Actionable Gamification: Beyond Points, Badges, and Leaderboards

by Yu-kai Chou

For those who are unfamiliar with these terms, Wikipedia defines serious games as, “a game designed for a primary purpose other than pure entertainment.” In other words, games that are generally built for a productive purpose, such as training, education, healthcare, and the like (Hence, the term “serious”).14.

BusinessDictionary.com defines advergames as, “A video game which in some way contains an advertisement for a product, service, or company.”15 These are games that basically act as interactive advertisement campaigns which draw potential customers onto a website or into a business. When I refer to “shoot-the-duck banner ads” as early and embarrassing forms of marketing gamification, those banner ads are technically classified as Advergames.

I have preferred the term “Human-Focused Design” (as opposed to Function-Focused Design), which is a design process that remembers the human motivations within the system.

Then there are the more “corporate-appealing” terms like Motivational Design, Behavioral Economics, or Loyalty Programs, which have many blends and overlaps with the vague term “gamification.”

“Lets make everything better with the lessons we’ve learned through so many hours of game-play in our lives”?

And for the record, a tomato is biologically classified as a fruit, but is culinarily treated as a vegetable. It probably matters more to the expert horticulturist than to people who just care about preparing and eating a healthy and delicious meal.

Moving away from what is and isn’t gamification, I think it is more productive to differentiate types of gamification into two ways based on how they are executed and how different types of players respond to them. The two types of gamification implementations in my own work are “Implicit Gamification” and “Explicit Gamification.”

Explicit Gamification involves strategies that utilize applications that are obviously game-like. Users acknowledge they are playing a game, and generally need to opt into playing. An example would be Dikembe Mutombo’s 4 ½ weeks to Save the World19. This is an interesting and quirky “Advergame” launched by Old Spice,

This is a clear example of not only applying game design techniques into marketing, but using a game itself to do the marketing.

AutoDesk’s Undiscovered Territory22, a game created for selling their very expensive 3D imaging software. There are also explicit gamification examples such as Repair the Rockaways23, which is a game similar to Farmville, but the number of bricks that are available is determined by how much is donated to support Hurricane Sandy repairs.

implementing great explicit gamification usually requires more resources in order to create a high quality game.

Implicit Gamification is a form of design that subtly employs gamification techniques and the 8 Core Drives of Octalysis into the user experience. Implicit Gamification techniques are filled with game design elements

LinkedIn Progress Bar24, the intrinsic motivation that drives Wikipedia

competitive bidding and feedback system via eBay

The Progress Bar just gently builds a Win-State for the user to see and motivates them to get closer and closer towards the goal. Of course, many of the points, badges, leaderboards, and levels are seen commonly in implicit gamification.

Some want to have that adrenaline rush when purchasing, while others want to expand their creativity and master a learning curve. Of course, all 8 Core Drives can be implemented into Implicit and Explicit Gamification campaigns, which we will explore in the following chapters.

Gamification requires sophisticated design to actually be effective and create a long lasting relationship between the player and the game maker.

I consistently see innovating time and time again, indicating a tremendous amount of application and growth in these sectors: Product Gamification Workplace Gamification Marketing Gamification Lifestyle Gamification

Product Gamification

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In a previous era, consumers didn’t have adequate information and were accustomed to slow gratification.

However, people today are spoiled with instant gratification through the Internet, with immersive empowerment and real-time feedback through games, and the constant connection to their social network.

“Yes, you are telling me all the things your users can do. But you have not explained to me why the user would do it.”

It saves me money, it saves me time, and it makes my life better. I’ll definitely sign-up sometime tomorrow.”

When people say they will do it “tomorrow,” more often than not it means “never.” This is because at this point they are motivated by Core Drive 8: Loss & Avoidance, and specifically by something I call Status Quo Sloth (Game Technique #85) – they are avoiding a change in their habits and behavior.

No one has to play a game. You have to do your taxes; you have to go to work; and you really should go to the gym. But you never have to play a game, and let’s be honest, oftentimes you shouldn’t.

Workplace Gamification is the craft of creating environments and systems that inspire and motivate employees towards their work.

earn a paycheck (Core Drive 4: Ownership & Possession) and to not lose their jobs (Core Drive 8: Loss & Avoidance).

In fact, Gallup’s 142-country study shows that only 13% of employees are categorized as “engaged” with their work29. In comparison, 24% of the workforce is categorized as “Actively Disengaged,”

That is something pretty scary to think about. It means that, chances are, a quarter of your company is poisonous! How can any organism be competitive at anything if 24% of its body is composed of cancer cells?

It is bad environmental and cultural design that turns good employees into toxic cells.

characters in the movie (a good example of the “relatedness” piece within Core Drive 5 at work).

Because research has shown that on average, the companies with disengaged and unmotivated employees only obtain 50% of profits and only 40% of revenue growth when compared to companies with engaged and motivated employees.33

you could double your profits and improve your revenue growth by 250% without opening new markets and without introducing new breakthrough technologies but by simply making your workplace more engaging and motivating, would you do it? Most people would say yes. But from my own personal experience, there will still be people who...

Workplace Gamification is critical for today’s economy and the future o...

avoid the devastation of having a surplus in labor but a shortage in talent.

Marketing Gamification is the art of creating holistic marketing campaigns that engage users in fun and unique experience designed for a product, service, platform, or brand.

This works because 1) you can target the right people who are searching for your exact solution, and 2) you can target them at the right time they are searching.

However, SEO and SEM still lack the trust component in online marketing.

Enter Social Media Marketing. Through platforms like blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube, brands are able to build relationships with potential customers, create unique value, and establish trust that leads to future engagement.

Marketing Gamification specifically utilizes game elements and strategies throughout a player’s journey by first focusing on why a user would engage with you in the first place.

Lifestyle Gamification involves applying gamification principles and the 8 Core Drives into daily habits and activities, such as managing your to-do list, exercising more often, waking up on time, eating healthier, or learning a new language.

There are also many technological enablers that make Lifestyle Gamification more popular, including big buzzword trends such as Big Data, Wearable Tech, Quantified Self, and The Internet of Things34. The interesting thing about all these trends is that it enables all your activity to be tracked allowing you the ability to manage your Feedback Mechanics and Triggers.

The trend with wearable tech and quantified self finally allows us to track more of our own behavior on a daily basis. Of course, even companies that claim they wield the power of Big Data don’t yet compare to the level of customization that gamers take for granted.

Lifestyle Gamification branches into a few sectors such as Career Gamification, Health Gamification, Productivity Gamification, and Education Gamification.

tactical activities such as using a dice to determine how you should reward yourself (which is derived from Core Drive 7: Unpredictability & Curiosity).

Since Lifestyle Gamification fundamentally changed my life, I am extremely passionate about how it can help people achieve their dreams through 1. Finding their game, 2. Analyzing their initial stats 3. Formulating their skill trees, 4. Connecting with allies, 5. Finding the right quests, and 6. Beating the game. Since this is a huge topic that warrants its own book, I won’t be spending time in this book covering the topic in detail.

focus on motivation by thinking through the 8 Core Drives instead of focusing on features and functionalities. Of course to do that, you need to be familiar with the 8 Core Drives to wield them correctly, otherwise you may even end up hurting user motivation.

Epic Meaning & Calling is the First Core Drive of Octalysis Gamification. This is the drive where people are motivated because they believe they are engaged in something bigger than themselves.

Have you ever wondered why people contribute to the non-profit website Wikipedia? What would make someone spend hours updating a site that doesn’t pay her or even help her build her resume?

Why are people so loyal to Apple products, to the extent that they know they want to buy the next product, even before they know what it is?