Player/User Types for Gamification

Introduction

Gamification refers to the “use of game design elements within non-game context” (Deterding et al., 2011a). At the same time, “human-oriented design” and “motivational design” is emphasized for gamification (Berber, 2018; Chou, 2016). In gamification designs, the game mindset must be properly adapted to the context in which it is used (Kapp, 2012). Therefore, it would be beneficial to use a design model to guide the process (Kumar & Herger, 2013). Especially in the context of education, this becomes even more important. Because learning should not happen unplanned. A planned and sequenced process should be followed for instructional design (Seels & Glasgow, 1998). In addition, individual differences of students are an important variable that affects the success of education (Thorndike, 1918). They express various personal characteristics. Ability, learning style, perception and motivation of each person are different. It is not correct to assume that all students have the same characteristics. For a more effective learning, the individual differences of the students should be known, furthermore these differences should be considered in instructional design. So, gamification designs should not be made by “one size fits all” approach. As the interests and expectations of each person may differ, gamification design should be carried out considering the characteristics of the target audience (Sezgin, 2020). Individual differences are an important factor affecting the efficiency of gamification (Barata et al., 2017; Mekler et al., 2017). Therefore, the significance of personalized gamification designs has increased (Santos et al., 2021). In gamification design, user preferences should be at the center of the process (Burke, 2014; Marczewski, 2015; Werbach & Hunter, 2015). In this context, player/user types can be used in gamification designs to explain individual differences. This chapter aims to discuss player/user types in relation to gamification in the context of education.