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The first time we entered Hogwarts<\/a>; the world-class School of Witchcraft and Wizardry \u00a0was in 1997, in the novel\u00a0Harry Potter and the Philosopher\u2019s Stone<\/a> by <\/em>J. K. Rowling<\/a>.\u00a0The first scenes of Hogwarts are of Professors McGonagall and Dumbledore, introducing the new school comers to how Hogwarts is run.\u00a0As a kid, I was of course fascinated by the school. I had my own set of wizarding robes, magic wands and I impatiently waited for my Hogwarts admission letter. Whether that letter came or not is beside the point.\u00a0As an all-grown-up gamification researcher; Hogwarts became more fascinating!<\/p>\n Gamification is about designing activities to make them as enjoyable and engaging as games are. This is done through introducing game elements to these activities in question.\u00a0In education; gamification is about engaging students with learning through designing more engaging schools, syllabuses, classrooms, after-school activities, etc.\u00a0The outcome from gamification is not necessarily a \u201cgame\u201d but the outcome is mainly a gameful activity that is as engaging (enjoyable) as a game is engaging and enjoyable.<\/p>\n Most of gamified education uses elements from games such as points, badges, leaderboards, teams, competition, trophies\u2026\u2026\u2026 yes I said points and teams!<\/p>\n Hogwarts, throughout the novels and movies is mainly run by dividing students into 4 large teams (houses<\/a>); Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and (the beloved) Slytherin.\u00a0Every year, students belonging to these houses compete on who can win the most points for their house so that by the end of the year they can win the Hogwarts house cup.<\/p>\n How is this not gamification<\/a>!<\/p>\n The study of fiction and Hogwarts, allows us to see the possible positive and negative outcomes from gamification so that gamification designers are at least better aware of the possible outcomes as they design gamification.\u00a0The study of Hogwarts can help shorten a lengthy cycle of trial and error to gamification design.\u00a0We can use Hogwarts to expect what gamification would or would not work in real life.\u00a0Furthermore, there is a large number of people online \u2013 like me \u2013 who wish to study at Hogwarts and demand real life Hogwarts(s). It appears from this that fiction and pop culture is already influencing our expectations and possibly design practices.<\/p>\n These reasons, overall, made it very important to understand how Hogwarts is designed and run and if we can draw lessons from it on gamified education design.<\/p>\n