50 Percent of Problem Solvers Will Use Video Game Elements

A report from research firm Gartner suggests that by the end of 2015 more than 50 percent of the organizations that are interested in innovation or in problem solving will use gamification to boost the abilities of their personnel and get better overall results.

Gamification is a process where video game like mechanics, such as adding achievement rewards for real world action, breaking down tasks in smaller components and creating teams with complementing skill systems, are applied in a non-video game space.

The Gartner made report says that gamification can increase the pace of innovation, can lead to more feedback from workers, can help a company present a better narrative about its actions and can help present tough tasks as challenging but achievable.

The research firm also believes that before 2014 is over, a service which offers a game like way of marketing goods and providing customer support will be as big a business as Facebook, eBay and Amazon, online-based behemoths that dominate their market space but were started relatively recently.

Brian Burke, who is an analyst working for Gartner, stated, “Enterprise architects, CIOs and IT planners must be aware of, and lead, the business trend of gamification, educate their business counterparts and collaborate in the evaluation of opportunities within the organization.”

When it comes to current successful gamification projects Gartner points to the recruitment tool that is the first-person shooter America's Army, which is specifically created to communicate what a life in the armed forces means to a possible recruit.

He added, “Where games traditionally model the real world, organizations must now take the opportunity for their real world to emulate games. Enterprise architects must be ready to contribute to gamification strategy formulation and should try at least one gaming exercise as part of their enterprise context planning efforts this year.”