Business Gamification, Business Games, Serious Games, Business Simulation

Hello World-
Yes, we can agree. It is confusing. You can thank the marketing dept for creating this confusion. No offense, I've worked in marketing before and it just sort of happens. The only downside is that titles (trends) do a great job of confusing the general public. The world of business simulations, business games, serious games, and business gamification is no exception. But, this brings up the question:

What is the difference between business gamification, business games, and business simulations?

To make things simple on you: Very Little.

Here are some overviews of each:
- Business Gamification: The latest trendy name with a lot of sizzle (thanks Ted). It seems as though business gamification is the act of making games for consumer engagement around a topic that is intended to keep consumers coming back. Business gamification traditionally utilizes points, badges, or a mechanism of rewards that awards levels of accomplishment. You'll often see gamification on consumer brand web sites. A great example of gamification is foursquare. Like all the other titles in this post, this uses basic game theory to work.
- Business Simulation: Business simulations are traditionally used when a corporate strategy is involved. This might be in the form of a business shift, strategy re-development, or strategy testing. Business simulations are utilized to help corporate employees better understand a strategy, test a strategy, or accelerate a corporate strategy through knowledge and buy-in. There are certainly other uses, but this covers quite a bit in a small summary. Again, business simulations use basic game theory to work.
- Business Games and Serious Games: Yes, these are bundled. The hard-core thinkers are a) over thinking this and b) very frustrated that these are bundled. Business games and serious games are simply the process of turning a business topic into a game of some type. These are the basics of business gaming as a topic. Of course, these use basic game theory to operate.

As you can see, there are really only slight differences. In many cases, there is significant overlap. This information is designed to be a summary and not an exhaustive (and boring) analysis of every possible detail. This is really not needed to get you comfortably into the 80/20 rule. With just this simple summary, you are 80% there.

Hope this helps.