Actionable Gamification Read online

  As a result, many gamification professionals focus only on developing the superficial layer of games. I call this the shell of a game experience. This is most often manifested in the form of what we call the PBLs: Points, Badges, and Leaderboards. Many gamification professionals seem to believe that if you put points on something boring, add some badges, and provide a competitive leaderboard, that once boring product will automatically become exciting.

  Of course that’s also what a lot of gamification platforms specialize in: adding PBLs into various products in a scalable manner. And as a result, many people who are less informed but curious about gamification start to believe that the sum total of gamification methodology and philosophy is merely the process of adding points, badges, and leaderboards to products. Justifiably, this leads them to believe that gamification is a shallow fad and not very impactful.

  This has also generated a backlash from the game development community, as they claim that gamification is a bastardization of the true essence intrinsic to good gaming. And who can blame them? Foursquare seems to be nothing more than points, badges, and leaderboards based on going to places, while Nike+ seems to be the same thing based on running. Is this as deep as gamification goes?

  Of course, points, badges, and leaderboards do have a place in game design. That’s why you see them in so many different games. They have the ability to motivate behavior and push people towards certain actions. But gamification is so much more than PBLs. Many gamification professionals are only familiar with how to implement PBL mechanics and even though these do create value, most of them completely miss the point of engaging the user. It is not unusual for users to feel insulted by shallow shell mechanics.

  If you ask any gamer what makes a game fun, they will not tell you that it is because of the PBLs. They play it because there are elements of strategy and great ways to spend time with friends, or they want to challenge themselves to overcome difficult obstacles. The points and badges are often an added bonus that’s nice to have depending on the context. This is the difference between extrinsic motivation, where you are engaged because of a goal or reward, and intrinsic motivation, where the activity itself is fun and exciting, with or without a reward. We’ll dive deeper into these distinctions in Chapter 13 on Left Brain vs Right Brain Motivations.

  A Trojan Horse without Greek Soldiers

  Generic game mechanics and poorly constructed game elements such as levels, boss fights, or quests often fall into the same hole as PBLs. Simply put, applying traditional “game elements” ubiquitous in popular gameplay without diving deeper into user motivation contributes to shallow user experience: it’s all flash and no bang. An almost humorous example of this is when people I meet call something a “quest” instead of a “task” thinking that this automatically makes the same original actions fun and engaging. Sure, having a playful attitude can make a big difference, but it only goes so far, especially when your customers and employees may already distrust your motives.

  The truth is, simply incorporating game mechanics and game elements does not make a game fun.

  Games aren’t necessarily fun because of high quality graphics or flashy animations either. There are many unpopular, poor-selling games with state-of-the-art 3D high- resolution graphics. There are also games with very basic graphics such as Minecraft, or even no graphics, such as the purely text-based multi-user dungeon games (MUDs), that have large communities of players addicted to them. Clearly, there are more to games than “meets the eye.”

  Unfortunately, a lot of people who work in gamification incorrectly think that applying game mechanics like points, badges, and leaderboards – elements that you can also find in boring and unsuccessful games - will automatically make the product or experience fun and engaging. Unfortunately, it’s not just what game elements you put in - it’s how, when, and most importantly, why these game elements appear.

  It would be foolish for a modern army commander to say, “Hey! The Greeks sent a big wooden horse to the Trojans and won the war. Lets send our enemies a big wooden horse too!” In this case, he clearly doesn’t understand the true design behind the Trojan Horse, but he only copied the outer shell of it. Instead, it would be much more effective if he created a virus that pretended to be a normal file to corrupt enemy computers. Learn from the design; don’t copy the shell.

  The Threat and Opportunities in Gamification

  Even though gamification has become accepted in the mainstream, poorly designed applications threaten its long-term viability and impact development. I am genuinely afraid that in a few years, companies will look at gamification and say, “Hey, we tried the points stuff and it didn’t work out. I guess gamification was just a short-term fad.”

  That would be a huge loss for the world.

  Based on my years of research, observation, and design in gamification, I am a hundred percent certain that good gamification design can unlock tremendous potential and improve many lives in the process. There are hundreds of case studies that illustrate this also. And so it is my job (and hopefully yours one day) to continue protecting and innovating the core essence and the promise of gamification.

  In the long run, the term “gamification” might actually fade and eventually disappear. Currently, no one describes a website’s design as being “so Web 2.0!” Gamification may just become the normal way we design, implement, and interact with the world around us. It’s my hope that the principles that optimize for human motivation becomes the standard for good design across the board.

