One of the biggest buzzwords in the business world in recent years is “gamification.” Various enterprises and institutions, from the fields of education to banking, have proclaimed their success in engaging the public following the methods of this trend.

In the online, retail FX-trading industry gamification has also been used by different startups and established firms to describe their offerings in the last couple of years. But not all gaming-style apps are truly gamified and there is much more the FX industry can do to take advantage of all the possibilities this approach has to offer.

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So what exactly is gamification? Gamification is defined as the use of video game mechanics in non-game contexts to engage users and increase their contributions. Gamification techniques strive to leverage people’s natural desires for socializing, learning, mastery, competition, achievement, status, self-expression and closure.

Gamification strategies use rewards for players who accomplish desired tasks or engage in competition with other players. Types of rewards include points, achievement badges or levels, the filling of a progress bar, or providing the user with in-game virtual currency. Making the rewards for accomplishing tasks visible to other players or providing leader boards are also important gamification ways to encourage players to compete.

In simple terms, this gamification concept goes something like this: Take an existing set of activities like investing, physical exercise or just boring school homework and apply a set of game rewards in the form of points or ranking, and the tasks will become more fun. This will make workers more efficient, learning more effective and clients more engaged. The reasoning for its success is a combination of fields such as game design, psychology, motivation theory, neurophysiology and behavioral economics.

The source of the popularity of gamification especially with online marketing campaigns is that it enhances customer engagement by collecting additional data, crowdsourcing ideas, and educating clients in a fun interactive way. Some online companies cite a 100% to 150% pickup in engagement metrics including unique views, pageviews, community activities and time on site.

In our QIR4 article “Gamification is a Game Changer” we present the intersection of forex and gamification. Based on interviews with top FX gaming apps developers, the article presents the developing field of gamified FX trading. We review the trend and how the technique works in practice, offer a comparison of the different new approaches and present the benefits to traders, investors and brokers. Find out more in the recently published Forex Industry Quarterly Industry Report.