I attended a gamification seminar

Hello, nice to meet you.
I'm Matsuyama from the Development Department at the Yokohama office.

a gamification seminar
titled "The Future of the Expanding Gamification Market and Development Initiatives Through Game Commune,"
attended

GameCommune　https://www.gamecommune.jp/

What is gamification?

I think the concept of gamification has been around for a while (about 10 years).
A quick search reveals that...

"Applying game design and gaming principles to things outside of games"

It says
that the concept is that adding a gamified element to anything can lead to increased motivation and persistence.
It seems to be actually used in tasks, learning, and evaluation.

Speaking of which

This is a bit of a digression, but
I enjoy cycling as a hobby.
On rainy days or in the middle of summer, I stay indoors and use a stationary bike, which is quite tough.
Pedaling alone in a room where the scenery never changes... I feel like a hamster ^^;
Lately, I've been seeing a lot of talk about a service called Zwift, which apparently
allows you to do bike training as an MMO.
You can choose courses in the virtual world, ride with other users (apparently there are even professional riders),
and customize your bike, so it has many features that can boost your motivation.

I suddenly remembered this and wondered
if adding a game-like element to training is also a form of gamification.
More details here.

I've gone off on quite a tangent.
Let's get back to the main topic.

In this seminar

This seminar introduced specific examples of the gamification market.
Rather than focusing on concepts or examples of adding game elements to existing activities like Zwift,
the discussion covered how games are being used in non-game areas such as advertising and customer acquisition.
All the examples presented are publicly available, so those interested should try playing them themselves.

Case Study 1

Japan Post Kids Site

First up is Japan Post's kids' website. It was
the smallest project to develop, taking only three months.
It includes educational elements, allowing parents and children to learn about postal services in a fun way.
We often hear about people moving away from postal services, so it seems the aim is to pique their interest through something like this.

The mini-game "Delivery Game: Posukuma and the Winding Road" is a nostalgic Tick-Tock Bang-Bang type game.
It's quite difficult.

Case Study 2

U-CAN Quest

The second one is from U-CAN.
The development period was six months.
The target audience is young men, and it's an RPG (pixel art).
After clearing the game, your occupation (in-game) is diagnosed based on your choices up to that point, and
recommended occupations (in real life) are displayed at the end, encouraging you to obtain qualifications.
The play time to clear it is about 30 minutes.
By the way, my result was...

[Your and your friends' types]

[Recommended occupations]

he's the monk type.
We need a warrior type colleague!

Case study 3

Nippon Toter (Step Ride)

Finally, we have Nippon Toter,
a company that operates public sports betting events.
This time, their game is themed around keirin (bicycle racing).
The aim is to attract female audiences who are not particularly interested in keirin.
The game system is a visual novel game for women, which I'm personally familiar with from my previous job.
The development period was 12 months, and it seems they put a lot of effort into making it. They
've even added to the story and developed merchandise.

summary

As illustrated by the examples presented here,
, where games are used not just for providing information, but
it seems that a new form of digital marketing is emerging
without being constrained by the monetization strategies of traditional social games
is also appealing as a job.
Furthermore, the relatively small scale of the development project
seems to offer an opportunity for younger employees to develop their skills.
It would be exciting if Beyond could take on projects like this in the future.

lastly

I have launched "SEKARAKU Lab," a service site for the system development company I belong to.
Beyond offers a one-stop service for everything from server design and construction to operation, so please feel free to contact us if you have any problems with server-side development.
SEKARAKU Lab:[https://sekarakulab.beyondjapan.com/](https://sekarakulab.beyondjapan.com/)

That's all for today's story. See you
again sometime.

P.S

I would like to introduce Zwift, but I'm worried about the significant initial investment required