Gamification - We need a better name

Community Topic(s):

Keywords: gamification, user adoption, social media, collaboration, change management, recognition, performance management, incentive, rewards

By ,

June 22, 2012 - 12:43 PM

Since I really hate the word "gamification", I ranted about it in this post:

http://www.aiim.org/community/blogs/expert/Gamification-Dumbest-made-up-word-ever

Can we come up with a better name? Let's limit the discussion to within the organization. I.e.: let's not discuss in the context of attracting, engaging, or retaining customers.

We're a pretty sharp group of people here. We ought to be able to come up with something better than gamification.

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Submitted by

Behaviorist Conditioning
Symbolic Engagement
Totemism
Engagement Securities
HyperEngagement
Interactive Engagement
Interactive Engagement Mapping

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Submitted by

a-spoonful-of-sugar-makes-the-medicine-go-down?

or, more seriously, Rewards driven engagement?

The problem with anything that does not sound as dire as gamification, is that it does not have the same "I don't know what this means, I better look it up so I don't sound stupid" effect.

George

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Submitted by

I don't guess I understand why the term "gamification" is giving people heartburn. I'm getting the impression that it has to do with the connotation of the word "game." Apparently when some people see "game" they think of silly things you do with children, not the serious work of business.

However, business has all the same elements of a game. There are winners and losers. There are "points" (dollars). We keep track of who is "winning" (who outperforms the others). There's feedback that lets us know if we are "playing" (performing) well. We use phrases like "I won the deal." We keep score. We have teams. We compete.

For many the challenge of being the best, of competing well, of doing a good job are what keep us interested in our jobs. But you can't be the best, you can't know how you're doing, if you don't keep score.

That is what "gamification" is about. It studies the elements of "games" and what makes games appealing. Then it tries to apply those same mechanics to other arenas in hopes of increasing their appeal. It isn't about playground antics. It's about why we're so interested in keeping score and how that can be used to increase motivation.

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Submitted by

Chris (Taylor), you are right in guessing that the problem is the name. To a large extent we are trivialising what we do at work, by likening it to a game.

Three is an element of cultural difference in this: I know that in the US it is very common to use sports metaphors (mainly baseball?) to drive business behaviour. In the UK however, the last thing I would use to motivate people at work would be to draw analogies with cricket, snooker or darts!

More importantly, if (to follow your argument above) all our work is already modeled on games principles, what is the point of Gamification? On that basis, we are already Gamified!

Like Chris (Walker), I do not have a problem with the principles of Gamification. I have a problem with a made-up word that makes it all sound simple and trivial.

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