Four Tips: Gamification, According to Endorphins

April 30, 2014

When you play a video game, your body releases endogenous morphine, commonly known asendorphins. Endorphins are produced during the game as a response to certainstimuli, the same way they would during exercise, excitement, pain, love, oreven when you’re eating spicy food.

Endorphins are powerful; they resemble the opiates (such as heroinor morphine) in their ability to produce analgesia (the inability to feel pain)and also a feeling of well-being. This is key to maximizing the potential ofendorphins in online training—through gamification. Endorphins are neurotransmitters, chemicals that passalong signals from one neuron to the next. That rush of excitement, success,and accomplishment you feel when playing a video game is similar to a runner’shigh—and both are a result of endorphins.

Today, eLearning developers are taking advantage ofendorphins by adding games to their online training courses to promotemotivation and success, during training and later in on-the-job performance. Gameshave been around for hundreds of years, but gamification has recently become apopular trend in the eLearning industry—with good reason.

“When designed correctly, gamification has proven to be verysuccessful in engaging people and motivating them to change behaviors, developskills, or solve problems,” notes Gartner industry analyst Brian Burke in Forbes magazine. Well-designedgamification can have a huge impact, especially if eLearning developers takeadvantage of endorphins. Follow these best practices for using games to create behavior-changing,successful, eLearning courses:

Apply thegame to a real-life scenario

The endorphins produced during a game can improve memory,which has a positive effect on learning. Adding a scenario-based game to your eLearningcourse puts the learner in the role of the problem solver. In addition, theproduction of endorphins will improve your learner’s memory. This increasesyour learner’s chances of success later when he or she must perform a similartask in real life, the workplace.

Includecheckpoints throughout the game

Your body releases endorphins at each milestone orcheckpoint in the game, according to research firm Gartner. Checkpoints alsoserve as assessment points to get feedback on how your learners are doing, butyou can award your learners with badges and trophies at these checkpoints. Therewards stimulate endorphins and motivate your learners to complete the game.The endorphins peak at a final reward—the end of the game—promoting thoseaddictive feelings of well-being and success.

Facilitate teamwork among your employees

If you’re doing team training,managers must play on their employees’ teams, so everyone is working towardsthe same goal and supporting each other in the journey to success. Gamificationshould strengthen the team; it should not create a hero versus villaincompetition, where the manager takes the role of the villain. You don’t wantyour employees’ bodies producing endorphins from accomplishment against theirmanagers, thus creating low morale and an overall negative attitude towardhigher management.

Encourage autonomy in the game

Autonomy is a core psychologicalneed for humans, according to experts at the University of Rochester. Meetingthe psychological need of autonomy releases endorphins—something to considerwhen designing an eLearning game. Gamification expert Karl Kapp says, “Peopleare better learners when they can make their own decisions related to learning…This is the concept of autonomy. Good gamification environments allow theleaner to make decisions about what to learn next and what areas of interest topursue.” Even if your game is meant for a team of employees, you can stillencourage autonomy by allowing your learner to make choices.

Take advantage of the powerfulrole of endorphins when you’re creating an eLearning game. Endorphinstimulations aren’t limited to a marathon or some spicy chicken tikka masala.When your learners are producing endorphins during your eLearning game, they’relearning better and remembering more—which leads to improved job performanceand success.