Game Concepts and narratives are often used in everyday life. Some of the best would be in Ice breakers and training for new jobs placements. Our brains are great at learning guidelines and rules if presented to us in the medium of a game.

I used to work in Waitrose and when training we often had pick your own adventure style training sessions. We were presented a situation and asked to respond appropriately. This was a great way to learn the policies and procedures of the company without any boring talks or meetings. The interaction was key in this instance. The use of games in this way also meant that people who are easily distracted or have a hard time reading and absorbing a lot of information could learn these rules quickly and easily.

Games are often used to assist in the forming of a group. When people are presented with a fun challenge they tend to bond together quickly and have fun. This means that they can each show their skills in a “safe” game environment with no consequence for failure.
With the invention of social media the gamification of the world became easier. Things like the Fitbit introduce a competitive, level based game into people lives and helps to motivate them to work out more to beat their friend’s score. This is known as Behavioural gamification, when a game is created with the intent to change people’s behaviour, another example of this is Pokémon GO which aimed to get people walking. Even in an app such as “Waze” (a popular social media sat nav) there is a level system and notification system. It actively rewards drivers for being part of the community and driving safely.

Games are not only used to entertain but also to recruit people. The U.S. Army has been using a “Virtual Army Experience” to facilitate the recruitment of new soldiers. Application forms now often feature multiple choice questions so that people can feel as though they are in a situation whilst answering.

Gamification is also used to facilitate change in the world. In 2009 a game was released by the University of Washington called “FoldIt.” This was an online puzzle game involving protein folding and uses a puzzle type interface to allow people from all over the world to manipulate and figure out various protein structures. Due to people competing with each other and a massive 240,000 player base the solution of the structure for M-PMV (Mason-Pfizer monkey virus: an AIDS causing virus) was found in 8 days. The game utilized people’s puzzle solving skills and did something in 8 days that scientists had been trying for 15 years.

In conclusion I feel that game concepts and interactive narratives are now a key part of modern learning styles and for a good reason. Games are an intuitive and fun way of learning new information and skills. They are also extremely important in a social aspect. They are used to get people to socialise and make daunting tasks seem more manageable.

Sources

http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.701.4161&rep=rep1&type=pdf

The 10 best social products that use Gamification to literally save the world (2024)

Click to access gamification.pdf