職場新概念出世 工作真能遊戲化嗎

Angry Birds, Call of Duty or online bingo? Whatever your preference, Games have become part of many people’s leisure, so it was only a matter of time before someone found a way to transfer it to the world of work. “Gamification is when video games and business have a baby,” says Mario Herger, founder of consultancy Enterprise Gamification. The common definition is “using game design elements and principles in a non-game context”.

你喜歡玩“憤怒的小鳥”(Angry Birds)，“使命召喚”(Call of Duty)，還是在線賓戈遊戲？不管你喜歡哪個，遊戲已成爲許多人休閒生活的一部分，因此人們遲早會找到將遊戲轉移到工作世界中的方法，這只是時間問題。諮詢公司Enterprise Gamification的創始人馬里奧•赫傑(Mario Herger)說：“遊戲化就是視頻遊戲與商業結合的產物。”其普遍定義是“在非遊戲環境中運用遊戲設計元素和原則”。

Gaining in popularity over the past few years, the point of gamification is to make mundane, difficult or time- consuming tasks more fun so we do them more effectively. It works, Mr Herger says, by tapping into our natural curiosity and sociability, desire for mastery and having fun.

近幾年來遊戲化越來越受到歡迎，其意義是讓單調、困難或費時的任務變得更有趣，好讓人們更有效地去完成它們。赫傑說，遊戲化發揮作用，是通過利用人類好奇、喜好社交的天性，以及控制慾和愛玩的心理。

Some games also use the “flow” principle, where a game’s difficulty is carefully matched to skill: initially, it is kept simple but as soon as you figure out how the game works, the difficulty notches up. Importantly, the immediate and constant feedback that online games give, whether cheering birds — as in Angry Birds — or the allocation of points, is being incorporated into the work version.

有些遊戲還運用了心理學中的“心流”(flow)理論，使遊戲難度與技能水平準確匹配。一開始遊戲會保持較低難度，一旦你搞清楚遊戲是怎麼玩的，難度就會升級。重要的是，無論是“憤怒的小鳥”中那些歡呼的小鳥，還是獎勵得分，在線遊戲所提供的這種即時、持續的反饋，正被融入到工作遊戲應用中。

“Companies are now using systems such as BreatheHR to encourage faster feedback in appraisal systems and praise from co-workers to motivate their employees,” says Pete Jenkins, founder of consultancy Gamification+.

諮詢公司Gamification+的創始人皮特•詹金斯(Pete Jenkins)說：“企業正在使用BreatheHR之類的系統，以促進評估系統加快反饋速度，並鼓勵同事們互相讚賞，從而激發員工積極性。”

But gamification remains a niche tool mostly used in recruitment, learning and development, and sales.

但遊戲化仍然是個小衆工具，主要用於招聘、學習、開發以及銷售。

Call centres have taken up systems such as that by Playvox, which helps companies develop gaming strategies that use leader boards, levels and performance metrics to turn a boring job into a more enjoyable competition. Seriosity has created a game to deter people from sending too many emails. Deloitte, the professional services firm, developed its own app called Who What Where, in which consultants share information about clients and projects to improve collaboration.

呼叫中心已開始使用由Playvox開發的此類系統。Playvox幫助企業利用排行榜、分級和績效指標開發遊戲化策略，將枯燥的工作變成更有趣的競爭。Seriosity已經設計出一款遊戲來制止人們發送太多電子郵件。專業服務機構德勤(Deloitte)開發了一款名爲“Who What Where”的應用，諮詢人員可以在上面分享客戶和項目信息，從而加強協作。

Games can never apply to every aspect of work. But for measurable goals, gamified personal productivity apps can be useful. Mr Jenkins uses Trello, a task management app: “I particularly like the progress bar it shows as you tick elements of a task completed.” It is also a good example of gamification not having to look like a game to be effective, he says.

遊戲永遠不可能適用於工作的每一個環節，但對於可衡量的目標而言，遊戲化個人效率應用是可以發揮作用的。詹金斯利用了任務管理應用Trello：“當你將一項任務的某些部分勾選完成時，它顯示的那個進度條我尤其喜歡。”他說這也很好地證明了，遊戲化不必看起來像個遊戲也可以有效。

Other popular apps include Habit RPG and Todoist Karma, where good habits are rewarded with points, or Task Hammer and Epic Win, which also include role play.

其他流行應用包括Habit RPG和Todoist Karma，它們會用分數對好習慣加以獎勵，還有Task Hammer以及Epic Win，這兩款應用還包含角色扮演元素。

Although gamification has become a buzzword among HR directors, the truth is that take-up is limited. In some cases, that was because of the temptation by companies to tack on poorly designed gamification apps just to look the part. In such cases, games fail because the incentives they offer workers are meaningless, their goals are too ambitious or they are becoming boring and a distraction.

雖然遊戲化已成了人力資源總監中的流行詞，但事實上它的接受度是有限的。在某些情況下，原因在於企業容易僅僅爲了顯示自己跟上了潮流而採用設計得不好的遊戲化應用。這種情況下游戲機制就會失敗，原因包括它們提供給員工的激勵毫無意義，它們設定的目標過於遠大，或者它們變得無聊，讓人分心。

After all, most of us realise we are not in the office to have fun but to get on with our real work with real financial incentives.

畢竟，絕大多數人都知道上班不是爲了尋開心，而是爲了在現實的經濟激勵下，完成現實的工作。