Fun is the key to how games work, and it’s the key to making gamification work, too. Without fun, gamification is simply another feature of a system or product – with fun, your product or system becomes much more enjoyable to use.

There are several criteria which need to be met in order for a game to be considered fun. Namely, it must have goals (so the player has something to achieve) and rules (so that the player has a means to achieve those goals); it must also provide feedback (so that the players can examine their progress or lack of it), and it must involve voluntary play (because being forced to have fun isn’t fun). Last but not least, there must be obstacles to provide a challenge.