The importance of gamification

Having learnt to live and work with Covid-19 over the last few months, a few positives have emerged out of it. Quality family time, new fitness goals, and learning new skills to mention but a few, alongside binge watching your favourite shows and movies.

For those who were learning new skills, have you put in a few minutes more to get the completion bar closer to the 100%?  Perhaps you ran the extra mile to beat your earlier record on your fitness tracker. You don’t mind showing off to your friends on social media, do you? You thought of just two episodes of your favourite show but went on for a few more? If you have experienced any of the above, you aren’t new to gamification.

Gamification is a term to describe inclusion of game mechanics, design elements, principles and techniques into non-gaming contexts. But over a period of time, there has been a genuine need to gamify the game and the online casino experience for compelling reasons. The industry now needs to engage the player more, gain better loyalty from the player and gamification serves as a powerful tool.

One of the key factors that push casinos to gamify is a shift in target audience behaviour. With the advent of smartphones, high-end displays and various social media apps, the player’s media consumption pattern has changed. Screen real estate is now being shared with multiple high engagement media which the gamer consumes and interacts with, and this in turn affects the attention and loyalty to the casino.

The same player who would earlier be showered with bonuses, advancement in VIP levels and loyalty points, now must be engaged and enthralled with badges, medals, leaderboards, tournament goals and much more.

Reaping the rewards

Online gaming has had to imbibe gamification to their offerings with an aim to retain and engage customers with a more rewarding experience. Introduction of gamification brings out powerful human emotions, an element of curiosity, fascination and excitement. We have seen offerings which turns a losing spin into an opportunity by distracting the player into a bigger goal achievement. Casinos have used must hit, mystery jackpot features in their offerings, though in many ways this was to get away from the vicious trap of offering bonuses and free spins.

For the player, they are incentivised to play and spend more. The benefits for the casinos are obvious too, they translate into increased player satisfaction and higher earnings. A win-win for both sides!

Though video and casino games have been separate forms of entertainment and have distinct audiences, over the past few years we have seen casino games borrow elements from traditional video games. The new generation of casino gamers have demanded more interactivity in casinos. The need to achieve higher player involvement has prompted casinos to enhance the thrill and achievement factors.

Online casinos are fast-paced and have to align to social, technological trends. Implementing gamification is an investment, goes beyond a new feature and revolves around experimenting with new product design, A/B testing and new engagement strategies. There are other areas like problem gambling, which potentially can be managed using gamification. Gambling is still a socially limited activity, though streaming communities are emerging. It would be exciting to see players compete in larger communities and share achievements while also staying loyal to their casinos.

As casinos compete to retain and acquire players, the adoption of gamification will continue with more innovation in games and the casino offerings. For the players, it opens new avenues to explore and, ultimately, a more rewarding user experience.

Pawan Manepally is a senior egaming professional and has held senior roles at GTech (now IGT), Tech Mahindra (for Everi games) and Nektan Gaming. He is a keen follower of egaming industry trends, compliance and regulations, fintech innovations for gaming, and is a car enthusiast.