Understanding Gamification

While all readers of this journal will be familiar with computer games, there may be some who do not understand the concept of gamification. This guide to the subject, originally published as one of the American Library Association’s Library Technology Reports, is a good introduction. Gamification is about fun, but it goes beyond playing games; usually, there is some objective, which is often learning, but sometimes it is behavioural change. There are always rules, however, which is what marks out the gaming aspect. So, while it is necessary to explain the concept clearly, it is a little disappointing that more than half of this report is used for that purpose and not until Chapter 4 is the reader introduced to actual examples of gamification found in education and libraries. I tried one of the games mentioned: America’s Army is a free game focussed on using small unit tactical manoeuvres while using online maps. My guess is that it is a recruiting tool, and one aimed at a generation that spends a lot of time gaming. Others sites, such as Stack Overflow, uses game elements such as earning badges and points through participation in a forum, answering questions and gaining votes from other users. There are, though, a few games mentioned that focus upon libraries. Just to give two examples, Canton Public Library (Michigan, USA) gamified its summer reading programme by giving badges for the completion of specified activities, with the top achievers going into prize draws; this is a model used by some other library games. One of the best developed library games described in this short book is Library Quest from the Grand Valley State University Library (also Michigan, USA). It set tasks for students designed to encourage them to explore (what was then a) new library building and gave points for every quest completed. Once a set total was reached, the student went into a draw for an iPad. This particular game was developed by an outside agency, and the result was made available through the Apple App Store and Google Play. The fifth chapter asks some general questions about gamification that librarians should think about before committing themselves and their organisations to a gamification path that remains unclear.