As we usher in a New Year, I wanted to make a few New Year wishes for gamification in 2018.
The industry finally matures and stops acting like a petulant teenager!
As we head to the holidays I wanted to revisit an old “model” and just clarify a couple of items that have cropped up in conversation over the years. The item in question is RAMP. This, as you may remember, is my core intrinsic motivation model of Relatedness, Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose. Obviously, based on Self Determination Theory, this has been a really handy tool in all of my gamification exploits over the years.
The basic idea is these are 4 motivations that are core to all people in some way. In self-determination theory, Deci and Ryan only speak about Relatedness, Autonomy and Competence (Mastery), as altruistic purpose is part relatedness. Whilst true, for gamification it is useful to separate this out into its own.
Before we get onto Underjustification effect, let’s talk about its inspiration. Many of you will know about The Overjustification effect, first described by Daryl Bem in his work on Self-Perception theory in 1967[1].
Put simply it is the decrease of intrinsic motivation to perform a task or tasks when an extrinsic reward is introduced, and the reward becomes more important than the original task. So, for instance, if you love painting and then start to get paid for it, the money can start to become more important than the love of painting. Once the money is removed, you may be reluctant to go back to it for free, your intrinsic motivation to paint has been undermined by the extrinsic rewards. There is plenty of research out there to back this up!
Ok, so it isn’t quite 2018, but near enough!
I wanted to present a new graphic for my Layers of Motivation (Found here), with a little bit of explanation about one aspect!
For those that don’t know, this was created as a way to explain where purely extrinsic and trivial methods of motivating people, such as points badges and leaderboards, sat within general motivation.
Based on good old Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Self Determination Theory, my own RAMP and gamification mechanics.
The key learning is that to engage and motivate users, you need to understand what their needs are. If they are starving, offering them digital badges won’t really hold any motivational drive for them! If they are generally satisfied in their day today base needs but are unhappy in their role because they lack autonomy, adding a leaderboard to their day job will not help!
If you had not noticed, loot crates have been making some waves in the gaming world of late. Bonus containers awarded at the end of a game, these boxes deliver mystery rewards to the player when they finish. Most games use them to give the player “vanity” items, such as new clothes or gestures, but some use them in less welcome ways.
Recently EA and DICE drew serious hear from gamers when it transpired that all progression in Battlefront 2, the latest Star Wars blockbuster game, was managed through loot crates. At the end of each game, the player would “randomly” be rewarded with items and scrap in a loot crate. Scrap could be used to purchase new upgrades, whilst other items and heroes are bought with the in-game credit currency. This currency is awarded to the player through hours of play and through loot crates. A third type of currency can be purchased directly with cash, which can then be converted to loot crates. Get that? Basically, you can hope that luck brings you new items, time brings you more money or you can just buy stuff with real money.
