Why Gamification?

Author: Levine Nordeman

We seek to empower (underprivileged) audiences to understand, challenge and change the rules that govern their lives and society through play. We encourage our stakeholders to adopt a playful attitude in order to get back in touch with what intrinsically motivates them in life. The minor project ‘The Sky is the Limit’ is an example of our approach. Students were asked to create a tool that supports youth from Cape Town South Africa recognising the risks of being part of criminal activities. After research on cultural differences and psychology the students created mini-games that offered new experiences both for the youth as for the NGO’s that were stakeholders in this problem. It is precisely the 'experience' and, most importantly, the reflection on that experience that is at the heart of our approach. This enables a change in mindset, awareness and stakeholder behaviour. It is through the creation of this space, whether it’s called a game, an experience or an experiment that the designer reframes reality; by redefining the rules and dynamics through a change in meta-communications, the designer creates a play space to experiment with new rules and their implications. ‘Game mechanics' and 'game thinking' are still design tools we love to use. Our broad