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Bahman Huseynli, Aypar Uslu: A Qualitative Study on the Definition And Concept of Gamification

INTRODUCTION
In recent years, gamification, which has emerged as a trend in the business and
marketing sectors, has attracted the attention of academics, educators, and
practitioners from various fields. When the literature is examined, it is evident that
there are many definitions related to gamification. Gamification, as a research
discipline, is growing rapidly.
Gamification is maturing from basic questions like "what" and "why is it gamified" to
more mature questions like "how" and "when to gamify". However, proving
gamification effects still faces empirical and theoretical challenges. In this context, it
is important to define gamification, generalize the concept of gamification, and reveal
the benefits of gamification.

Gamification stands out from educational learning games and online games today
because such activities are not related to commercial organizations and businesses that
serve stakeholders. The gamification process is different from sales retention
programs in marketing, which are designed to create brand loyalty in customers. These
types of frequency or continuity programs focus on customer behavior. Instead,
gamification encompasses the total customer experience, including internal
experiences and motivations, integrated throughout the service marketing process
(Conaway and Garay, 2014).

The main goals of using gamification applications in marketing are to increase
participation, loyalty, brand awareness, motivation, and ownership (Pavlus, 2010;
Witt, Scheiner and Robra-Bissantz, 2011). For this reason, businesses are now using
gamification elements on both web-based and mobile-based platforms. The impact of
the technological capacity of gamification environments should be designed with a
large amount of information in accordance with consumer needs to make easy and
quick decisions and should be connected to simple interfaces (Hofacker et al., 2016).

According to Landers (2014), in gamification studies, it should be the goal of
researchers to adopt and test these qualities individually and in meaningful
combinations, paying clear attention to the selected qualities.

METHODOLOGY
The main purpose of this study is to systematically compile theoretical information
about the definition and concept of gamification. In this context, qualitative research,
a literature review, and systematic approach methods were used. Within the scope of
the study, two basic questions were investigated:

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