Gamifying the Future: For Sustainability & Fun - Part 1/2

In this series of two articles, I talk about what is Gamification, and how Gamification, combined with emerging ideas such as the Sharing Economy and Internet of Things, can be used to improve Sustainability.

A 3-minute read. Go!

You see a piece of crumpled paper ball lying on the floor. You see a dustbin 10 feet ahead of you. You decide to test yourself - if you can throw the paper into the dustbin from where you stand. There. You have added a bit of game mechanics into your life. You feel rewarded when you throw on target. You may choose to attempt the same (so-called) game by increasing your throwing distance from the bin. There. You have added levels to your game. You try it out with a bunch of friends. There. You have created a community and perhaps, you will have a leaderboard based on successful throws. Gamification is a similar concept, but applied to a far more useful and sense-making context. Essentially, it means to apply game techniques to non-game contexts effectively for better results.

As we evolved, from apes to humans, from 1K to 1GB processors and from the agricultural age to the information age, our games have evolved with us. We have been so fascinated by games that we have spent millions of years (in hours) identifying virtual problems in virtual worlds and solving them with the use of virtual resources, along with virtual friends. The amount of time we have spent on playing games is astonishing. According to research in 2010, the 10 million registered players of the popular online game World of Warcraft have played it for a total of 5.93 million years. To put things into perspective, human beings learnt to stand up 5.93 million years ago as a part of evolution, from historical data. (Let that sink in!).

3 more paragraphs for a fun video.

Realists complain. They are supposed to complain. Even though new real problems arise in the world everyday, gaming companies are recruiting young engineers to build more of these fantasized virtual worlds, with a goal of reaching far more people. Make no mistake. The gaming industry is expected to be worth of $100 billion dollars by 2017. With emerging markets jumping into the bandwagon, along with a plethora of technological advances, I expect the industry to grow even faster. Parents and spouses are expected to complain even more about their game-addicted children and partners, respectively.

As gamers, we have a sense of extreme self-motivation. Sometimes I wonder why I continued to attempt that virtual puzzle in that virtual world even though I kept failing. But, I have come to understand that the ecstastic feeling of finishing up a level or killing off a virtual monster is a human trait. We love challenges. We like to compete. We are pioneers. And, so do we evolve. This is why, I believe, the phenomenon of Gamification has taken off into the Peak of Inflated Expectations in the Gartner Hype Cycle. And this is the time when we hear great success stories from companies and reports from consulting companies, listing down the potential of this all new big-idea.

Gamification has already been introduced into everyday fitness with the Nike+ Smartwatch and Zombies, Run! (Apparently, zombies chase you and you jog/run accordingly). Education is one of the most important areas for gamification. Learning websites like Khan Academy and Duolingo use a few gamification techniques. The coolest gamification application is this - by a professor, who awards XP points to students for attending a class, answering questions in class and submitting assignments. Well, if you end up with highest points you (only you!) get to use the book in your final exam. Move to business. Gamers have helped Foldit, a protein molecule sequencing company, to discover new proteins to improve health and eradicate diseases. Speed Cam Lottery (below) and other projects from Fun Theory, are great examples of Gamification.

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But, I strongly believe that the most important application of Gamification will be in Sustainability, in terms of reducing our energy footprint or contributing less to Climate Change. About 3/4th of the people reading this article are aware that 'Our carbon emissions need to be brought down', but how many wish to 'do something about it' ? Perhaps, this is a Knowledge - Action gap. Today, we have easy access to know the problem through the internet, but the means of dealing with it are out of our reach. What we need, in this case, is a behavioural change. This change is what, I believe, Gamification will bring about.

There are quite a few successful, examples of Gamification applied to Sustainability. My favorite is OPower, an American utility services company, which sends residents, their electricity bills along with the usage levels of their neighbours and possible ways to reduce the usage, compared to their neighbours. Naturally, we are incredibly competitive and as a result of this approach, OPower has saved $250 million dollars or more importantly about 1000 gigawatts of electricity. SAP, the software giant rewards employees who carpool their colleagues thereby saving fuel everyday. 

Change is a complex phenomenon. Behavioural change is even more complicated, as it involves working with each of our unique behaviours. Challenges, rewards, points, leaderboards or in short, Games unite us in terms of our practices and thinking. To bring about the change needed for a sustainable future, Gamification is a hope. Gamification needs to be combined with evolving technologies such as the Internet of Things and concepts such as the Sharing Economy. Bad gamified applications will probably make things worse. Hence, we need good game designers, not to design fantasized virtual worlds, but to design our gamified future.

Let's not only have a sustainable future, let's also make it fun !

Watch this amazing 7-minute sci-fi short film about Gamification to understand how a gamified future might look like. 

Sources:

1. https://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world

2. https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/gaming-gamification-save-the-planet

3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZga0AmCGdE

4. https://www.coursera.org/course/gamification