Introduction

I love playing games. I love winning them even more. Some of my favorite games are Canasta (with my wife's parents), Settler's of Catan (with anyone who will play with me), Magic: The Gathering (when I was a teenager), and Tetris (any free moment I can on my cell phone).

After spending a couple of years writing software and managing projects for customer loyalty programs I've recently come into contact with the concept of gamification and have become interested in deepening my knowledge in this area. I've seen the patterns of games moving into business more and more. As I've paid more attention to this trend I've started to see how game mechanics are penetrating not only the business world but all aspects of our lives. I'm very interested in being a part of creating a future that uses games not only to make businesses more successful, but to make life more interesting. The reason I got into the technology field was because I was facinated by how technology changes what it means to be a human. I believe that technology has the power to make our world a better place to live in. I want to find out how I can use what I learn from gamification to make that happen.

At the company I work for, Parived Solutions, at this point in my career I'm asked to do a deep evaluation of a technology area and so I've decided to focus on gamification for a few months. I've done the typical things I like to do when digging into a technology.

I've purchased a few books - starting with "Reality is Broken" by Jane McGonigal and "Game Based Marketing" by Gabe Zichermann. I've set up a Google alert for the term "gamification". I've also added several gamification blogs to my iGoogle page.

I plan on using this blog to record the most interesting things I learn and anything novel that I come up with to add to the body of knowlege out there. As part of the proposal process for building intellectual capital at the company we are asked to come up with an abstract. I thought I'd attach the basic outline of what I'm digging into:

Summary
Gamification, the use of game mechanics in non-gaming applications, has been applied to various systems to encourage desired behaviors and engage users. In this study, the basics of gamification will be presented along with a framework for evaluating gamification opportunities as well as examples of how gamification could be used in relevant industries. Finally, the relationship between gamification and analytics and how principles of business intelligence may be applied to the measurements tracked through gamification to improve performance will be explained.

Opportunity
The role of gamification in the business world is growing in impact and in hype. In fact, Gartner says that by 2015, more than 50 percent of organizations that manage innovation processes will gamify those processes.
Companies are turning to gamification to engage a new generation of individuals that have grown up in a culture of video games and instant feedback and who are becoming a larger percentage of their customer base and work force. By providing game like mechanics to make purchasing products and completing tasks more engaging, companies can become more profitable and productive.
This opportunity is growing as emerging technologies enable rich, individually customized gamification experiences powered by big data platforms in the cloud and delivered to mobile devices that are always within arm’s reach. As employees and customers interact with gamified systems, they will generate valuable data that can be analyzed to enhance their value to the enterprise.
The majority of gamification initiatives are customer centric. Companies use gamification to increase their customers’ loyalty and provide incentives for them to purchase their products or build affinity with their brand. Examples of gamification range from simple progress bars that spur profile completion on LinkedIn to immersive interactive experiences in massively multiplayer games. Although the rewards for gamification often have no cash value, studies have found that their impact on customer engagement and loyalty can be significant.
An emerging trend in gamification is to gamify internal corporate processes to increase retention and engagement of employees. As companies look for ways to encourage employees to act on non-mandatory value generating opportunities, gamification will be a powerful tool.

Relevent Solution
There are several existing third party platforms that can be used to implement gamification initiatives. Companies like Bunchball, Badgeville, and Big Door are leaders in this space. These companies typically provide APIs and widgets for implementing gamification programs around a system of badges, leaderboards, and points that are becoming a common pattern in gamification. Companies need methods of identifying which frameworks are useful and if they should build their own. By providing a framework for evaluating gamification opportunities and guidelines on implementing gamification initiatives, Pariveda can help companies to meet this opportunity and respond to their competitors’ actions in this space. Many of the existing projects that Pariveda engages in can be enhanced by consulting with our clients around a gamified aspect to their project which could differentiate Pariveda from our competitors.

What's Next
I've been digging into Jane McGonigal's book and it is facinating. In my next post I'll share some of the bits that I find most interesting.