Using game design elements in non-game contexts is an established concept. Gamification is all about improving actual user engagement with the system, making users contribute more time and resources than they have intended, by rewarding them with status, access, power and stuff (SAPS). In this review paper we give an overview of gamification, and user motivations for playing games, and we discuss basic game design elements. We also compare existing services, like Foursquare, Waze and Ingress that use game design elements in geographic data collection processes. Services are compared in the context of the SAPS model and actual used game mechanics, including points, levels, leaderboards, badges and challenges. Gamification can be applied to geographic data collection processes as shown by the services analysed in this article. Current research of gamification applied to geographic data collection gives no definite conclusions. We plan to focus our further research on gamification in the context of geographic data collection, particularly in the realm of volunteered geographic information.
