Gamification: Getting kids to play along

Guest Post by Matt Heston, video game expert

Kids can play videogames for hours on end, but fifteen minutes of cleaning can be met with some serious resistance. In my case, that was doubly true for laundry. I was never more cunning nor more creative when I was a kid than when I needed to get out of laundry duty. My pokemon needed leveling up far more than I needed fresh socks. There were more than a few examples why this was patently untrue (don’t ask), but with gamification, we can look at the underlying reasons why these games can engage us for hours and how the mechanics of games can be applied to other, perhaps even productive, activities.

Gamification is applying gamelike elements and thinking to non-game activities, in order to make those activities more engaging. Now, while this seems like a fairly straightforward concept, it’s actually a quite deep field of study. There are people researching it and criticizing it and writing books about how to apply gamification in more and more places. I can’t do justice to the concept of gamification as a whole, so instead I’m going to bring up a few points on how it applies to parents.

To understand gamification properly requires a bit of history, a dash of psychology and a tablespoon worth of game design. I’ll be using broad strokes here, so I’d encourage anyone who wants to actually apply this to look into more in-depth sources after reading this.Gamification, then, should only be applied to activities with obvious rules and clear goals. You can’t turn “be more responsible!” into a game, but you can make “set the table before dinner” into one. Vagueness is frustrating. Avoid it whenever possible.Finally, gamification requires a bit of a personal touch. This the smallest but also most important ideas. Clear rules and achievement are not intrinsic to gaming, and are really just basic psychology ideas that have been applied in long before the term gamification ever popped up. For whatever you’re trying to make engaging, you need to understand what is engaging for the person using it. It may feel like window dressing, but how you present your game is everything. Are they more into shooters? Then maybe you should focus on making your gamified activity competitive. If they’re more into roleplaying games, try setting up opportunities where they can make meaningful choices. For parents, if you know not only what games your kid plays, but also why they play it, you have a key into what can interest them and motivate them.

The first thing you must know if you’re a parent is that gamification can only be realistically used for certain things. Effective games use clear rules that take very little to grasp but can be applied in satisfying and interesting ways. This is important because without simple, logical rules the players get confused, frustrated, and will lose interest. 

Secondly, achievement is a big deal. Not every game needs obvious rewards or high scores, but for parents applying gamification, they’re both invaluable tools. Rewards can be tangible prizes for accomplishing a certain goal, but relying on bribery isn’t always necessary. No matter who you are, our brains are wired to like seeing numbers go up. Progress bars, high scores, achievement points, they’re all rewards in their own way. Farmville, World of Warcraft, even Xbox are all just using modern takes on getting stickers of a gold star in class.

Finally, gamification requires a bit of a personal touch. This the smallest but also most important ideas. Clear rules and achievement are not intrinsic to gaming, and are really just basic psychology ideas that have been applied in long before the term gamification ever popped up. For whatever you’re trying to make engaging, you need to understand what is engaging for the person using it. It may feel like window dressing, but how you present your game is everything. Are they more into shooters? Then maybe you should focus on making your gamified activity competitive. If they’re more into roleplaying games, try setting up opportunities where they can make meaningful choices. For parents, if you know not only what games your kid plays, but also why they play it, you have a key into what can interest them and motivate them.