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and explorers. It is a starting point for many game design tasks. Thanks to the Serious
Game Initiative, the term serious game became more known and as a link between
video games and non-entertainment purposes like training, education, health, policy,
and management issues. In 2002, Pelling coined the term gamification, “by which
[he] meant applying game-like accelerated user interface design to make electronic
transactions both enjoyable and fast.”
5
Bret Terril
6
and James Currier
7
also wrote
about the term gam(e)ification in 2008 as a new marketing instrument to increase
engagement by using game mechanics. Since 2010, the application of gamification
[
6
,
15
] is a trending topic for marketing and business-oriented services. In 2012,
Gartner Inc. predicted that “over 70% of global 2000 organisations will have at least
one gamified application by 2014”.
8
Given this industry focus on gamification, the
concept also received more attention from academia. In 2011, two definitions of
gamification were published. Deterding et al. [
6
] define gamification as “the use of
game design elements in non-game contexts.” Huotari and Hamari [
15
] define it as
“a process of enhancing a service with affordances for gameful experiences in order
to support user's overall value creation.” We interpret both definitions as implying a
goal as the utility of gamification. Both describe elements of the game design world
which could change a user's experience in a different context (non-game [
6
], service
[
15
]). Interestingly, for Deterding et al. [
6
] “[…] the term 'gameful design'—design
for gameful experiences—was also introduced as a potential alternative to 'gami-
fication.”' Summarizing, in Deterding's definition the goal is rather geared toward
the (improved) user experience itself, in Huotari and Hamari's definition it is the
outcome driven by the user experience.
9.2.2 Game Design Elements
An important aspect of successful gamification is the selection of game design
elements. Game design elements determine what type of gameful experiences are
generated for the users. In [
6
], Deterding et al. provide five levels of game design
elements. They distinguish between game interface design patterns, game design pat-
terns and mechanics, game design principles and heuristics, game models, and game
design methods (Table
9.1
). Robinson et al. [
29
] propose a taxonomy built on levels
of expected engagement and the required commitment of the user. This taxonomy
has been conceived as a decision support for game element selection.
5
The (short) prehistory of 'gamification'
http://nanodome.wordpress.com/2011/08/09/the-short-
prehistory-of-gamification/
.
Retrieved 12 September 2014.
September 2014.
Retrieved 12 September 2014.
8
http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/1844115
.
Retrieved 12 September 2014.
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