Climate change is an undeniable fact. To tackle this compelling issue, adopting a two-pronged approach--to adopt more efficient and cleaner energy technologies and to reduce our energy consumption significantly--is imperative. But are they the sole answers to our climate change problem.
The classic success story of gamification techniques is Foursquare. Foursquare is a location-based social networking application for smart mobile devices. The success of Foursquare can be attributed to the game design techniques and mechanics employed in the application, which include leaderboards, levels, badges, status posting, and many more. In April 2012, the company reported 20 million registered users and was valued at US$600 million.
The success of gamification is not confined to the virtual world.
Charlie Kim, CEO of e-commerce site NextJump, launched an internal campaign to get his employees to exercise regularly by installing gyms in their offices, together with an application that rewarded them for "checking in" at the gym. Next, he encouraged his employees to form teams and created team leaderboards to compete with other teams. The results were remarkable. Seventy percents of NextJump's employees now work out regularly.
Why gamification works
James Mulvey, a copywriter at Redbird Communications, a specialist marketing communications agency, explained why gamification works well. First, it creates a "herd mentality". Many gaming features such as badges, social media updates about new accomplishments and public leaderboards help to "normalise" the new desired behaviour because "everyone else does it".
Secondly, gamification helps to boost participants' social status. Dan Ariely, a professor of behavioural economics at Duke Univeristy, explained that just as handbags, cars and mansions portray a person's social status in the real world, ranking and badges do the same in the gaming world.
Gamification could help change our behaviours towards taking care of the environment.
A personal experience
During the summer, I had an opportunity to drive a Toyota Camry Hybrid for the first time. As an immature teenager who loves speed, I could drive up to 130kmh without realising that this makes me a reckless driver on the road. However, the car's gamification features totally changed my driving habit.
The Camry Hybrid is an eco-car with some special features. Next to the speedometer, instead of the usual engine RPM meter, there is an Efficiency Meter that shows how many kilometres the car managed to get on 1 litre of petrol. Furthermore, at the end of each trip, the screen flashes your "Eco-Drive Level". If you average more than 17.5 km/litre, the screen flashes "EXCELLENT!!!" After the first drive, I was hooked. I tried hard to get the best rating every time. I now average 70-80kmh. Although I knew all along that 70-80kmh was the most eco-friendly range, without the Efficiency Meter, I was never really sure. Besides, it is now fun to go slower as I challenge myself to drive ever more efficiently and safely.
The gamification concept can also be applied to organising events. As part of Energy Carta, a non-profit group that promotes sustainable development, I led the team organising the Asian Youth Energy Summit (AYES) 2012 in Singapore in March. This event is our annual flagship conference engaging industry leaders, professors and students.
Thinking along the lines of gamification, we decided to use the concept of games in our event. We adapted a board game calledChanging the Game, originally developed by our European partner, Energy Crossroads, into the Southeast Asia context. This is a simulation-type board game where players plan their region's energy policy for the next 20 years.
Players in each country take on different roles in society, namely government, industry, citizen or an influential NGO. Points can be earned by completing the objectives of respective roles. The game simulates the conflict of interest in the real world and the ways in which we can reach compromises to develop a sustainable energy future while combating climate change.
Changing the Game-Southeast Asiawas successfully launched with very positive feedback from participants at the youth summit. We believe this "game-based" approach to complex energy-climate issues is a very effective way to educate the youths and produce future leaders.
Gamification has vast potential. Gamification of eco-friendly activities can give people affordable incentives to change their behaviours. Although the infrastructure to measure behaviour is necessary for gamification to work, it is a much-needed investment. Imagine a day when it will be fun to turn off the lights or to consume less meat. People will surely hop on the bandwagon.
BY: Thanasak Hoontrakul, Energy Carta