Gamification is as much of a trend as VR is today. It doesn’t just touch gaming, though. It’s everywhere.
Business is getting gamified, education is getting gamified, gambling is getting gamified. How does this play out in the latter? Here’s how.
Gamification of gambling
Gambling is very different from gaming. At the core of gaming is the association with the character and solving a puzzle. A huge part of the appeal of games is very similar to that of literature. People treat a game as an interactive book and play to feel good for the protagonist. The other part is feeling good because you achieved something. It may be beating the final boss or solving a mystery. Whatever it is, the perceived challenge produces a real pleasure.
With gambling, however, it’s very different. The fun of gambling lays in the moment where you wait for the reel to spin. At this moment, you have something precious to you at stake, a sum of money. You can either lose it or multiply it. It’s the thrill of the unknown and the promise of a monetary reward that drives gamblers to keep on gambling.
Lately, however, gamification of gambling added a lot of new elements to the year’s old formula. First off, it’s the social component. Tournaments and leaderboards have been a staple of some forms of gambling for centuries. Card games, for instance, are mostly played competitively.
However, it’s games where leaderboards were the most prominent. Now, many casinos have the same approach to casino games. They hold tournaments and list scores on their website. Some even introduce achievements just like in games.
Another way of gamification is introducing game-like elements to gambling. For instance, you can play a slot named Castle Builder (which can be played at Bet365 as mentioned in IrishCasinoHEXs review) and forget about the fact it’s a gambling game. It allows you to build castles and make choices that improve your odds of winning. It’s a new form of gambling gaming, and it’s immensely popular.
The most prevalent theory has it that this was largely motivated by the fact that most people are gambling online and use their smartphones to do that. This is why gambling operators began changing their games to suit the needs of a person who loves mobile games. Castle Builder, for instance, is a classic minimalistic mobile arcade.
Gamblification of games
But the merger of two giants of entertainment doesn’t stop there. It’s not only gambling that is getting gamified, games are getting gamblified as well.
The gaming industry is known for some really frugal ways of making a profit. For instance, the AAA games have long been overflown with microtransactions. These are transactions that are carried out within the game but require you to pay real money for items.
The gamblification of games is centered around this fact. Few people would like to pay $20 for an in-game item. However, the game gives you a free loot box that contains a random item.
The animation that plays while you open the box is very gamble-like in its nature. Most loot boxes are opened in a way that makes you shiver with thrill as you don’t know will you get the item that you want.
Once you get something that you don’t really need, you are given a choice to get another box. This time, for real money. As paying $20 for an item is more expensive than paying $1 for a chance to get one, many people start doing the latter.
Yup, this is essentially gambling.
Is that legal?
You guessed it right, this is not legal anymore. At least in the EU. Many EU countries banned loot boxes because they were luring in the children who are more vulnerable to problem gambling than the adults.
The merger of gambling and gaming produced some great games and some vicious practices. However, the danger is over for now.