From XP Points to Real Rewards: The Evolution of Gamification

If you know where to look, gamification is all around us. Defined as the application of gaming elements to other areas of activity, gamification is commonly used in retail, marketing, business, and even in media and publishing. And, what was originally taken from gaming and used outside gaming industries, has now found its way back into gaming.

Platforms like Xbox, PlayStation, and Steam, for example, have achievements, leaderboards, and other elements designed to encourage players to play more and spend more. Within individual games, players are encouraged to challenge friends, post scores and times, and may be rewarded with in-game currency and tokens.

Gamification has long been used in retail and business. It has also become very popular in streaming as well as in iGaming where sites like Sambaslots use loyalty programs, badges, and leaderboards to encourage members to keep playing and return to the site. In exchange, players get free spins and games, deposit bonuses, and other benefits, as well as badges and other platform features.

Experience points are common in games and are earned by beating enemies, finishing missions, or performing other in-game actions. Some games offer additional experience points for actions like inviting friends or taking part in multiplayer games. These actions benefit the game because they encourage more players to the platform.

XP is typically used to level up, but may also be spent on in-game improvements and other items.

XP is one method players can level up in games. In-game benefits of levelling up including skill and power improvements, new moves, or access to new areas and elements of games.

In some games, leveling up can also grant access to player banners, skins, and other cosmetic improvements. These items don't improve gameplay or give players any benefits over other players. Moreover, they are a badge of honor or a sign of how dedicated the player is. Such items may also be awarded for completing specific achievements, with the rarest achievements granting the rarest items.

A lot of games have introduced their own in-game currencies. Fortnite has V-Bucks, Roblox has Robux, Final Fantasy has Gil, and even Call of Duty has COD Points. Like XP, the currency is awarded for completing certain actions and achieving important milestones.

Unlike XP, the currency is not typically used for leveling up, but it is used for the purchase of other in-game items, including cosmetic items and skins. The currency can also be used for season passes, which are effectively tiered programs that gradually unlock new items and additional content. Again, this is another effective way to bring players back to the game.

Usually, it is possible to buy in-game currency using real money. The free-to-play market relies heavily on the sale of in-game currency, as well as advertising. In these instances, the currency greatly increases the chances of keeping a player's interest.

It can also be self-perpetuating. Some of the rewards given to season pass holders include more in-game currency, enough even to buy the next series pass when it launches. In this way, the game maker has a very good chance of keeping players coming back year after year.

Crates and loot boxes have become somewhat contentious in certain markets, but they have proven very popular in games like FIFA (now EA FC), where players can unpack certain cards. Rarer cards are highly sought after, not just because they offer improved stat,s but for the rarity of the items too.

Unpacking the best cards has become as much a part of the game as playing the game itself. In some cases, players can use in-game currency to buy loot boxes that give access to these and other, random items. Skins, weapons, and other in-game items may only be available through these crates which, sometimes, are made available for free.

Leaderboards were popularised with the advent of 1980s arcade games like Pac-Man. Players would spend hours playing their favorite games, improving on their previous scores, and adding their monikers if they achieved a top-rated score.

More often than not, games would only allow players to add 3 letters, but there was a considerable sense of achievement for hitting the leaderboard at all, never mind topping it. The online leaderboard, sometimes shared just between groups of friends, was one of the first ways online competitive gaming hit the industry. Today, leaderboards are less common in mainstream gaming, but they are very common in mobile and social games.

As well as being able to invite friends via social media and directly through email, players can compete against one another on specific levels or on the game as a whole, for local bragging rights - more than enough to keep players coming back for one more attempt at besting their previous score.

Game makers also distribute copies of their games to known speed runners and players who effectively compete on sites like YouTube. It becomes a challenge for other players to try and beat the times and scores posted by professional content creators, effectively creating an unofficial online leaderboard.

Xbox and Steam have achievements. Playstation has trophies. In either case, these are non-tangible rewards given out by game makers and the gaming platforms themselves to celebrate players beating areas or achieving specific milestones in their games. Players are generally shown how they compare to other players, with achievements having an increasing level of difficulty, meant as a way of ensuring players keep returning.

For example, an achievement might be unlocked for completing the tutorial, and include a message saying that 75% of players have completed the achievement. However, the World Champion achievement in Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter requires the player to be ranked number 1 in the world at the game, meaning very few people will ever unlock it. But it almost certainly keeps some players logging in and attempting to push on a few more levels.