  Fortunately, there are enough good gamification examples that continue to show how thoughtful design can improve core business metrics and inspire new ways of thinking and execution. Besides the 90+ Gamification Case Studies listed on my site, as mentioned in the last chapter, it is interesting to note that some of the best historical examples of gamification, such as eBay or Woot.com, have not been categorized as gamification by most people in the industry. There are dozens, if not hundreds of companies that became extremely successful because, regardless of what it was called, they applied great game mechanics and gameplay dynamics to their processes. Some of these examples are illustrated in the following chapters.

  Because of these success stories, I believe that gamification will continue to evolve and meet real needs if practitioners and the general gamification community also evolve in their understanding of its principles and practice.

  So if “game mechanics” alone are not the true reason why games are so engaging and sometimes addictive, then what is?

  The Story of the Good Designer vs. Bad Designer

  To understand the core of good gamification design, let’s start with an example of how a bad game designer might design a game.

  In designing a game, a bad designer might start off thinking, “Okay, what popular game mechanics and game elements should I use? Well, of course we need monsters in the game. We also need swords so where should I place those? How about crops that friends can fertilize? What about some birds that show a lot of attitude? I’m sure people will love it!”

  As you can see from the exaggerated depiction above, a game might have all the “right game elements” but still be incredibly boring or stupid if they do not focus on their users’ motivations first. It is worth remembering that every single game in the market has what we call game mechanics and game elements. However, most are still boring and are financial losers. Only a few well-designed games become engaging and even addictive. Are you designing your experience to be the failing game or the successful game? How would you know?

  So let us look at how a good game designer might tackle the problem. Instead of starting with what game elements and game mechanics to use, the good game designer may begin by thinking, “Okay, how do I want my users to feel? Do I want them to feel inspired? Do I want them to feel proud? Should they be scared? Anxious? What’s my goal for their intended experience?

  Once the designer understands how she wants her users to feel, then she begins to think, �
�Okay, what kind of game elements and mechanics can help me accomplish my goals of ensuring players feel this way.” The solution may lie in swords, plants, or perhaps word puzzles, but the whole point here is that game elements are just a means to an end, instead of an end in itself. Game elements are simply there to push and pull on their users’ behavioral core drives.

  As a result, in order to further explore, systemize, and scale methods of combining game mechanics with our motivational core drives, in 2012 I decided to share my original gamification design framework called Octalysis to the world. The Octalysis Framework embodies my life’s work, and the majority of this book will be about how to use Octalysis to design experiences that are fun, engaging, and rewarding.

  Chapter 3: The Octalysis Framework

  A Gamification Design Framework for Everyone

  Because of the issues discussed in the last chapter, I spent the past decade working to create a complete framework to analyze and build strategies around the various systems that make games engaging. I saw that almost every successful game appeals to certain Core Drives within us and motivates us towards a variety of decisions and activities. I also noticed that different types of game techniques push us forward differently; some through inspiration and empowerment, some through manipulation and obsession. I drilled down to find what differentiates one type of motivation from another. The end result is a gamification design framework called Octalysis, which derives its name from an octagonal shape with 8 Core Drives representing each side.

  Octalysis with only 8 Core Drives Present

  In the past decade, I have been blessed in many more ways than I could anticipate. My lonely passion in gamification became something that various industries paid attention to. I could have easily stumbled upon a passion that remained a desert land throughout my life. Similarly, when I published the Octalysis Framework on my blog YukaiChou.com, it was also extremely well-received by the industry. Many brilliant pieces of work remain unnoticed or unappreciated for most of the creator’s life, let alone a design framework I simply put up on my personal blog. To my delight, within a year the Octalysis Framework was organically translated into over fourteen different languages - I had to stumble upon most of them one at a time. I quickly received many opportunities to speak, teach, and consult globally.

  Through many years of experiments and adjustments, I realized that everything we do is based on one or more of the 8 Core Drives within Octalysis. This is important to keep in mind because it also suggests that if there are none of these Core Drives behind a Desired Action, there is no motivation, and no behavior happens.

  Let us quickly examine what these 8 Core Drives are.

  The 8 Core Drives of Gamification

  Core Drive 1: Epic Meaning & Calling

  Epic Meaning & Calling is the Core Drive that is in play when a person believes they are doing something greater than themselves and/or were “chosen” to take that action. An example of this is when a player devotes a lot of their time to contribute to projects such as Wikipedia. We are familiar with the fact that people don’t contribute to Wikipedia to make money, but they don’t even do it to pad their resumes. People contribute to Wikipedia because they believe they are protecting humanity’s knowledge – something much bigger than themselves. This also comes into play when someone has “Beginner’s Luck” – an effect where people believe they have some type of gift that others don’t or believe they are “lucky” getting that amazing sword at the very beginning of the game.

