For human resources professionals and the administrators of employee reward programs, games are no longer simply a way to pass a little time. Dean Takahashi, writing for Venture Beat magazine, says that they can also be an important part of employee incentive programs.
The term “funware,” according to Takahashi, was coined by game industry veteran Gabe Zichermann, and used to apply video game-type mechanics in non-game applications. The core rationale behind funware, says Takahashi, is that “games motivate people to do things that they wouldn’t ordinarily do.”
Takahashi writes that “funware is an intuitive concept. If you turn work into game, people willingly do it. If you make a tedious school assignment into a game-like competition, kids will become engaged with it. If you add a rewards-based loyalty program to your product, people will choose it over rivals.”
As a corollary, there have also been limited efforts to insert non-game content into games. Some advertising is present in online multiplayer games, in an effort to help lessen the cost to the players.
