4 years ago I boarded a train heading for Karlsruhe (Germany) for the delivery of my first keynote speech on a gamification conference.

I was exited! Excited about gamification. Excited about the fact that my employer (a large Dutch bank) was so interested in this ‘hype’ that I had the freedom to explore its potential. And excited that I was about to deliver my view on gamification ‘to the world’.

The speech went well and before I knew I was flying around the world to talk about gamification in a banking context on various conferences. Gamification was hyped in its optima forma. It was considered the Holy Grail for a great many of problems: boring processes, demotivated employees, disloyal clients, engagement problems, complex scientific experiments, etc.

But the actual scientific proof of its power, and original and creative use cases were lacking behind. Instead of designs which were based on players motivation we were showered with points, badges and leader boards on every product, service or process in the hope to make it more engaging. The fact that that very same product, service or process on itself was hardly valuable at all was not recognized in the hope that gamification did its trick.

And thus, like any hype, gamification seemed to fade away. Hope faded away and the world moved on to the next hype. This is a natural movement for any hype and gamification moved on to its next stage on the cycle: the through of disillusionment (see picture, and for a quick introduction in the hype cycle read this).