A Guide for Game-Design-Based Gamification

Abstract

Many researchers consider Gamification as a powerful way to improve education. Many studies show improvements with respect to traditional methodologies. Several educational strategies have also been combined with Gamification with interesting results. Interest is growing and evidence suggest Gamification has a promising future. However, there is a barrier preventing many researchers from properly understanding Gamification principles. Gamification focuses of engaging trainees in learning with same intensity that games engage players on playing. But only some very well designed games achieve this level of engagement. Designing truly entertaining games is a difficult task with a great artistic component. Although some studies have tried to clarify how Game Design produces fun, there is no scientific consensus. Well established knowledge on Game Design resides in sets of rules of thumb and good practices, based on empirical experience. Game industry professionals acquire this experience through practice. Most educators and researchers often overlook the need for such experience to successfully design Gamification. And so, many research papers focus on single game-elements like points, present non-gaming activities like questionnaires, design non-engaging activities or fail to comprehend the underlying principles on why their designs do not yield expected results. This work presents a rubric for educators and researchers to start working in Gamification without previous experience in Game Design. This rubric decomposes the continuous space of Game Design into a set of ten discrete characteristics. It is aimed at diminishing the entry barrier and helping to acquire initial experience with Game Design fundamentals. The main proposed uses are twofold: to analyse existing games or gamified activities gaining a better understanding of their strengths and weaknesses and to help in the design or improvement of activities. Focus is on Game Design characteristics rather than game elements, similarly to professional game designers. The goal is to help gaining experience towards designing successful Gamification environments. Presented rubric is based on our previous design experience, compared and contrasted with literature, and empirically tested with some example games and gamified activities.

Designing a gamified e-learning environment for teaching undergraduate ERP course based on big five personality traits

“…This process specifies to selection of game elements to fit the game requirements. However, several studies (Gallego-Durán et al 2019 ) suggest designing truly effective games is a very difficult task with a great component. It is important to note that the selection of game elements needs to be carefully considered because every game element cannot be adjusted to every context and each element needs time to be consumed and effort to be implemented.…”

Teaching Down to Earth—Service-Learning Methodology for Science Education and Sustainability at the University Level: A Practical Approach

“…Service-Learning (SL) is one of the so-called active education methods [51,52]. Others include Problem-Based Learning (PBL) [13,53,54], Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL) [55], Gamification [56], Flipped Classroom [57], or Game-Based Learning (GBL) [58]. These methods are based on the idea that students will learn better if they directly apply their knowledge to improve real-life situations.…”

Does gamification work in a serious context? The influence of gamification, utilitarian, and hedonic features in the community-based crowdfunding platform

“…Although other research had found that users tend to seek fun and enjoyment in their web design, this research reflected a result that contradicted with the existing literature in crowdfunding domain (Behl & Dutta, 2020;Kontogiannidis et al, 2017) The game element applied in the crowdfunding platform did not contribute to influencing the donors' intention. Researchers posit that gamification might fail to influence users' behavior in a website or platform because only a single element was applied (Gallego-Durán et al, 2019). The platform should adopt a fully gamelike platform to achieve the intended behavior, and a single game element is not sufficient to do so (Schell, 2008).…”