Gamification: How online games are taking over
As social media become an ever more significant part of our online lives, so too have games.
In Sweden, the government is using a game to transform the business of speeding tickets. The cameras used to catch speeders now also take pictures of drivers at or below the speed limit. These drivers are entered into a lottery to receive some of the money raised from speeding fines. The government hopes to offer positive reinforcement to those who obey the law.
The most successful social networks, such as Facebook and LinkedIn, are packed with hooks and lures taken from games. Some of the most successful Facebook applications like Farmville allow users to play games using the social platform. Farmville's maker, Zynga, is now one of the hottest companies in Silicon Valley.
Nike has built a community out of the humble trainer by allowing runners to record their runs and upload their running history to runners worldwide. The use of points and leader board systems is crucial to many new health and fitness services, which use game features to nudge people towards better behaviour. A new Facebook app called Arookoo is intended to "make walking fun". It sends users on challenges to walk a certain number of steps each day, to compete in "step-offs" with friends and GPS-enabled scavenger hunts where you can win points and online badges.
Absurd as some of these games might seem, there is evidence that they work. A new health gaming company called Keas.com claims that at corporations where employees used its online games, there was a dramatic improvement in physical activity and the consumption of fruits and vegetables.
Banks are intrigued by a new wave of applications which turn saving and spending into games, and education companies are experimenting with games to make every kind of education, from early childhood to adult learning, more interesting.
There are now billboards on which passers-by can play simple video games like Pong using their mobile phones as controllers. The winners can redeem prizes at local restaurants. Google gamified its landing page last week to honour Les Paul, father of the electric guitar. For one day, you could play a web version of Paul's guitar, record a riff and send it to friends. As every form of media becomes more interactive, the gaming trend is only going to expand.
