Rootstech-The Basics of Gamification

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The Basics of Gamification Dave McAllister – Director, Open Source and Accessibility


A brief history of social games (http://radoff.com)

§  From presentation at Gamification Summit 2011 – Jon Radoff

Rootstech 2012 @Dave McAllister 2


What is Gamification?

Gamification is: the process of using game mechanics and game dynamics (game thinking) to engage users and solve problems

§  In short, drive game like behavior and engagement in non-gaming environments

Gamification is not about §  Game theory

§  Game development

§  Or a cure for a poor product design

“50% of all innovation processes will be gamified by 2015” - Gartner



Some fun examples



Goals of Gamification

§  Drive Participation §  Increase the number of people willing to (and capable of) taking part

§  Increase Engagement §  Drive more interactions, including sharing and deeper responses

§  Create Loyalty §  Maintain return traffic as well as increased viral “social media” marketing

Gamification could deliver application lock-in in an web-based world.



Engagement

§  Motivation leads to engagement

§  Intrinsic motivation – innate desire to do something rewarding in and of itself

§  External motivation – driven by desire (or fear) of external reward (or punishment)


Self- actualization

Esteem

Belonging

Safety

Physical

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (1943)

State of being

State of needing Status, achievements, rank, reputation

Cohesion, virality, community

Security, money

Food, water, air …


The gamified engagement loop

§ Desire § Mastery



The gamified engagement loop

§ Desire §  Incentive § Challenge

§ Achievement/reward

§ Feedback § Mastery



Measuring Engagement

§  Engagement is driven by (and may be measured by)

§  Recency

§  Frequency

§  Duration

§  Virality

§  Ratings



Engagement summary

§  Intrinsic motivations are more likely to drive higher engagement scores

§  Engagement is powered by game dynamics

§  Remember M3: Motivation, Momentum and Meaning



Loyalty systems change over time

§  1800’s – Tangible goods model, buy something, get something

§  1930’s – “Cash” incentives, rise of the virtual currency

§  1980’s – Loyalty systems, and status recognition

§  2000’s – Virtual rewards

Why do these change?



Gamified Loyalty


SAPS Status Access Power Stuff

Variable Ratio maintains behavior

Human behaviors are essentially learned through conditioning


Changing costs and status value of loyalty


0

50

100

150

200

250

costs

status value

1800 1850 2000 2050 1900 1950


Player types - Bartles


Richard Bartle (1996), "Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, Spades: Players Who suit MUDs,"

Gamifying the quiz http://www.gamerdna.com/quizzes/bartle-test-of-gamer-psychology?cobrand=

< 1%

~ 10% ~ 80%

~ 10%


Player types - Radoff


Evolutionary Gameplay Motivations


Player motivations and types



The 6 rules of Gamification design

§  Understand what constitutes a “win” for the organization/sponsor

§  Unpack the player’s intrinsic motivation and progress to mastery

§  Design for the emotional human, not the rational human.

§  Develop scalable, meaningful intrinsic and extrinsic rewards

§  In scaling your project, don’t roll your own

§  Most interactions are boring: make everything a little more fun



Step 1: Get

§  Don’t design a game

§  Focus on

§  Recognition and Reward

§  Status

§  Achievement

§  Competition

§  Collaboration

§  Don’t expect gamification to replace the need for good content

§  Prepare to build a community and make it interactive



Step 2: goals and interests

§  Understand your business goals

§  Understand your users

§  Balance the business goals and the users interests



Step 3: lights, camera,

§  Prioritize what you want users to do, in your interests

§  Determine success

§  Including how to measure success

§  Establish solid baselines

§  Add elements one at a time



Step 4: , and

§  Mechanics are how to control user actions

§  Dynamics are how the user interacts with the mechanics

§  Aesthetics are how the user feels about the experience

While sometimes referred to as badges and points, there are far more parameters to be applied



Game Mechanics

§  Are the constructs and feedback loops which are intended to encourage game play.

§  Common examples:

§  Status, equating to rank and reputation

§  Feedback (of progress), points

§  Progression, Completion

§  Achievement

§  Social interaction

§  Self expression

§  There are a lot of mechanics http://gamification.org/wiki/Game_Mechanics



Game Dynamics

§  Time related evolution and patterns that make an activity enjoyable.

§  The dynamic game-rule feedback loop

§  The player dynamics

§  Dependent on gamer personality

§  Examples:

§  Progression versus Status

§  Reinforcement schedule (of rewards) versus points

§  Appointments and countdowns

§  Social driven discovery

§  Competition



Step 5: Keep them wanting

§  Make your mechanics work for you §  Make recognition make sense

§  Reward on a schedule to match your desire

§  Variable == behavior continuance

§  Fixed == Learning and deadline

§  Level up (target the flow state)


A reward can be anything, virtual or physical Choose when to reward


Step 6: don’t now

§  Real time feedback

§  Newsfeeds

§  Groups and teams

§  Leaderboards

§  Virtual Goods

§  Pricing and value

§  Gifts

§  Secondary markets

§  Revenue stream?



Step 7: Wherever go, there are

§  Design for support of mobile or multi-screen approach

§  Tap the power of existing social media behemoths

§  Keep in mind location

§  Keep in mind geo-cultures



Summary: Make it

§  Keep it as simple as needed, not simple as possible

§  Know who you are targeting

§  Know what you want to get

§  Measure it

§  MDA == Mechanics, Dynamics and Aesthetics

§  SAPS == Status, Access, Power, Stuff’



For more information and thanks to the giants

§  Gamification by Design, Gabe Zicherman http://gamification.co/gabe-zichermann/

§  Game On, Jon Radoff http://radoff.com/

§  The Science of Gamification, Michael Wu, Ph,D http://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelwuphd

§  Bunchball (http://www.bunchball.com/) for two amazing whitepapers:

§  Winning with Gamification

§  Gamification 101

§  The Gamification Blog: http://gamification.co

§  Gamification University: http://gamificationU.com


Rootstech-The Basics of Gamification

Technology

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