Machinations Model of a Basic Points and Badges System

Machinations of Gamification

Machinations is a fantastic game mechanics modelling tool by Joris Dorman – http://www.jorisdormans.nl/machinations/

It allows you to build an interactive model of the basic structure of many types of game and recently has been getting some attention in the world of gamification. I decided to have a quick play and just build a simple Points and Badges system. Click run, then press the Like, Share or Comment buttons to gain XP, unlock badges and increase your level. If nothing else, this will show you why this type of gamification / pointsification in isolation is so boring!

A dangerous demo!

Now for an example of a system that is likely to build every bad behaviour you don’t want in a system. The idea is that as well as the XP and badges, XP converts to real money. With this real money you can either buy goods OR gamble. For $100 you have a 20% chance of winning $300.

This will not lead to good behaviours. People who want to get the goods will just keep doing low quality actions to get more money!

Slot Machine

And just for fun, a simple slot machine. Insert a coin and you a chance of getting between 0 and 10 coins back. As the bank fills up, the chance of winning goes up, as it empties the chance goes down.

Finally, a resource management / strategy sort of game I’m working on modelling 🙂

Click here Open the sim (to big for on the on the page!)

A new addition!

Mikel Calvo automated the first example to see how many days it would take someone to “finish” the game (reach level 300). The average turns out to be around 8 days! Click run and try it out for your self 🙂

 

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