  Core Drive 2: Development & Accomplishment

  Development & Accomplishment is our internal drive for making progress, developing skills, achieving mastery, and eventually overcoming challenges. The word “challenge” here is very important, as a badge or trophy without a challenge is not meaningful at all. This is also the core drive that is the easiest to design for and, coincidently, is where the majority of the PBLs: points, badges, leaderboards mostly focus on.

  Core Drive 3: Empowerment of Creativity & Feedback

  Empowerment of Creativity & Feedback is expressed when users are engaged in a creative process where they repeatedly figure new things out and try different combinations. People not only need ways to express their creativity, but they need to see the results of their creativity, receive feedback, and adjust in turn. This is why playing with Legos and making art is intrinsically fun. If these techniques are properly designed and integrated to empower users to be creative, they often become Evergreen Mechanics: where a game designer no longer needs to continuously add additional content to keep the activity fresh and engaging. The brain simply entertains itself.

  Core Drive 4: Ownership & Possession

  Ownership & Possession is where users are motivated because they feel like they own or control something. When a person feels ownership over something, they innately want to increase and improve what they own. Besides being the major core drive for the desire to accumulate wealth, it deals with many virtual goods or virtual currencies within systems. Also, if a person spends a lot of time customizing their profile or avatar, they automatically feel more ownership towards it also. Finally, this drive is also expressed when the user feels ownership over a process, project, and/or the organization.

  Core Drive 5: Social Influence & Relatedness

  Social Influence & Relatedness incorporates all the social elements that motivate people, including: mentorship, social acceptance, social feedback, companionship, and even competition and envy. When you see a friend that is amazing at some skill or owns something extraordinary, you become driven to attain the same. This is further expressed in how we naturally draw closer to people, places, or events that we can relate to. If you see a product that reminds you of your childhood, the sense of nostalgia would likely increase the odds of you buying the product.

  Core Drive 6: Scarcity & Impatience

  Scarcity & Impatience is the Core Drive of wanting something simply because it is extremely rare, exclusive, or immediately unattainable. Many games have Appointment Dynamics or Torture Breaks within them (come back 2 hours later to get your reward) – the fact that people can’t get something right now motivates them to think about it all day long. As a result, they return to the product every chance they get. This drive was well utilized by Facebook when it launched: at first it was just for Harvard students, then it opened up to a few other prestigious schools, and eventually all colleges. When it finally opened up to everyone, many people wanted to join simply because they previously couldn’t get in.

  Core Drive 7: Unpredictability & Curiosity

  Unpredictability is the Core Drive of constantly being engaged because you don’t know what is going to happen next. When something does not fall into your regular pattern recognition cycles, your brain kicks into high gear and pays attention to the unexpected. This is obviously the primary Core Drive behind gambling addictions, but it is also present in every sweepstake or lottery program that companies run. On a lighter level, many people watch movies or read novels because of this Core Drive. The very controversial Skinner Box experiments, where an animal irrationally presses a lever frequently because of unpredictable results, are exclusively referring to the core drive of Unpredictability & Curiosity - although many have misunderstood it as the driver behind points, badges, and leaderboard mechanics in general.7

  Core Drive 8: Loss & Avoidance

  This Core Drive should come as no surprise – it’s the motivation to avoid something negative from happening. On a small scale, it could be to avoid losing previous work or changing one’s behavior. On a larger scale, it could be to avoid admitting that everything you did up to this point was useless because you are now quitting. Also, opportunities that are fading away have a strong utilization of this Core Drive, because people feel if they didn’t act immediately, they would lose the opportunity to act forever (e.g. “Special offer for a limited time only!”)

  Left Brain (Extrinsic Tendency) vs. Right Brain (Intrinsic Tendency) Drives

  I will repe
at multiple times in this book that, because everything you do is based on one or more of these 8 Core Drives, when there are none of these 8 Core Drives behind a Desired Action, there is zero motivation and no action takes place. In addition, each of these 8 Core Drives have different natures within them. Some make the user feel powerful, but do not create urgency, while others create urgency, obsession, and even addiction, but make the user feel bad. Some are more short-term extrinsically focused, while some are more long-term intrinsically focused. As a result, these 8 Core Drives are charted on an Octagon not simply for aesthetic purposes, but because the placement determines the nature of the motivation.

  Left Brain vs Right Brain Core Drives

  The Octalysis Framework is arranged so that the Core Drives that focus on creativity, self-expression, and social dynamics are organized on the right side of the octagon. In my framework, I call them Right Brain Core Drives. The Core Drives that are most commonly associated with logic, analytical thought, and ownership are graphed on the left side of the Octagon and are termed Left Brain Core Drives.