The Difference Between Gamification and Serious Games: The Benefits
Gamification and serious games are tools that can be used to help train employees and improve performance.
Both gamification and serious games offer opportunities for businesses to adopt a more game-like environment.
The two concepts have many similarities, but there are also key differences.
Serious Game are incredible tools for:
Teaching
Learning
Serious Games Combine
Learning Strategies
Knowledge & Structures
Game Elements
Questions:
What is your objectives?
Think Mobility
Microlearning
Real Life examples
Practical Knowledge
Memorable experience
In this article, we will look at the benefits of both gamification and serious games, as well as the pros and cons of each.
In addition, we’ll explore what you can do to best leverage these tools for your business or organization.
What is eLearning Gamification
What is Gamification ?
Gamification is the process of adding game elements to something that is not a game. This can be applied to a wide range of business activities, such as marketing campaigns, sales meetings, hiring processes, employee development, and more.
The goal of gamification is to make your activities more engaging, which can increase participation as well as the level of engagement.
When you add game elements to your business activities, you can make them more enjoyable, more competitive, and more memorable.
Gamification uses game elements and game principles in non-game contexts to solve problems. In addition, gamification is the process of applying game elements to solve problems.
Points, Badges, and Leaderboards have been used to Educate, Entertain, and Engage for thousands of years.
Reason to start using Gamification:
Motivation
Engagement
Challenges
Real Life
Reward & Certification
Benefits:
Activities
Feedback
Personal Investment
What is Serious Game?
Serious games are games that are designed to support specific objectives, such as training, employee development, or marketing. They are often used in the business world, especially in the areas of training, simulation, and e-learning.
Serious games are often used in areas such as training, simulation, and e-learning. While these areas are important to businesses, they are also often lacking in engagement and enjoyment.
Serious games can be used to add more interest and excitement to these areas, making them more engaging and encouraging higher participation among employees.
A game created for a nonentertainment purpose is referred to as a serious game. In addition to being a form of entertainment, serious games are used in a variety of industries such as:
defence, education, scientific research, health care, emergency management, city planning, engineering, and politics.
Serious games are games used for educational purposes. They are not meant to be fun or entertaining. Serious games are used in learning and development (L&D) and education to promote engagement and better results. Because of this, serious games are often used in education and learning.
90% of workers demonstrate better productivity when their day-to-day tasks are gamified.
Games with a purpose beyond pure entertainment are known as serious games.
Examples of Serious Games :
Microsoft Flight Simulator (1982) Flight Simulators are the grandfathers of serious games. ...
Tiltfactor Laboratory (2003)
A Force More Powerful (2006)
Darfur is Dying (2006)
PeaceMaker (2007)
War games for soldiers (18 centuries)
The benefits of Gamification
Increases engagement
Gamification can help create a more enjoyable environment that increases employee engagement and helps people feel rewarded for their work.
Promotes creativity
Gamification can also help you inspire creativity among your employees. The game-like environment can help employees think creatively, try new things, take chances, and explore new ideas.
Motivates employees
Finally, gamification can help motivate employees by providing them with positive feedback, recognition, and rewards for their work.
Helps businesses understand customer behavior
Many businesses use gamification as a way to understand their customers and customer behavior. This can help businesses create a more engaging product or service, or it can help them determine which features are most important to their customers.
The benefits of serious games
Increases engagement
Like gamification, serious games can help increase employee engagement and create a more enjoyable environment.
Encourages creativity
Serious games can also help employees feel more creative and explore new ideas. This can be especially helpful in situations where creativity is needed, such as when employees are trying to solve a problem or come up with a new idea.
Motivates employees
Like gamification, serious games can also help motivate employees by providing them with positive feedback, recognition, and rewards for their work.
Helps businesses understand customer behavior
Finally, like gamification, serious games can also help businesses understand their customers and their needs. This can help companies create a more engaging product or service, or it can help them determine which features are most important to their customers.
The drawbacks of gamification
Can be overwhelming
One challenge of gamification is that it can be overwhelming to employees. If you add too many game elements, the experience can be too engaging and difficult for employees to process and understand.
Creates a hierarchical environment
Another potential disadvantage of gamification is that it can create a hierarchical environment that is full of competition and rankings. This can make employees feel like they are competing with each other for recognition, and it can also create a feeling of insecurity for those who don’t earn a high ranking.
Can feel artificial
Finally, gamification can feel artificial to employees. It may not feel genuine and authentic, which can be frustrating for employees and decrease their engagement.
The drawbacks of serious games
Unrealistic
One challenge of serious games is that they can be too unrealistic and not look or feel like a real situation. This can make employees feel as though they cannot transfer their skills to the real world, which is not helpful to their development.
Too complex
Another disadvantage of serious games is that they can be too complex and difficult to understand. This can make them feel overwhelming and lead to lower participation among employees.
Can feel like work
Serious games can also feel like work for employees. This can lead to frustration and a lower level of engagement.
Unrealistic and complex
Serious games can be both unrealistic and complex, which can make them feel overwhelming and difficult to understand. This can lead to frustration and lower participation.
Gamification and Serious Games
When done correctly, gamification and serious games can be great tools for businesses to use for training and employee development.
Both can help increase engagement, creativity, and motivation among employees, which can lead to better results and outcomes for businesses.
However, it is important to understand the differences between gamification and serious games, as well as the pros and cons of each.
By leveraging these concepts, you can make your business more engaging and enjoyable, while also helping to train your employees and promote their development.