Gaming is eating the world: welcome to user experience 3.0
After the acquisition of CandyCrush (King) by Activision, light was shed on the power of gaming. I’m not talking about the fact that gaming is a sweet financial spot — see the growing number of acquisitions in the sector. I’m talking about the power of gaming to gather a large and sticky community around a content, be it purely fun, education-oriented or environment-related. So enough with mobile, social, local and blablabla. Tomorrow the user experience will be around gaming!
We all want to play…
Fact #1: What was the most valuable activity under the Roman empire?
Otium (time for leisure and thinking), which was probably the first term coined to unite game and learning in human history. Can be considered as the historical and philosophical root of gamification.
Fact #2: Who first got 50M users between Facebook and Angry Birds?
Well, it took Rovio 35 days to reach this figure vs 3.5 years for Facebook... I think it gives a great sense of the “gaming power”. And don’t talk to me about the “hit factor” — do you see two Facebook?
Fact #3: How much does gaming represent in app stores?
In Q4 2014, gaming generated 75% of consumer spending on iTunes and 90% on Google Play. Yes, everybody wants to play and use our mobile devices to escape the world of boringness!
Fact #4: Is this really universal?
The number of global players on mobile is equally split between Asia, the US and Europe. Just have a walk in Bangkok and you will feel that gaming’s power of attraction works just fine.
Fact #5: what do Waze, Mint and the World Bank have in common?
In different ways and for different purposes, they all use gamification. Waze has implemented several gamified features to reward user engagement and make sure that the service is continuously fed with new information. Mint uses a gamified user environment in order to foster financial independence and goal tracking. Last, the World Bank has created Evoke, an educational game aimed at encouraging youth to develop innovative solutions to the world’s biggest challenges.
Fact #6… Just kidding, I think you got the idea.
Time to shift from boring to gaming
This trend is just only starting. In our new digital model, gaming is becoming the « new normal ». Most of the billion new digital services launched over the past years require a strong user engagement. Be it a social GPS, a booking platform or a content curation service, the digital experience is now about empowering users and allowing them to be the real designers of the service. Such a commitment can be done only, only and only with a fun and rewarding user environment. That’s where gaming or gamification come into play.
Gaming is when content is built around a gamified environment — which absolutely does not mean that content is not great or not important. Gamification is when a gamified environment is built around content (rewards, challenges, etc.). Depending on your content and the user experience you’re willing to offer, you will have to choose between gaming and gamification. Here are two pretty striking examples.
#Foldit: when gaming boosts research against AIDS
In 2010, the University of Washington launched an online puzzle video game about protein folding. Users can play and compete in figuring out different protein structures. Thanks to the 240,000 users registered on the game, a solution to the structure of the M-PMV was found in 10 days — scientists had been working on the Mason-Pfizer monkey virus for 15 years. 10 days vs 15 years? Yes, gaming can definitely change the world, even when serious matters like AIDS research are at stake.
#Roadwarrior: business training can be fun and efficient
In 2012, Salesforce launched a gamified training platform for its sales teams called Roadwarrior. Now used by other corporations, like SAP, it has turned to be the most effective way to train sales teams on new technologies and solutions. People have shown a much greater capacity of learning by heart a technical brief in a short period of time and with pleasure.
Gaming-related projects keep mushrooming around us. What if it could serve better recruiting and skills assessing? Welcome to our world!
Why and how we mix gaming and recruiting at CodinGame
« Gaming? For recruiting? Tsss ». That’s probably what many of you are thinking. For me, it is just the sign that you really need to reboot your recruiting mindset. Just think about the fact that the #1 recruiting tool of the US Army is a free-to-download multiplayer tactical shooter game. Things are changing and you might want to catch the bus instead of running in the back.
At CodinGame, we have decided to mix gaming and recruiting for programmers. Every week, we offer games, contests and challenges to our community of 250,000 users. They can train, learn and compete on our coding games where their code makes games work and evolve. Every two months, we launch our big contest, the World Cup (see the next one here), where they can challenge themselves and see how they are ranked globally.
We work with tech companies to sponsor public or private games. In return, they get:
- A boost in awareness for the employer brand
2. A unique look on the programmers’ market
3. Between 100 and 500 qualified applications from motivated programmers
4. A 50% time saving for your tech team who can refocus on your company’s challenges
5. A talent platform that (finally!) attracts programmers
We already work with companies like eBay, booking.com, Nintendo, Winamax, Parrot, BlablaCar to help them screen and assess the best matches within our community.
So, instead of paying $10–20K to a headhunter that will harass great programmers and do nothing about your exposition to the community, start thinking about gaming. We’ll be happy to show you that it works. Extremely well.
Want to see how we turn coding into games? Let’s meet on CodinGame!
