Myth #1: Gamification and games are the same thing.

To get right down to it, games form part of gamification but they are not the whole thing.

Games are produced to engage and entertain an audience only and have no tangible, targeted outcomes.

Gamification has been designed to harness the power of games to address real-world problems; in other words, to get results.

Say your venue has gaps in the information they hold about their members and they want to fill those gaps. A gamification campaign - well designed and executed for this purpose - would capture members details before they can receive their game prize or voucher. This information fills your database gaps while providing a fun, rewarding experience for your patron. Now that is win; win!

In short, gamification is the process of applying games, game elements and techniques to non-game contexts, with the objective of engaging and motivating people by making real-world tasks a lot more fun.

Myth #2: Gamification is only for young people and is not suited to a mature audience.

There is a stigma that gamification is only for kids and young people and that it loses its appeal as the age of the player increases; not so!

Gamification today is being deployed into areas such as learning and education, software coding, leadership training, ethics, marketing, exercise and health, banking, science, research, innovation and more! This works because there are 2.3 billion gamers across the world from varying demographics.

The bottom line is, whether you’re into games or not, we as humans have an innate understanding of reward, status, achievement, and competition and all of these ingredients are baked into cherryplay^TM, making it fun for all ages.

Myth #3: Gamification is too competitive.

Some people revel in the opportunity to compete against others no matter the context, while some prefer to self-compete, some just wish to explore while others want to be social.

The bottom line is that not everyone likes competitive environments and often, the natural response to a highly competitive environment is to simply opt-out.

If a gamification campaign is launched to a large audience but only offers a competition framework, there’s a good chance a lot of people could be burnt by the structure of that campaign.

That is why cherryplay^TM games are highly configurable and can offer both leaderboard rewards as well as random rewards. This ensures that your games meet people where they are at, creating a fun, engaging experience for everyone, no matter how they feel about competition.

Myth #4: Gamification is too expensive.

It may have been true in the past when only large brand or marketing agencies could afford the benefits of gamifications.

Here at cherryplay^TM, we have well and truly debunked that myth with our affordable subscription-based model.

A flat monthly fee provides your venue with multiple, monthly branded games - preconfigured for holidays, events and other engagement excuses like birthday - to use in any way you want to engage your patrons.

Myth #5: There is no science behind Gamification.

Gamification was created around the concept of motivational psychology. That’s right; gamification may have been created by technologies but the concepts come from doctors of the mind.

Brian Burke’s book, “Gamify: How Gamification Motivates People To Do Extraordinary Things”, breaks down the three core values of successful gamification initiatives. These are:

1. Autonomy
2. Mastery
3. Purpose

These motivators avoid extrinsic rewards such as monetary rewards and rather, tap into intrinsic values, such as social and self-esteem based rewards.

Interestingly, these three motivators coincide with Psychologist Martin Seligman’s PERMA model. Through dedicating his life to the study of the human mind and how positive and negative psychological health affects a person’s outlook on different topics, Martin formulated the 5 principle PERMA model. These five principles are crucial for lasting, personal well being and consist of:

1. Positive Emotion
2. Engagement
3. Relationships
4. Meaning
5. Accomplishments

All of cherryplay’s gamification campaigns focus on “human-focused design” and tap into all of the PERMA principles. In doing so, our games and campaigns satisfy the unspoken desires of the human mind and put users on a desired path in the process.

Conclusion

There are many commonly held myths about gamification which it is time to rebuke! By doing so, your venue can overcome these collective misconceptions and harness the power of this available, affordable engagement tool today.

And one of the first steps to increasing the usage of gamification in your next marketing campaign is to know where to start. As a digital marketplace for venues, at cherryplay^TM, we live and breathe better ways for venues to engage their customers and staff.

Ask us about our fantastic State of Origin game promotion kit today; just fill in our Expression of Interest form and one of our friendly team will be in touch with you soon to discuss.

Mandy (Green) Makryllos