Cited by 8,402Educational Games and GamificationDigital Games and MediaInnovative Human-Technology Interaction

From game design elements to gamefulness: defining "gamification"

Deterding, Sebastian, Dixon, Dan, Khaled, Rilla, Nacke, Lennart·2011·Proceedings of the 15th International Academic MindTrek Conference: Envisioning Future Media Environments

Abstract

Recent years have seen a rapid proliferation of mass-market consumer software that takes inspiration from video games. Usually summarized as "gamification", this trend connects to a sizeable body of existing concepts and research in human-computer interaction and game studies, such as serious games, pervasive games, alternate reality games, or playful design. However, it is not clear how "gamification" relates to these, whether it denotes a novel phenomenon, and how to define it. Thus, in this paper we investigate "gamification" and the historical origins of the term in relation to precursors and similar concepts. It is suggested that "gamified" applications provide insight into novel, gameful phenomena complementary to playful phenomena. Based on our research, we propose a definition of "gamification" as the use of game design elements in non-game contexts.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1145/2181037.2181040

Cites

64 of 64 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • A gamification strategy in education improves learning motivation and participation through the application of game elements and game mechanisms.

    “A gamification strategy is implemented in education to improve learning motivation and participation through the application of game elements and game mechanisms [10].”
  • Gamification has emerged as a promising approach for increasing engagement, motivation, and user participation.

    “Gamification - defined as the application of game design elements in non-game contexts - has emerged as a promising approach for increasing engagement, motivation, and user participation (Deterding et al., 2011; Hamari et al., 2014).”
  • Gamification in mobile app technology has emerged as a popular strategy, both in commercial culture and the field of academia as a means of influencing behaviors.

    “Gamification in mobile app technology has emerged as a popular strategy, both in commercial culture and the field of academia as a means of influencing behaviors [15,16,20,21].”

    From Just a Fad? Gamification in Health and Fitness Apps (2014) · cites this paper as [15]

  • Coding of the 10 effective game elements was taken from the work of Reeves and Read, quoted in Deterding et al.

    “Coding of the 10 effective game elements was taken from the work of Reeves and Read, which outlined the ten effective elements of games, and quoted in the work of Deterding et al [15,28].”

    From Just a Fad? Gamification in Health and Fitness Apps (2014) · cites this paper as [15]

  • The six gamification components were determined by reviewing the current body of literature and finding common themes and components of gamification used or discussed in the literature for impacting health behavior.

    “The six gamification components were determined by reviewing the current body of literature and finding common themes and components of gamification used or discussed in the literature for impacting health behavior [15,17,18].”

    From Just a Fad? Gamification in Health and Fitness Apps (2014) · cites this paper as [15]

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Deterding, S., Dixon, D., Khaled, R., & Nacke, L.
Affiliations
  • Universität Hamburg (DE)
  • University of the West of England (GB)
  • University of Copenhagen (DK)
  • Ontario Tech University (CA)
Venue
Proceedings of the 15th International Academic MindTrek Conference: Envisioning Future Media Environments
Publisher
ACM
Published
2011-09-28
Pages
9-15
OpenAlex
W2023718959
Cited by
8,402
References
64
Citations by year
2026: 974 · 2025: 1073 · 2024: 825 · 2023: 742 · 2022: 630 · 2021: 713 · 2020: 587 · 2019: 551 · 2018: 537 · 2017: 481 · 2016: 414 · 2015: 388 · 2014: 295 · 2013: 153 · 2012: 33
FWCI
399.83
Type
conference paper
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
International Academic Mindtrek Conference (Mindtrek) (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Educational Games and Gamification
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Digital Games and Media
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Innovative Human-Technology Interaction
Keywords
gamification, game elements, serious games, pervasive games, alternate reality games, playful design, history of the term

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review