Many applications, little evidence
2012 saw a flood of gamification applications, from gamifying your banking to your love life and everything in between. Additionally, many things that we would have once called serious games were conveniently lumped into the gamification pile. A fairly complete overview can be found here . My personal favorite was the Sight system from the video below (disappointed or glad it doesn't actually exist?)
The big question is of course: does it actually yield anything? In fact, there is only one sector list to data where you can really speak of returns and that is healthcare. The Games for Health Europe conference last month in Amsterdam showed that the application of games or elements from games in the healthcare sector should now be taken seriously. Systematic research into the effects (a prerequisite for making a difference in that sector) is an important success factor there. You have to look for that systematic research into the effects of gamification with a magnifying glass in other sectors. The only research I came across this year is the study that TU Delft conducted into the effects of the Energy Challenge . The most important conclusion of that was that game elements can indeed influence behaviour (in this case: reducing energy consumption) but that in many cases that behavioural change does not appear to be sustainable.
Consulting market is maturing
Of course, evidence is not always necessary. There is so much happening in the business world and in government that is not 'evidence-based'. Not every client is equally sensitive to this. A clear difference from a year ago is that many more organisations recognise the concept of gamification and have a rough idea of the possibilities for their organisation. This makes discussions about the subject easier, although a lot of nonsense is often still being sold in these discussions. In many ways, it is similar to the early days of The New Way of Working. Everyone can claim to know about it, there are many pilots and a few organisations that are really successful with it. Moreover, many managers are distracted by the exterior: with The New Way of Working a nice office floor, with gamification a game on a screen. There is then a risk that this exterior will be copied one-on-one for their own organisation with the naive expectation that the effects will be the same.
advice matures and will protect managers from such mistakes. A sign of the times was the announcement a few weeks ago by Capgemini Consulting that they are going to seriously work on the gamification market, in a partnership with Badgeville . That will undoubtedly result in a reaction from other parties in the consultancy sector in the coming year (Deloitte has also dipped a toe in the water ). Perhaps we will see a Dutch serious game developer conclude a nice partnership in 2013.
In closing
The 'turn' that Gartner has made from optimistic to pessimistic seems to suggest that there was a lot of disappointment among companies about gamification last year. I think the picture is a bit more nuanced. Both the quick wins and the quick regrets have now been more or less booked. 2013 will be the year that organizations either drop out of the trend or start working on it seriously. In other words: it is only now starting to get really interesting.