Opening the black box of gameful experience: Implications for gamification process design

Abstract Gamification is attracting the attention of practitioners and researchers because of its power to generate experiential value for users. However, despite its wide adoption by managers, the practice is poorly conceptualized. In response to this theoretical gap, we propose a set of foundational propositions developed using a microfoundational approach. We explain gameful experience, and we construct a conceptual framework that depicts the underlying process. We expand prior research on the topic through the notion of gameplay. Our conceptual discussion of gamification suggests a research agenda that can stimulate further academic efforts.