#gamifcation

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For better or worse, nearly everyone enjoys a little friendly competition. A study by JWT Intelligence found that 63% of surveyed adults agreed that making everyday activities more like a game would make them more fun and rewarding. With this in mind, how can businesses capitalize on their customers’ love for game-like experiences?   Implementing an effective gamification strategy that ultimately drives the most ROI for your business isn’t always as simple as it sounds on paper. For instance, many gamification platforms are standalone applications, separate from the rest of the elements of its corresponding site or app.   Pitting your gamification platform against the other interaction points on your web properties defeats the entire aim altogether, which is to encourage valuable on-site behavior and drive loyalty.   Gamification Isn’t a Single Player Game After examining thousands of gamification implementations, we’ve found that the most effective user experiences are tightly interwoven across different points of social engagement. In other words, gamification makes the biggest impact when it’s integrated with social tools such as social login and plugins like comments, ratings and reviews, sharing, and more.   Why is it so essential that gamification relates directly to the social elements of your site? In a nutshell, gamification drives engagement with your site’s different points of interaction. It offers incentives for consumers to sign into and actively participate in your online communities by leaving comments, sharing content and site activities, writing product reviews, and more.  

The below infographic portrays how gamification works with social plugins such as comments, shares, and activity feed to generate real ROI:

Actual gathering is magic behind "Magic, the gathering,"

The digital experience is trying to mirror the best, most social qualities that come naturally with real-world play. But none of it quite lives up to face-to-face gaming. Digital gaming conventions  offer face-to-face tournaments because it's just human nature to want that personal interaction, that face-to-face interaction, especially getting together with your friends.

Striiv, a smart pedometer that uses game mechanics to motivate people, is getting updated Wednesday with a new personal wireless connection that lets users encourage and compete with each other. With the new Striiv Connected social component, Striiv is moving beyond a more solo experience and utilizing relationships to help further drive users.