Online casinos have been around for over two decades. Throughout these years, it has managed to thrive in cyberspace not only because of the numerous people who love to gamble, but mainly because online casinos know how to evolve and adapt to new trends. Online casinos have driven the virtual casino industry by offering a variety of novelties. This includes mobile gaming, live dealer games, interactive slots and so much more.
The most recent trend sweeping through the internet is gamification. This trend just proves how dynamic online gambling is.
We will cover the gamification phenomenon in this article, how it’s being implemented and how it has impacted the online gambling industry.
What is Gamification?
Gamification is a relatively new concept aiming to add or improve the overall user engagement by introducing design elements associated with video game experience to the online casino industry. More specifically, it is applying video game elements to non-game contexts. This trend has a huge potential especially in attracting new customers who are looking for a new way to experience online casino gaming. Everyone wants to get the best experience possible whether it be in each platform, website or industry.
Gamification elements increases new player engagement and makes the site more appealing, creating a feeling of enhanced value and immersion.
Popular Gamification Trends
Some of the most popular and common trends in online casinos are the following:
- Player avatars
While not fully necessary, seeing an avatar of yourself on the screen make the whole gaming experience more engaging. It gives players a sense of connection with their online persona, creating a truly immersive player experience.
- Progression bars
One of the common features of video games is the ability to increase your character’s strength. Gamification in online casinos allow you to power-up and level-up to rocket ahead of the pack. You will see a progress bar that fills up as you continue playing. Once it gets filled, you level up and can win instant free gifts. This nice feature allows players the endless ability to level up, boost gameplay, and collect prizes.
- Missions and tasks
The mission-based concept is one of the most unique concepts borrowed from the online video gaming community. When players sign, they get to choose missions or complete tasks in between playing a bunch of online casino games.
This prevents players from easily getting bored and moving on. Once a task or mission is completed, a reward is given to the player.
- Leaderboards
Adding a leaderboard increases the excitement level among players and brings out the competitive side of each player. The best scores are recorded on a leaderboard for everyone to see and those who remain at the top of the leaderboard when the tournament or promotion ends are awarded with the most significant rewards and prizes.
- Mini-games
Top gamification online casinos offer mini-games for some quick fun; this can promote players to come win a potential prize once a day, provide some fun while giving a high-value player experience.
- Player versus player play
If you’re tired of playing against the house all the time, this feature allows you to play games while competing against other players, giving a more exciting online casino experience.
How the Online Casino Industry is Changing
It’s still too early to determine whether gamification is just another passing trend. But we need to remember that the online casino industry is one of the most innovative and dynamic web-based sectors globally.
The gamification scope is enormous and has a huge potential for attracting new players and retain the existing ones. Judging by how gamification has grown in recent years, it appears that it is here to stay.
As web technology evolved, the generation of players evolved as well. They became more accustomed to faster games, sophisticated platforms, and high-definition graphics. Innovation is vital if you want to keep your players satisfied. Gamification will certainly offer something fresh and different to today’s players and increases the quality of online games.