Adaptive Gamification and Its Impact on Performance

Abstract

AbstractThe objective of this work is to measure the effects that adaptive and counter-adaptive gamified applications have on individuals’ performance. Researchers have sought to explore how individuals’ player type can be used to tailor gamification. However, existing studies do not measure the impact that adaptive gamification has on individuals’ performance since they tend to focus on exploring the relationship between individuals’ player type and their game element preferences. Consequently, a designer may spend valuable resources creating a gamified application and yet, not see any positive effects or even see negative effects on individuals’ performance. In light of this gap, a randomized experiment was conducted in which participants’ performance on (i) an adapted gamified application, (ii) a non-adapted gamified application, (iii) a non-gamified application, and (iv) a counter-adapted gamified application was analyzed. In this work, the game elements in the adapted and counter-adapted gamified applications were selected based on individuals’ Hexad player type dimensions. The results revealed that the performance of individuals who interacted with the adapted gamified application was greater than any other group. In contrast, the performance of individuals who interacted with the counter-adapted gamified application was worse than any other group. This work provides empirical evidence on the effectiveness of adaptive gamification. Moreover, the results highlight the need to consider individuals’ player type when designing gamified applications and the latent detrimental effects of not doing so.KeywordsGamificationHexad player typeAdaptation