Monday Morning Gamification: Hype or Game-Changer?

There is a great article on Gamification in the WSJ by Nicholas Lovell of Gamesbrief:

What everyone does agree is that gamifying is difficult. Raf Keustermans, former marketing director of Electronic Arts’ social games division, Playfish, says “there is a reason why games developers earn over £100,000 a year.” And even they don’t always get it right. Of the more than 80,000 games on Facebook, Mr. Keustermans says that only 200 have more than one million monthly active users. Seventy-five per cent of users who play a game never return after the first occasion. Only 15-20% are still playing after 30 days.

In short, making a good social game is difficult. Gamifying is just as difficult. In fact, it may even be harder, because instead of just focusing on how to make fun, engaging gameplay that can be monetised, it has to focus on other, more nebulous corporate objectives like engagement.