Problem: One of my favorite metaphors is "Turtles all the way down." It’s a humorous expression of the problem of infinite regress: a logical or reasoning sequence that simply does not come to an end. Recently, many technology bloggers and writers have been arguing that all technology apps and popular social media platforms are rooted in gamification. In this sense, it’s gamification all the way down. However, what’s the best way to embed gamification into an application continuously?
Solution: This business would focus on implementing gamification continuously into the development process by serving as a “for-hire CGO, Chief Gamification Officer.” As Jon Lai argues in his TweetStorm,
The best game-like experiences focus on retention Well-designed games retain extraordinarily well - @Warcraft or @CandyCrushSaga have thrived for 10+ yrs In contrast, most gamified programs boost short-term engagement but wear out users quickly.
A general framework for game-like experiences: Motivation: why does a user want to use your app? Mastery: what are the rules of the app? Feedback: how will a user learn those rules?
The core principles of game design have been integrated into many of the top apps today When people have fun and make progress toward intrinsic goals, they build long-term habits.
He uses examples of Megaman, Mario, Duolingo, CandyCrush, and others to argue that apps which are more like games increase intrinsic motivation through autonomy, mastery through learning repeatedly, and learning through feedback (Super Mario Bros notably did this through death).
In her TED Talk, Jane McGonigal builds on this by arguing that “Gaming can make a better world.” She starts her talk by mentioning how today people spend three billion hours a week playing online games. While this seems like not enough time, Jane argues that we actually need people in the world to be playing more games. “Three billion hours a week is not nearly enough game play to solve the world's most urgent problems.”
Now, I know you're asking, "How are we going to solve real-world problems in games?" Well, that's what I've devoted my work to over the past few years, at the Institute for the Future. We have this banner in our offices in Palo Alto, and it expresses our view of how we should try to relate to the future. We do not want to try to predict the future. What we want to do is make the future. We want to imagine the best-case scenario outcome, and then we want to empower people to make that outcome a reality. We want to imagine epic wins, and then give people the means to achieve the epic win.
The rise of gamification as a service would piggyback directly off of the growing rise of gamification generally. If every application moving forward must be gamified in order to be competitive in the future, then this business would be the “IDEO of gamification.” According to Fortune Business Insights, the global gamification market size “stood at $6.3 billion in 2019 and is projected to reach $37 billion by 2027 with a CAGR of 24.8%.”
Similarly, MarketsAndMarkets writes that “the gamification market size is projected to grow from $9.1 billion in 2020 to $30.7 billion by 2025, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 27.4% during the forecast period. The major factors driving the growth of the gamification market include rewards and recognition to employees over performance to boost employee engagement, provision of lucrative offers to the customers and consumers, and gamification yielding higher Return on Investment (RoI).”
Monetization: Subscription or boutique sales to this gamification enabling service
Contributed by: Michael Bervell (Billion Dollar Startup Ideas)
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