to achieve the planned behavior characterized as unmotivated, whereas someone who is
from the users. As different actions are rewarded with different energized or activated toward an end is considered motivated
gamification elements, the user’s actions would change. [11]. Gamification has the power the alter the behavior of the
users, thus gamification is highly favored method to boost
The main question concerning game elements; is to what motivation among users towards an application. Gamification
elements to use in a gamified design. The answer follows; only desires to combine intrinsic motivation with extrinsic in order
those elements are useful and serves a purpose. to raise motivation and engagement [12].

III. GAMIFICATION MODEL Extrinsic motivation is defined as doing something due to a

separable outcome, such as pressure or “extrinsic rewards”
Creating a gamification system requires complex planning (e.g. money or verbal feedback). Extrinsic motivators from the
and execution, since there are several elements and factors to game elements are ex. the points, the badges, leaderboards,
take into consideration. The model for a gamified system [10] process bar, the avatar.
can be used to understand and show the variations and
elements. To the basic model I added a new variable, the Rl to On the other hand, intrinsic motivation denotes the pursuit
show more components of an activity, because it is inherently interesting or enjoyable
[13]. In the gamification, examples of the intrinsic motivators
Gm=<M, A, C, P, B, Rp, Rb, Rl> (1) are ex. the instant feedbacks, group quests, easter eggs.
The benefit of the gamification model (1) is that this makes
it easier to create different scenarios of the user story. This V. EXAMPLES OF GAMIFICATION
simple model can be used to create even complex logical Gamification is used in a wide variety of fields, such as in
connections in the gamified structure. mobile applications, in online platforms and in real physical
An engagement of a member in the community is life as well. Gamification can help the users to achieve their
represented by three tuple < M, A, C >. For example, if a goals, to do more sports, to learn new skills, to be more
member m∈M takes a certain action a∈A within a context productive and even to live a healthier lifestyle. As a tool,
c∈C, then the member's engagement is recorded as (m, a, c). gamification has the power to create an engaged user towards
For example, Alice's reply in a forum is represented as (Alice, an application, by using the game elements and game design.
commenting, forum). Each member's engagement in the In the following I will introduce applications and platforms
community is awarded with certain points. The number of using gamification as a tool to create highly engaged users in
points awarded to the engagement depends on both the type of the field of education, sports, health and tasks.
A. Education however some features are only available by coins and gold.
In the field of education, Duolingo and Codecademy are This way the users can “spend” their collected gold.
highly relying on the gamification elements to keep the users As a summary from the application implementation of
learning more. Duolingo [14] is a language learning platform, gamification, it is safe to say that most of the introduced
where users can learn new languages (ex. Spanish, Dutch, applications are using gamification to boost the user activity
French). The learning process is divided into smaller, easily and provide the application users with feedback on their
manageable skills and the skills into lessons. While the users progress. Generally, the applications are using points, badges
are completing the lessons and the skills, they receive and leaderboards simultaneously to engage the players and
experience points (XP) and lingots (fictional gem). By allow them to track their performance. From the examples the
collecting these can help the user to access special features and Habitica application is using the avatar as a strong gamification
have higher ranks on the leaderboards. element, by providing customizability.
In Codecedemy [15] the users can learn how to write codes From the presented examples (ex.: Duolingo, Codecademy,
to create websites or applications. There are several coding Habitica) are started from an online platform and after their
languages and tutorials, for example how to build a website. In first success a mobile application version was created.
this platform users receive badges for completing the courses
and also the users are able to always follow their progress on
VI. THE CONCERNS ABOUT GAMIFICATION
the progress bar for each skill.
Gamification is a powerful tool to create engagement of the
B. Sports user and to create a higher level of motivation. However, the
positive effect can only be exploited if the gamified structure is
In sports several mobile and website based companies are
developed by paying attention to the framework. Most
using gamification in order to encourage people to do sports,
examples of gamification do a remarkably poor job of
for example Nike+, Strava, Endomondo, Runkeeper. Their
understanding where potential rewards come from [3]. If the
main feature is to create an instant feedback to the user by
gamification is not applied properly to a system it can create
providing statistics and achievements based on their activity.
negative effects. Examples of bad gamification designs.
The other aspect of these are the social competition part, where
users are able to compete and see how their friends are ranked • Too much extrinsic reward
compared to themselves.
• No meaningful goal to “play” for
C. Health • The aesthetics of the game is not in match with the story
In the health and medical industry, the Pain Squad [16] and
• To use the gamified system is difficult, because of low
the MySugr [17] are mostly mentioned. The Pain Squad is
level of usability.
aiming the kids form 8-18 to track the pain related to cancer.
Doctors need feedback from the patients to know how the Focusing on the usability it is important to create the format
treatment is working. The doctors are only able to create and layout of the websites in a way, that serves the different
connections if the pain that the patient feels are reported needs of the different personality styles [20]. As a summary a
regularly, otherwise they cannot draw any conclusions. The bad gamification design does not provide an overall experience
reason why gamification is implemented is to motivate children to the user. This is why J. Ferrara [5] is stating that Games
to report their pain every day, to find better ways to cure Must Be Designed as Player Experiences First.
cancer.
MySugr application is an all-around care for people with VII. CONCLUSION
diabetes. The application uses gamification elements once As a summary, gamification can be a powerful tool to
when the app offers a "monster companion" that each person motivate and alter the user’s behavior to do certain tasks, even
names and tries to "tame" each day by logging data, staying in the tasks are monotone. Furthermore, computer-based
range, or just being active. Furthermore, it provides feedback, instruction, and more importantly games-based learning, can
when the user saves the data, then the D-Monster offers some make a very real contribution to teaching essential life and
answers such as: "Ouchie" if you're High, and if something work-based skills to people who struggle to find other ways of
like, "OMG! Eat something, will you!?" is you are Low [18]. learning these skills, and the usability evaluation of such games
The advantage of this application is that is motivates the user to is essential if we are to make them fit for use by this very
change their behavior in a good way, to be healthier. specific target audience [21] However, it is important to
implement the game elements into the application in a way,
D. Tasks that serves the purpose of engaging the players. Firstly, the
Moreover, on the platform Habitica [19], gamification is game elements are serving as external motivators and only later
helping people reach their goals just as their motto is states: alters into the more powerful, intrinsic motivators. Secondly, a
Motivate yourself to do anything. The website is doing it by gamification needs to be properly planned and carefully
giving rewards for positive action by giving experience points implemented.
and golds. Also, if the user didn’t complete the goals or habits
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