Develop your strengths by gaming: towards an inventory of gamificationable skills

Abstract

This paper analyses existing gamification approaches to build a mapping between game genres and potential human skills required by and potentially trained by the specific genres. This mapping is then applied during an expert review of two typical game scenarios: an actionand reaction-oriented mini game and a collaborative group raid implemented in World of Warcraft. Both scenarios undergo an individual and detailed analysis to identify specific skillrelated aspects. Relevant aspects characterizing each type are listed as a basis for a skill-mapping based on specific game mechanics utilized by each type. That is, the identified specific game mechanics require gaming skills which are then mapped to general physiological as well as cognitive and social human skills. This detailed game-mechanics-based skill-mapping is a first step towards a gamification index. Used in reverse order, from human skills to game mechanics, such an index will support the design of edutainment applications using gamification as a means to enhance skills required in real-world scenarios. The article concludes with a description of future work in the area of gamified skills as motivated by the work presented here.