The main scientific purpose of this bachelor thesis is the analysis if the implementation of game elements in mobile learning applications influences the user experience. Furthermore, the concept of gamification, which implies that game elements are implemented in non-game applications, will be elucidated and potential positive effects on test applications analyzed.

A questionnaire and two separate test applications were created in order to give an elaborate answer to the leading question, which asks if gamification has an influence on the user experience of mobile learning applications. Building the test applications specifically for this purpose allowed avoiding confounding factors like differing designs or basic functions as well as addressing the majority of smart phone users by programming it as a website rather than as a mobile app.

Dan Ariely, professor at Duke University, did some experiments, testing the hypothesis of meaning and what makes us feel good about work. Contrary to popular belief, it's not money or even joy that makes us love work, but meaning. In two experiments (and one anecdote) Dan Ariely shows the effect of meaning to the outcome.

Example 1 – Lego Bionicle

Participants were given Lego-pieces to build Bionicle figures. For the first Bionicle, the participants were given $3. For the second $2.70, the third $2.10, the fourth $1.80 and son. This process was repeated until the participants refused to continue making new Bionicles. The participants were split into two groups. Whenever participants in the first group handed over the finished figure, the experimenter took it, put it in a place, and handed the participants new Lego-pieces to make the next one.

When the second group handed over their first Bionicle, they were also given new Lego pieces, but at the same time the experimenter started disassembling the first Bionicle in front of the participants. When the second Bionicle was done and handed over, the experimenter returned the Lego pieces of the first Bionicle to the participant and started immediately to disassemble the second Bionicle.

De-Bunking the Myth of Competitive Game Mechanics in the Enterprise

I get this question a lot, and I re-direct game mechanics strategies away from competition more times that I’d like to count. Competition has no place in the enterprise. It will never motivate employees. It will never foster collaboration. It will never help people learn new skills.
 
Ever.

When I was a kid, my mom used to say, “Stop worrying about what everyone else is doing and focus on yourself.” This is advice I bet a lot of us have heard as children, and it’s just a way of saying: life is not a contest. It’s not about being the best. It’s about being YOUR best. It’s about being recognized for YOUR accomplishments, whatever that may be. You don’t have to have the same accomplishments as everyone else. There will always be someone better at something than you, and someone who will be worse at something than you. When you compare yourself to someone else, you are less happy.

Imagine seeing a job description that says:
 
Requirements include competing among your colleagues to be Number One! Crush your peers by being singled out as The Best – all in a public forum!

Would you even apply for that job? Now, on top of everything else you have to do at work, you also have to be better than your colleagues in a very public way.

It may come as no surprise that people working in the gamification space like a challenge. And what other industry than that one needs to apply the very same game design components to have a little fun? This is what Toby Beresford does with his monthly updated gamification guru list, and which he uses to showcase his Leaderboarded gamification technology.

In the two years that Toby has compiled the list, using different criteria to rank the gamification gurus, mostly Gabe Zichermann – the man behind the GSummit and Gamification.co – has been dominating (with a short early stint by Jane McGonigal, who anyways considers herself a game-, but not a gamification-designer).

Anyways, April 2013 is the first time that I unseated Gabe Zichermann from the top spot. What a day! I had aimed for #2, but #1 is a sensation. Now of course, this is a little competition, and we need to understand what competition means, what types of competition are there, when it works, and how winners and losers react.

The Wikipedia defines competition as follows:

Competition in ecology and sociology is a contest between individuals and entities for territory, a niche, or a location of resources, for resources and goods, for prestige, recognition, awards, mates, or group or social status, for leadership. It is the opposite of cooperation.