#writingforgames

Gamification is a term that can be defined as “the use of game design and mechanics to enhance non-game contexts”.

Gamification can be used to motivate people to exercise and/or enhance their exercise experiences, which is what the game “Zombies, Run!” aims to do. With over a million players, I’d say they’ve been pretty successful so far. I have yet to try the game myself, but I do want to. It’s an immersive gaming experience that makes you feel like you’re running away from zombies and towards safe zones or helpful resources-- what’s not to love? I’m very intrigued by this game, and definitely want to try it. I’ve just gotten excited about exercising, without even really realizing that’s what’s happening! Gamification can be a great way to make exercise fun and engaging.

Here’s a link to the “Zombies, Run!” website, which features more in depth descriptions of the details of the game, as well as a compelling trailer for it: https://zombiesrungame.com/ In addition to exercise, another experience that is often unpleasant, but very good for people, is education. This can also be enhanced by gamification, both in and out of the classroom. The following article explains multiple ways gamification can be useful in the classroom, such as gamifiying grading with “experience points” instead of letter grades, awarding badges for achievements, fostering healthy competition in the classroom, and more: https://tophat.com/blog/gamification-education-class/

Outside the classroom, educational games are doing what educational TV programs aim to do, but in a more interactive way. I remember, as an elementary-school child, playing many educational games on my Quantum Leap Pad. I was always a fan of learning, even as a young child, but I absolutely abhorred mathematics. The Quantum Leap Pad games even made learning math fun! To this day, most of the basic math I know, I remember learning more from PBS Kids shows and Quantum Leap Pad games than from what I actually learned in a classroom. When you make learning a fun, interactive experience, it motivates people, especially kids, to do it AND makes the material easier to process and actually remember. Here’s a couple pictures of what a Quantum Leap Pad and the math game I played look like: 

Another, more generally pleasurable experience than exercise or education, which can still be further enhanced and made even MORE entertaining is TV watching. Shows that include voting, such as American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, and more, have already included an interactive, game-like feature into the experience of watching TV. However, The Voice, a singing competition show, has further expanded on the gamification of TV watching by adding an element to their voting app which includes creating your own “team” like the coaches on the show do, in which you pick the contestants you think will make it into the finale and the longer those contestants are on the show, the more points you gain. There is even a leaderboard that compares your score to that of your Facebook friends. Here’s a link to The Voice app’s website: https://www.nbc.com/the-voice/exclusives/app-s13