Handbook of Best Practices in Gamification: Participatory Platform for Sustainable Energy Management (PARENT), the Joint Programming Initiative “Urban Europe”.

This document looks at the state of the art gamification techniques that enable,
motivate and trigger people to participate and act. We start by addressing the
various definitions and the meaning of the term of gamification. We then touch
upon the general goals and aims of gamification to enhance non-game
applications. In the third and fourth part of the report we look at the most
frequently used game mechanics and elements to give an overview of the available
options and trends, as well as list general advise for good practices collected
through the various academic papers and practical guidelines. These first four
sections aim at introducing the concept of gamification, its use and limitations and
its application in the field.
In the fifth and sixth section, we narrow in on specific good practices and describe
six cases where gamification is working to improve an application. The cases are
analysed in a matrix of gamification in order to identify what elements are being
used, how they work and what makes these gamified applications effective in
reaching their goals.
Finally, we narrow in even further; addressing the PARENT project specifically with
lessons learned from the analysis and provide recommendations for gamification for
the PARENT Virtual Energy Adviser (VEA).
This deliverable feeds directly into task 4.4 where specific gamification mechanisms
elements will be selected and adapted for the implementation in WP5