The power of the metaverse to change the event industry is only increasing with each passing day. With immersive 3D environments and virtual worlds, 3D avatars, anyone in the world can access an event at any time.
Pair it with a solid social media campaign and an immersive platform accessible on any device and OS, directly in the browser and the potential is limitless.
One of the ways the metaverse has the potential to change forever when it comes to virtual events is gamification. In other words, being creative and adding fun elements to your virtual event in order to drive engagement.
You may not realize or think about it but in today’s digital world and not only, gamification is nearly everywhere!
For example that medal, you get when you’ve exceeded your daily steps, the stamps you collect at your favorite cafe: 5 stamps earn you a free cookie, 10 a free coffee. Or think of leaderboards, where for some it doesn’t even matter what they win as long as they are first.
If that doesn’t quite make sense in the metaverse events setup, keep reading. In this article we’ll unpack:
- What gamification is
- What the benefits of gamification for virtual events are?
- The main rules and guidelines when starting out with gamification
- Ideas and examples of gamified experiences
- Metrics and analytics for virtual events in the metaverse
So what is gamification?
Put simply, gamification in a virtual event context means you are using game mechanics such as the ones I mentioned before in an otherwise non-game activity or setting.
And why would you want to do that?! Simple. Because it has enormous benefits.
Gamification benefits for virtual events in the metaverse
Increased attendee engagement.
A gamified experience teases a participant’s competitive spirit, it motivates them and triggers positive emotions. At the same time, it maximizes learning as your audience is more engaged and thus pays more attention.
Increases sponsorship promotion opportunities
Sponsors can be involved in specific experiences and games where they have a chance to interact with attendees in a more natural way. They can offer prizes and take the opportunity to promote their brand in a unique way resulting in a higher return on investment.
Enhanced networking capabilities which are crucial in B2B
Gamified experiences at virtual events are ideal to break the ice and help relax the atmosphere. This helps create a sense of co-presence which in return allows for shared experiences and a sense of community and belonging.
Increase social media buzz and brand exposure
Adding a solid marketing plan and a visually rich and engaging platform will enable you to deliver experiences that will take your brand and event from the eyes of hundreds to thousands.
Now we have a better understanding of what gamification is and what the benefits of gamification are for corporate and enterprise metaverse events. It’s time we learn more about gamification guidelines and general rules.
At MootUp, as a truly immersive metaverse for business solution, gamification, is a key component and is part of the main platform offerings.
Years of experience and thousands of events and partnerships provide us with an insider’s perspective and place us in a unique position to offer the best in-depth insights, guidelines, and ideas for the best gamification strategy.
This brings us to the next stop on this journey of learning about gamified experiences in virtual events.
6 Rules-of-thumb for a top-tier immersive experience.
The digital world, especially the metaverse, offers new and exciting ways to incorporate and leverage gamification elements for virtual events.
This is why the type of experiences we introduce and especially how these experiences are chosen and created is key. Because want to make sure a game or contest is relevant to the overall objectives and it organically fits in the event design.
Here are 6 main guidelines to keep in mind when setting up gamification for your event.
Set your budget
With a metaverse platform, gamification tools are usually included so there shouldn’t be extra costs on the platform’s end. But depending on how you choose to design the experience you may incur costs for creative content.
Define your goals
This is directly related to your gamification strategy. And this is where you’ll have two questions to ask yourself.
What is the purpose of your event and what do you expect to get out of the gamified experience.
Figuring this out will allow you to choose the type of experience, be it a game or contest that is relevant to your overall objectives.
So choose your gamified experience wisely.
For example, if the purpose of your event is networking and socializing then you’ll want to create interactive experiences such as scavenger hunts or escape rooms, that promote problem-solving and team-building.
Create an experience that is challenging enough to create a sense of achievement.
After all, you are looking to amplify the ultimate event experience, not only to entertain.
It helps if you offer hints and ideas on what the attendees are expected to do. But always make sure the tasks are not too difficult to the point of frustration or people will get fed up and drop out.
Keep the social aspect in mind.
This will help satisfy attendees’ longing for recognition.
This means encouraging networking and interactions. Make use of the advantages 3D avatars bring to the table in the metaverse.
The ability to choose how you look, and how you are represented in the 3D environment empowers attendees from the start.
The ability to use life-like gestures, expressions, and even dances, in the virtual environment helps give even the shyest of attendees, the confidence to engage and interact with others and be heard.
Measure event ROI and KPIs
Gamification serves a specific purpose that directly relates to the event’s success. This means setting up your KPIs is extremely important in defining the rules and communicating with the attendees.
Create and communicate the rules.
Part of a successful gamification strategy is clear communication with attendees. Create content leading up to the event that explains to attendees what the rules are, and what they are expected to earn or win – this will drum up their interest to participate.
Now that we have the framework let’s explore a few gamification examples and ideas that will better explain what “relevant to your overall objectives” actually means.
Introduction to Virtual Gamification Ideas
The first thing to note here is that adding gamification to a virtual event does not mean turning your event into a video game.
Use gamified experiences to educate and engage event participants while encouraging them to feel like they are part of a community. With the right tools and game mechanics, you can influence the communication within an event, the culture of the organization, work efficiency, etc.
An engaged attendee becomes more aware of exhibitors and sponsors. An engaged event participant is not just a spectator looking at a picture, but a user that interacts more deeply with the event environment and other participants, gaining direct access to sponsor or exhibitor offerings.
