Welcome Gamers and Players,

today I want to update you about the use of word “Gamification”. Also if I know that actually this terms is creating a consistent buzz around it, I’ve decided to do not use that in my presentation and consultancy activities, except for some very specific situation.

This because I’m having some trouble using this word: basically, my corporate counterpart tends to assume that Gamification is always something “game-related”.
Unfortunately, unlikely me and you, their feelings about “game” are “less serious and time-waster” rather than “funny and useful”.

Also, I realize that many of the projects I’ve to develop are not recognizable at all as “game”: they obviously use some game dynamics, but sometimes they are simply competition between teammate, and I don’t think that’s enough to call it “Gamification”, also if this word is actually trendy.

So, I decided to clean my communication related to this fields. Starting from today I’m using the definition Motivational Design, that explain better what I do, and how I do that, rather than Gamification.
I will use Gamification again only when I’m talking about something that has an actual game involved in it (what I previously have called “Game on Demand”).

I think Motivational Design is a clearer, more understandable and affordable term. And, by the way, it doesn’t have an existing bias against it.