SA lags in gamification

According to a study by Parks Associates, the number of people playing video games in the US has risen 241% since 2008. Games have become a facet of our everyday lives, and now they are making the transition into the business world.

"Today's games drive technological and societal advancements that serve gamers and non-gamers alike. Teachers at all levels use games in the classroom to teach history and civics, build skills and teach foreign languages. Healthcare providers use video games in physical therapy and treatment programmes, and to educate patients about their conditions. Surgeons use video game simulations to help practice difficult procedures," says Richard Firth, CEO of MIP Holdings.

"We have seen the increasing gamification of business apps. These are progressively being integrated with workflows, and many companies are even taking it to the extent of creating incentives driven by managing workflows and tasks. This is not only as a result of the increasing numbers of Generation X and Y employees in the workforce, but because gamification can be used to motivate engagement and certain behaviours for both your customers and employees. It's about creating identity and reputation and recognising a person's attention and loyalty."

Over the past few years, this has become hard to ignore, with gamification being used to great effect in both the business and scientific communities. Microsoft, for example, uses gamification to encourage non-QA staff to do bug testing and to get employees to contribute better language translations in its software localisation efforts. People are rewarded for doing this extra work through ego-oriented motivations from managers and by publicising top contributors to create a sense of competition for status among peers.

Long-standing problems in science and industry are beginning to fall as gamification is aimed at previously difficult to solve and otherwise highly stubborn problems. Scientific American reports that online gamers have achieved the first crowdsourced redesign of a protein, and one that is commercially useful in many vital industrial processes, ultimately resulting in an eye-opening 18-fold improvement in outcome. In another example, The Wall Street Journal recently explored how a call centre was able to reduce wait times up to 15% and increase sales by up to 12% using gamification. Numerous other examples exist.

"How gamification works is important and uses processes that been understood since the start of the Web 2.0 era," says Firth. "In particular, crowdsourcing can be a particularly important element of successful gamification. Seen in this light, games will be the business interfaces of the future."

This, however, results in a conundrum for South Africans. With gamification taking hold in business, an infrastructure must be built to support it, but the current infrastructure is reliant on an outdated approach.

As any South African with an Apple product can attest, the availability of online games locally is frustratingly limited, due mainly to the need to have all games rated by the Film and Publications Board (FPB) of South Africa. This has resulted in a limiting of available content as the FPB makes its way through the hundreds of thousands of apps and games available for download. The FPB is also responsible for software ratings, meaning that companies looking to apply the benefits of gaming will be limited by the timing and decisions taken by the FPB.

"In today's globalised, connected world, this approach no longer makes sense," says Firth. "While we all approve of the FPB's mandate to media for parents to identify the content type to make informed decisions and to prevent kids from picking up adult-themed games or movies in stores, applying this method to all games and software is counter-productive. Not only is it limiting the way businesses could be operating, it is limiting South Africa's ability to deliver technology resources in a new world."