And that’s exactly what metaverse events, paired with the correct gamification strategy give you the opportunity to do: turn spectator attendees into active participants.
Remember the above question about the purpose of your event. Let’s start there.
Part of planning a virtual event is knowing your audience. And I can’t stress this enough! Part of knowing your audience is knowing:
- What devices do they use
- What is their preferred way of consuming content
- When times are they most likely to be active online.
More details on this can be found in MootUp’s Free Guide to Successfully Pivot from Physical to Virtual Events Today It offers a step-by-step guide to virtual event planning.
One of the reasons knowing your audience is important is because when correctly implemented, a gamified experience in the metaverse addresses each individual and provides a unique perspective and experience.
So let’s explore some ideas.
8 Virtual Gamification Ideas
First things first, reward attendees for what they are already doing, showing up and checking in. This is the perfect time to trigger their interest and make them want to dive deeper into the event experience. You can do this by offering a hint of the next action they need to complete and a short description of what they will get for completing the action.
Let’s say the purpose of your virtual event is to grow the brand, increase your company’s social media presence and promote networking.
This means your focus has to be on networking and offering attendees experiences worth talking about but also incentives to share these experiences with their friends and followers.
Virtual escape rooms
Just like in real life, virtual escape rooms encourage individuals to work together and solve problems, riddles, etc. This promotes teamwork and networking
Attach a social wall and leaderboard to the experience to trigger the sense of competitiveness and feeling of connection with other attendees.
Alert the attendee every time they collected points or 3D items in the environment in order to keep them motivated and interacting with the platform.
Virtual scavenger hunts
This is especially effective and fun when paired with sponsor or exhibitor booths.
For example, you can create a list of 3D items attendees need to find on the exhibition floor.
A great example of this is the Asahi Good Day virtual product launch that took place in MootUp. Virtual bottles were hidden around one of the 3D galleries. Participants were then given a specific amount of time to find all the bottles in order to win a prize that would be mailed to them in-real.
The limit of time brings a level of uncertainty but also excitement. Think of adding a large 3D clock item on the wall in the 3D environment or if the platform supports it, use screen graphics to show the timer, and send in-world popups with time-lapsed or remaining.
Polls
Polls are a fantastic way to keep attendees engaged while providing event organizers with valuable information. You can reward points for each poll an attendee takes.
Q&A Sessions
Use gamification to encourage attendees to ask good, relevant questions. This encourages knowledge sharing which can lead to insightful and relevant discussions.
Event platforms include tools for Q&A. With MootUp for example you can even gamify the experience further and ask attendees to vote on the best question themselves.
Trivia
Similar to Q&A or Polls, trivia offers a great way to engage your attendees. If it’s part of a speaker’s sessions, be sure to announce it at the beginning to make sure attendees are prepared and actively listening.
Trivia also offers more creative freedom because it doesn’t necessarily have to be event or conference-specific. It can be used during breakout sessions as a fun way to break the ice and keep attendees engaged.
Exhibitor or sponsor vetting
Empower attendees by giving them the chance to visit and explore sponsor or exhibitor interactive 3D booths and vote on their favorite for example. Include a leaderboard showing which booth is the most popular.
Contests
Metaverse events make it easy to get creative with your contests so get creative!
You can come up with badges for different activities, such as “metaverse explorer” for those that visited a certain number of booths.
“Walking Encyclopedia” for those participants that answered the most trivia questions correctly.
“Social Director” can be awarded to those that made the most connections.
“Always In a Meeting” award can go to those that engaged in calls, chats, or DMs.
It’s easy to get carried away here, so make sure you tailor badges or trophies to alight with your event.
Dedicated actions rewards
This is the most straightforward way to motivate attendees and drive engagement. You can give points for event-related tasks, for example:
- Visiting the dance floor (if that is applicable to your event) and doing five dance moves.
- Posting on social media with the event’s hashtag. Creating a hashtag for your event not only helps with gamification but can also serve as a promotional tool for organic growth.
Encourage attendees to take pictures at the event and share them along with the hashtag, as part of a scavenger hunt or escape room.
A great example of this is Impartner’s metaverse event #UniverseProofYourChannel. A 3D photo booth was set up in the 3D environment where participants could take pictures of their 3D avatars and post them on social media using the event hashtag.
This helped promote the event and create a community around it even outside the 3D spaces on the various social media platforms.
Metrics and analytics
One of the huge advantages of virtual events in the metaverse is the ability to track and measure engagement, activity, and behavior. By doing this you gain greater insights into which elements of your virtual events are most successful but also what you need to improve and do more of or get rid of altogether.
Identifying these elements and understanding your attendees’ behavior and the way they interact with the virtual environment and each other is invaluable information that will help you improve your future events.
It will also help you set benchmarks for engagement, which in turn will help you create future sponsors packages and provide accurate information on what exhibitors, sponsors, and partners can expect from the audience.
Conclusion
Finally, a well-planned gamified experience will allow your attendees to immerse themselves in the virtual event while at the same time providing you with data that will allow you to easily track your event’s success and help plan for future ones.
It’s difficult to argue against the power and the importance of gamification. Whether you use rewards, timing to increase urgency, or award points to increase value, gamification can be used to level up and amplify the ultimate attendee experience.
Want to know more about maximizing audience engagement to create a unique immersive experience with MootUp?
Get in touch with the MootUp team here.
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