Press Start to Change
If there is a problem that most of us are familiar with, it's how much "change" can be an obstacle.
You may create a great new software, easy to use, full of interesting features - only to receive the request to modify it to maintain an obscure, intricate interface design, just because it's like the old one that is in use right now. Because it's familiar, because it's already known.
Change is unsettling.
To pass through it effectively requires curiosity, implies learning and it brings people out of their comfort zone, makes them feel insecure, more prone to make mistakes - but the lack of change is worse than whatever it brings to the table.
Anything that refuses to change for too long will eventually be replaced, and this brings us to the main problem: change is not only an obstacle, it's also a dire need. It's something you deeply want, but in small doses. It's something you know you have to do, but you wish for it to be smooth, clean and acceptable. Even in worst case scenario situations, where people will actively oppose it, which is often the case.
Just think about Facebook, or any other social network: whenever there is something different about literally anything, you can be sure there will be uproars worldwide, and they will last for days, sometimes weeks. Then again, look for a screenshot of Facebook from 2008, and try to imagine what would be its place in the internet of today, if it didn't embrace change as part of the very service it offers.
This is why Gamification is such an interesting argument right now.
Games are, almost by definition, a learning structure - they imply change, they want to be new. In most cases, we are required to learn and understand how to use tools we knew nothing about until we started playing, and we are eager to do it.
Why is this kind of deliberate discomfort acceptable? Why is it even fun?
To make it simple, it's because the game usually offers a safety net for failures and rewards us for trying: whenever we kill a monster, or we solve a puzzle, or we complete a level - we get something out of it. Whenever we fail, we can try again.
Of course, there are different kind of players, which enjoy different kinds of gratification - like I wrote, this is an extreme simplification as an introduction to the matter, but nevertheless stands as the very reason why gamification is so important and useful.
To gamify something, you take the structures that make games rewarding and engaging and you move them out into the real world, to achieve different objectives: social engagement, familiarization, routine establishing - but in almost every case, you're dealing with change, and easing it. Making it smooth, maybe even fun.
As I already wrote, I think that we are going to see a lot of changes in the coming years in Modeling & Simulation - and it would be short sighted for a field so strictly tied to gaming not to look at it and understand how it handles a problem we so often run into - and as Fabaris, we are not just talking about it - we're trying to actively understand how to implement it in our current works and which problems can be solved or eased by a good gamification approach.
We are going to delve deeper into detail in the next article, talking about different kinds of game mechanics that can be used effectively, a prototype we are working on and the thought process behind it.