Gamification: More than just play

“All’s duck that ends duck. Game loaded!” This is how ICT.factory greets people at the screen. Shortly thereafter, an eccentric gentleman pushes his way into the scene: it is an uncle who wants to hand over his old microelectronics factory to the next generation in order to lead it into the future. However, the uncle cannot completely detach himself from “his” factory. The former owner, who has a peculiar fondness for ducks, repeatedly comments from the sidelines and always seems to have a witty or sarcastic remark ready.

Does all of this sound a little bizarre? Only at first glance. In fact, "ICT.factory" is a computer game – a so-called "serious game" – designed to raise players’ awareness of the highly complex processes involved in an electronics factory.

The background is serious: “Information and communication technology consumes enormous amounts of resources,” says Theresa Aigner, a researcher at the Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration IZM. She was part of the development team behind the browser game ICT.factory, which was created together with game designers, teachers, and students as part of the Green "ICT@FMD" project. “The idea was to create an application that not only has educational value but is also fun,” she explains. The result is a game with considerable depth. Players must make strategically sound decisions along the entire value chain – from the sustainable procurement of raw materials and efficient manufacturing to the modernization of production facilities and recycling. The game combines real-world challenges with a healthy dose of humor, exemplified by the eccentric uncle and his fondness for ducks.

This humorous approach was chosen deliberately. “Telling players, ‘Here is an educational game for you’ is the worst thing you can do,” says Fabian Pranter, Managing Director of the agency loewn, which was largely responsible for the technical implementation of the project. Instead, what emerged was a “completely absurd world” into which players can immerse themselves and identify with the topics being presented. “It is the vehicle for conveying the serious issues,” Pranter explains.

ICT.factory is an example of how games can be used to introduce electrical engineering topics at an early stage and make students aware of the challenges of the future. Developing an entire game is still quite unusual in an industrial context. Instead, many applications are increasingly adopting "Gamification". The term describes the use of game-like elements in non-game contexts, for example to increase the motivation of participants. This approach is not aimed solely at gamers; Gamification also targets engineers and users of electrical engineering products.

The numbers are clear: according to figures from the industry association Bitkom, nearly 60 percent of the population plays computer games occasionally or regularly – and the trend is rising. “Computer games are among the most important media of our time,” says Benedikt Morschheuser, Professor of Information Systems at the University of Bamberg and head of the university’s Gamification Research Group. Looking back to 2011, he recalls: “At that time, people were asking what could be learned from games when designing software for processes that actually have nothing to do with games.” Gamification is not limited to a specific industry or sector. “Wherever people work with technology, wherever transformation is taking place, gamification can play a role,” says Morschheuser. During the 2010s, researchers learned a great deal about the effects of Gamification. Morschheuser points to the hype surrounding the smartphone game Pokémon GO in 2016. “Today, we can see that digital games have become part of mainstream society,” he says. This is also reflected in the demographics of players. The typical gamer is not a teenager sitting in a childhood bedroom; the average age of players is 39.5 years.

Anyone who dives into the world of Gamification quickly encounters strong interest across a wide range of industries and organizations. The Game Change project at the University of Applied Sciences Zwickau (WHZ) is investigating how Gamification can be used in workforce development, innovation promotion, and sustainable behavioral change in the fields of energy, mobility, and the digital economy. The project focuses on interdisciplinary applications incorporating game-based elements. “Gamification is far more than just a gimmick. It opens up new ways of communicating complex relationships in a manner that is understandable, tangible, and interactive,” says Johann Zitzelsberger, Professor of Electrical Machines and Drives at WHZ. As part of the Game Change project, his team is developing a gamified energy demonstrator. The system uses real consumption data from buildings and visualizes it accordingly. The demonstrator is intended to be integrated into existing energy and smart home systems.

The goal is to make technological possibilities visible and to support public acceptance of current transformation processes.

In addition to the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, an interdisciplinary team of researchers is working on the topic. Also involved is Manuela Sachse, Professor of Marketing, who focuses in particular on questions of acceptance, effectiveness, and motivation in the use of gamified applications. After all, influencing behavior requires acceptance by the users. The Game Change project aims to bring together technical development and design with the user perspective. Sachse sees this as a key success factor for Gamification projects. “Before a tool is developed or deployed, it is essential to understand which need it is intended to address,” she explains. Developers must identify users’ motivations, expectations, and barriers at an early stage. Only then, she argues, can an application be created that users will actually accept.

When discussing gamification, the term “nudging” frequently comes up – that is, gently steering players in a desired direction. That this concept is not always viewed as unproblematic in every context is reflected in the experience of Thomas Immich. He is the founder and managing director of Centigrade GmbH, which has already implemented several gamification projects for companies. He is well aware of the skepticism that can still be found in some organizations. “The sword of Damocles of employee manipulation hangs over the discussion,” he says. For Immich, defining the right objectives is therefore essential. “It is not about the goals of the executive board; it is about the goals of the employees,” he explains. In other words, if employees in a production environment do not perceive any problems or opportunities for improvement, Gamification is unlikely to succeed. At the same time, people are often more motivated to realize their full potential than managers generally assume.

In practice, there are now many gamified processes and implemented projects – a development that, according to Thomas Immich, is also linked to a changing mindset within companies. During the first major wave of enthusiasm around eight years ago, the topic was often driven primarily by management.

“Today, these initiatives often originate within the departments themselves,” explains the UX expert. A typical industrial application is the use of a speedometer-style display that helps employees achieve their production targets independently. Workers can continue operating at their own pace while keeping the target in view. “People are able to get back into a state of flow,” says Immich. In collaboration with the industrial company SEW EURODRIVE, a game was developed in which production employees use their expertise to compete against artificial intelligence in optimizing processes. The possibilities of Gamification are virtually limitless. Researcher Benedikt Morschheuser, for example, points to applications in which employees use virtual reality to step into the “body” of a production robot in order to better understand its behavior. “This can be used to build trust,” says Morschheuser.