Gamification is a concept used since 2008 and popularized in 2010 by the use of digital media and the expanding ubiquity of games in everyday life.
Gamification defines the user's motivation to engage in the game with increasing intensity and duration, by seeking entertainment, pleasure, and the motivational cycle transmitted through engagement in products and services that are not games.
At the center of gamification is the motivation and commitment of individual users, influenced by reward structures, positive reinforcements, positive feedbacks, and game mechanics focused on earning points, medals, challenges, etc. favorable social roles, levels ...
Gamification can then refer to:
The use of the game
The elements of the game
The design and mechanics of the game
The characteristics of the games
All in non-fun contexts.
Other similar terms have been introduced in the scientific literature to define an equivalent process, without however reaching the "popularity" of the term gamification: productivity games (McDonald, Musson & Smith, 2008), fun ware (Takahashi, 2008), behavioral games (Dignan, 2011), playful design (Ferrara, 2012).
Chatfield (2005); Flatla et al. (2011); Helgason (2010); Huotari & Hamari (2011); Paharia (2010); Reeves & Read (2009); Schell, (2010); Zichermann & Cunningham (2011).