Game Changers – Does ‘gamification’ mean engaging?

As part of our World Usability Day event this year, we asked our guests to try the Volkswagen ‘ThinkBlue’ mobile gaming app in our user experience lab.

As well as the obvious brand promotion function, this app aims to educate drivers on economical and ecologically responsible driving behaviours. So, two primary goals then: enjoyment and education. How well did it meet them?

Enjoyment

On a basic level, negotiating the urban and rural route by tilting the device to steer and using the on-screen controls is enjoyable. However, many of those who tried the game quickly fell foul of some of the limitations of the gaming environment.

Although the edges of the course look like soft verges covered in autumn leaves there are in fact large invisible walls either side of the driving surface that cause the car to either bounce off the leaves or come to a complete stop.

This quickly undermines any impression of reality in the surroundings.

Some gaming conventions that might have increased the level of engagement are also absent. Although it does have a ‘traditional’ high score table that can be shared on social media, the ThinkBlue app does not show ‘ghost replays’ of either your or your friends’ previous attempts.

Common in other driving games (although less so on mobile platforms), this encourages repeat plays as you effectively race against your previous best time.

This could also better meet the educational goal of the game as any economy ‘mistakes’ you make during an attempt are more easily spotted when viewed as a ‘replay’.

One final minor point in relation to the overall enjoyment of the game, for some reason (either by design or simply oversight) there is no way to turn off the background music in the game and keep the car sound effects.

As several of our WUD guests commented, this wouldn’t be so bad if the music in question wasn’t an electronic/rock soundtrack.

This seems at odds with the app’s intended purpose, spurring you on to drive more quickly which is a sure-fire route to a low score. Maybe this was a deliberate ploy to make the game more challenging?

Education

Part of the educational function of the game comes from learning how to achieve a low score. Some basic instruction is given at the start of the game and many who played quickly worked out what they had to do to rise up the leaderboard.

The other educational elements are delivered by means of a series of multiple choice questions after you have finished playing. However, again the developers have made a questionable design decision in this area.

If you choose the wrong answer, you are then given no indication of the correct answer. This felt to many WUD attendees like a strange design choice, almost deliberately non-educational and more likely motivated by a desire to encourage people to play again in the hope that they will guess correctly the next time they encounter that question.

However, it also gave the impression of a relatively small number of available questions that could otherwise become quickly exhausted.

Game over

Ultimately, the ThinkBlue game seemed to fall between two stools for WUD attendees. Much of the enjoyment of game playing is the lack of social consequence. The extraordinary success of the Grand Theft Auto series is testament to that.

At the other end of the scale, driving (and other) simulators also have their devotees but they are understandably obsessed with attention to detail in physics and graphical representation, both lacking in this game.

Adding real-world, fuel-consumption related consequences to a fun driving game is bound to dilute the enjoyment somewhat.

However, greater attention to the gameplay mechanics and the design of the educational aspects might well have made VW’s game a greater hit with our WUD 2014 guests.

We have a winner!

Congratulations to our Strategic Director Emma Kirk who narrowly defeated Jamie Sands to head the overall High Score table.

Any complaints about match-fixing should be directed to the appointed match auditors, Shoe-in, Stitchup & Partners..!