
Not long ago, I focused on certifications, reviewing programs from major players to compare them and study them in more depth. Looking at some “path to glory” images reminded me of something I already knew but sometimes forget, like any ordinary user. Certification badges are beautiful and colorful, but beyond the precise directives from the marketing office, they apply gamification principles.

Gamification is the application of game design elements and mechanics in non-game contexts such as work, education, marketing, health, and other fields. The goal is to make activities more engaging, motivating, and rewarding, thereby improving participation, learning, and user behavior. In essence, it elevates the saying: “If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life,” a maxim attributed to Confucius, who is historically the first philosopher to deal with work.
Today, we know that philosophers who talk about work are very dangerous because they could generate centuries of conflicts, especially if they invent words like ‘capitalism’ or ‘proletariat’.
The term “gamification” in its current sense has many fathers, whom I prefer not to mention as its origins would create even more confusion in understanding the associated practices. These practices include several common elements:
- Points: Users accumulate points for completing certain activities or reaching specific goals.
- Badges: Symbols or emblems users earn to recognize the achievement of milestones or specific skills.
- Leaderboards: Tables showing users’ relative positions based on their scores or results, encouraging competition.
- Levels: Progression through various stages or levels of difficulty, unlocking new challenges and content as one advances.
- Challenges and Missions: Specific activities or goals that require particular skills or efforts.
- Immediate Feedback: Quick responses on users’ performances, like messages of congratulations or improvement suggestions.
- Storytelling: Creating an engaging narrative that ties activities and objectives into a broader context.
In my experience, the first three are the most commonly used tools; the others, especially in Italy, are less successful.
People often use gamification experimentally, sometimes even for teaching a spouse to iron or for other risky activities, which you shouldn’t try at home. Generally, we see it introduced in contexts such as:
- Learning: Platforms that use interactive quizzes, badges, and leaderboards to motivate students to complete courses and improve their skills are now standard. Besides certifications, a common practice is giving away gadgets to those who correctly answer the most questions about the presented software.
- Work and Corporate Training: It’s not new for corporate training programs to incorporate simulation games to teach specific skills or improve collaboration among employees. True gamification was likely adopted after a series of embarrassing failures with traditional methods.
- Marketing and Sales: Promotional campaigns offering rewards, discounts, and badges for participating in marketing activities, such as product reviews or social media shares, have been around for ages.
- Health and Wellbeing: Fitness apps that track physical activity and offer points and badges for reaching health goals are great, provided you’re under 50 and your cardiologist is aware.
- Personal Development: Productivity apps that help users set and reach personal goals, like completing daily tasks or developing new habits.
Benefits of Gamification
Primarily, gamification increases engagement: motivating and engaging users through game elements.
As they use to say “skin in the game”: if you have ever participated in a speed hackathon or are old enough to have done one in person, you know that for a rare Lego Mindstorms set, people would easily build a drone with Arduino and eliminate the entire audience. One of the most common Arduino tutorials is on building a metal detector, illustrating that prevention is better than cure.
The ability to get immediate feedback, in this case eliminating competitors, provides rapid and continuous performance insights, helping users improve and perfect their creations.
In theory, there should be healthy competition, but I have always seen people trying to cheat while others follow the rules with heavy hearts. Often, participants either get disqualified or emerge better, with the almost universal outcome being the gratifying experience that makes daily activities less burdensome and more enjoyable.
To summarize, excuse the pun, the game elements in non-game apps release dopamine in users’ brains.
Consequently, users want to interact with the gamified app longer to achieve more results and enjoy the sense of accomplishment.
As for the origins of gamification, we’ve already mentioned that we prefer not to delve into a ‘cul de sac’. Instead, let’s see when it came to prominence. In 2011, the Gartner Hype Cycle ‘discovered’ gamification and promoted it among the most innovative technologies, placing it between HTML5 and Big Data.

Sure! Here’s the translation into English:
Clearly, almost everyone jumped on the bandwagon, but the results were very mixed. There were remarkable cases like Nike (with Nike Run Club and its evolutions) and other success stories, but gradually the enthusiasm began to wane. Even Gartner applied a ‘damnatio memoriae’, and nothing about it appears in their reports anymore.
In reality, much of the blame was attributed to the excessive attention that led to a series of poorly executed projects, a slew of forgotten pitches that dragged down many of the good intentions they were armed with.
The fact is, enthusiasm for gamification took a hard hit. Some quickly faced the uncomfortable truths and started lamenting the “de profundis”, while many gurus who rode the wave have been silent for a while. It’s fair to wonder if they’re cleaning up or engaged in other summer sports.
In reality, there are also “dark” aspects of gamification that have hindered its progress:
Wrong Incentives
A side-effect that can only be avoided with careful research, though it’s not always fully successful. Imagine an app where people are supposed to improve their driving skills but end up finding it more fun to run over old ladies (if you’re thinking of Carmageddon, you’re on the wrong track; GTA started as a game where you played a policeman, and we all know how that turned out…).
Sure! Here’s the translation into English:
The Cobra Effect
The cobra effect in gamification is a phenomenon where incentives designed to promote certain behaviors end up encouraging other, often undesirable or counterproductive, behaviors. The name comes from a real event involving the British colonial government in India. To reduce the number of cobras, a real plague in India at the time, the British government offered a reward for every cobra killed. However, people started breeding cobras just to kill them and collect the reward. Eventually, the government had to withdraw the incentives, leading to the release of the bred cobras and worsening the problem.
Dark Patterns
Gamification can become extremely dangerous through the use of so-called “Dark Patterns” or “black hat gamification” techniques. These strategies are used to subtly influence people to take actions they would normally avoid, even if those actions are against their interests. One example is the continuous refresh of an app.
This technique works so well because it leverages several psychological principles. Firstly, it is similar to the effect of a slot machine with incremental random feedback. When the feed updates, there is a brief delay that creates anticipation.
Additionally, it triggers the fear of missing out (FOMO). Suppose you missed an update from a friend, or better yet, the cute girl you’re keeping an eye on. In that case, you might miss her crucial update where she declares that her relationship is over and she’s ready for a new adventure: “The Social Network” could have lasted just the last 3 minutes, and everyone would have understood the point.
Finally, it exploits our natural inertia. We tend not to act unless prompted. So, when we are asked to refresh, we do so and continue scrolling until something prompts us to stop. I don’t think there are apps with similar functions; I usually stop scrolling only when my hand is exhausted.
Unlike ‘wrong’ incentives, the abnormal behavior caused by Dark Patterns is intentional and planned, and if you recognized the classic techniques of many social networks, in this context, I’d say “Bingo!!”.
But we follow the money: if we look at the market, there are indeed successful apps that incorporate gamification, such as Duolingo, Waze, Todoist, Mint, and Fitbit.
The reality is that gamification has become an integral part of UX to the extent that separating the two is almost impossible. Its placement on the Gartner chart between HTML5 and Big Data assumes a prophetic tone and provides us with a very different perspective: many technologies not only do not disappear, but they transform, becoming much more pervasive.
Given these premises, the picture is clear: we will continue to see an increase in gamification across various sectors. As solutions become more sophisticated, their impact will also grow. Large enterprises will continue to innovate existing gamification practices, and even smaller companies will enter the fray, supported by social media and access to more digital tools.

So, let’s soon expect real tournaments of Dungeons & Dragons where trolls, elves, and wizards will be engaged in overcoming the Kobayashi Maru of certifications, earning the unconditional respect of the social media community. Gamification is here to stay…