Playification

The concept of playification has recently been proposed as an extension of, or alternative to, gamification. We present a playification design project targeting the re-design of physiotherapy rehabilitative sessions for elderly inpatients. The menial and repetitive nature of the physical exercises targeted for design might seem ideal for shallow widespread gamification approaches that add external rewards to entice usage. In the PhySeEar project, we introduced a "third agent" instead, in the form of technology that would take over some of the work typically carried out by the physiotherapist. This technological intervention triggered the emergence of playfulness, when inpatients and the therapist re-signified the ongoing activity by engaging in playful role-taking, such as blaming the technology for mistakes, or for sensitivity to the inpatient's inaccurate movements. Based on the experiences from this project, we discuss some of the major differences between playification and gamification