Gamification is about figuring out what makes games - especially video  games - so engaging, then applying those principles to work, education, etc.

Intro to Gamification

5 Keys to Gamification

Core Principles

  • Easy to learn, hard to master
  • Game-play develops a skill
  • Game mechanics "light the way" to mastery
  • As players progress, so do challenge and complexity
  • Embrace intrinsic motivators like power, autonomy & belonging

Game Design Thinking

Dynamics - patterns over time; reinforcement schedule; variable reward schedule most addictive; think slot machines.
Mechanics - points, badges, leaderboards, missions, etc.; mechanics light the way to mastery and provide clear goals & feedback
Aesthetics - obvious 

5 Keys

  1. Know your players' social styles
  2. Design for the three life-cycle stages
  3. Put PERMA into your engagement loops
  4. Light the way to mastery with "Progress Mechanics"
  5. (...)

Jesse Schell

7 Principles of Gamification

  1. Experience bars measuring progress
  2. Multiple short & long-term aims
  3. Reward all effort
  4. Rapid, clear feedback
  5. Uncertainty (probabilities of reward)
  6. (Unclear) 
  7. Collaboration / social recognition

Player Types

Novice - needs a good on-boarding experience
Regular - needs fresh challenges to keep them immersed
Enthusiast - needs exclusivity, recognition, to create impact

Flow

Being "in the zone", studied and defined by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. To be in Flow is to be:
  • intensely focused
  • on an activity of your own choosing
  • which is neither too difficult nor to easy
  • which has a clear objective
  • and provides immediate feedback.

Purpose, Autonomy, Mastery (ir)

"Nothing lights up the brain like play."

"The opposite of play is not work, it's depression."