Gameful Experience in Gamification: Construction and Validation of a Gameful Experience Scale [GAMEX]

Abstract Gamification has recently become a popular topic in marketing practice. It is perceived as being a promising way to provide improved consumer experiences and to positively influence consumer behavior. An inherent characteristic of gamification is the gameful experience of consumers when using a gamified application. However, no existing measure captures the gameful experience consumers feel when they engage with gamified applications. Based on an extensive literature review and six consecutive studies, the authors develop and validate a new gameful experience scale [GAMEX] for measuring gameful experience in gamification. The results confirm that the GAMEX is a reliable and valid measure, which is useful for both, researchers and practitioners, and easy to apply in different gamification settings.