Gamification Mechanic Monday: Time travel
Time as a game mechanic can be used in various ways in games, it sets limits and enables win or lose conditions. Some games and also movies use time travel as a way of enabling play at different speeds or into future or past times, it is typically part of the storyline. Time travel can be the vehicle that allows you to travel forward or backward in a game to change conditions or re-take a challenge. The technique gives the player a sense of control and the impression he can change the past and the future. In a movie like Inception different time speeds in different levels allowed for various chases to take place at a different pace and it added to the storyline as well as the viewers confusion of how we perceive time. I remember leaving the movie wondering if real time manipulation was possible and whether maybe it is just a concept of our imagination in the first place.
In gamification for business you can use time travel to allow individual employees to set their time for various tasks. In a lot of projects one action will have knock on effects for the next, in this space I see the time travel option to go back and forward to change an improve elements as useful. It would allow people that work at a different pace to collaborate towards the general end goal and yet where they see problem to go back to fix them. In the agile methodology for projects feature request and time to develop them is often grouped to take short sprints to a specific goal even if it may not be a simply linear approach the overall project will get done.
In business having control of your own time and allowing for your personal pace and ways of working can increase a sense of empowerment and influence over the work that needs to be completed. In HR the official starting times, finish time and even holiday times are being experimented with to allow for individual needs. Not all companies will be able to go all the way to full freedom of choice, but somewhat along the line. First feedback of this approach is that it also forces the managers to be very clear in expectations of everyone’s job role and equally a cultural shift of letting go of control towards an expectation of achievement and all the tools that come with this.
Where would you use time travel in gamification?
