Gamification:  Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications.   (2015). Information Resources Management Association.  Hershey:  IGI-Global.  

Edited by the Information Resources Management Association (IRMA)  

Gamification, the application of game elements (in "non-game" contexts such as "serious games" and virtual worlds) has been used as a general design approach in online learning and training for years.  For a while, it was unclear whether this was a passing phase or something that could really be a game changer in online learning.  

The empirical study of gamification has fostered a rich literature, with unique localized insights and innovative approaches.  A new four-volume reference collection of a hundred chapters from authors and authoring teams from around the world, Gamification:  Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications (2015) shows that gamification is here to stay. Its practitioners are upping their own game and measuring ever-finer points about the effects of various gamification strategies.  This collection is aimed foremost at those who would design and deploy gamification for learning and for those who would use other-designed or off-the-shelf games for teaching.

If this go-to compilation is any indication, strategic gamification has promise for the following:  

(1) promoting certain types of learning and skills, and enhancing lifelong learning; 

(2) supporting healthier exercise and health maintenance behaviors, promoting rehabilitation; 

(3) increasing gameplay pleasure and player retention over time;  

(4) revealing insights about various cultures, societies, and peoples; 

(5) developing human empathies and understandings of the “other”; 

(6) and other human-important objectives.