Gaming

The Challenge, Feedback, Reward Cycle

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Challenge feedback reward cycle 2 The Challenge Feedback Reward Cycle

As I read more and more about what makes a game a game, it becomes more and more clear where things with gamification can and do go wrong. I am not trying to say that gamification and games are the same thing, they are not, but they do share similar qualities.

At their core, games share many common traits

  • Challenge
  • Learning
  • Pattern Recognition
  • Feedback
  • A safe environment to fail
  • Sense of reward

The Challenge, Feedback, Reward Cycle

The diagram below tries to capture this in a cycle (because I like pictures). For the sake of continuity, I am referring to the “Safe environment to fail” as the Magic Circle.

This is a gross over simplification of games and the systems that make them “fun”, but it will do for our purposes to illustrate some of the issues we may face in gamification! Read More ...

Easter Eggs and Gamification

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Now, before you get excited – this is nothing to do with chocolate!

Easter eggs in this case refer to hidden surprises and extras (just like an Easter egg hunt when you were a kid). They are aimed at people who like to explore (Free Spirits) as they reward people for just looking around and digging a little deeper than some others.

In games (and actually even in serious software like Office), Easter eggs have been around for a really long time.

An Easter Egg doesn’t have to be hard to get too, Disney’s Aladdin had a lovely nod to Mickey Mouse for the more eagle eyed amongst its players. Read More ...

4 part SAMR Model to Analyse Gamification

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I love coming up with new models and frameworks, I find them really handy and hope that when I share them that others do as well. However, I am also a great believer in not reinventing the wheel!

Recently I happened to see a comment from one of my favourite people on Twitter, Alice Keeler, that mentioned something called the SAMR model. Now, knowing that Alice is an awesome thought leader in the education space, I knew this was probably a model I wanted to look up – and I was right.

What is SAMR?

SAMR stands for Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, Redefinition. It is a model that is used in education to analyse and validate the potential of new technology in the classroom.  They idea is that you put the new technology in question, into one of these four categories. Read More ...

Game Mechanics in Gamification – Revisited

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Many moons ago I wrote about a massive misunderstanding in gamification around game mechanics and what they actually are. There were several lists around that said they were key game mechanics, which turned out to be very little to do with actual mechanics. Fast forward almost 2 years and, well it is getting better, but there is still a lot of people getting it confused. That is easily done as even in game design circles there is an argument over what they truly are, but there is a general high level agreement at least. As I summarised in my post: Read More ...

1 element that makes Godus sticky, but suck as a game

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In this article I am discussing the iOS version of Godus

I love god games, games where you get to influence the development of a world. Sim City, Civilisation and of course Populous we all favourites as I grew up.

Now the original designer of Populous, Peter Moleneux, has given us a new vision of god games in the form of Godus. The story behind the development and the campaigns run to get it started are almost a “how to” of gamification really.

It started in around 2012 with the release of the iOS “game” Curiosity. This had people clicking on squares on a 3D cube to clear layers. All people were told was that the person who cleared the very last square would win a prize of a lifetime! Clearing cubes gave you coins. Coins could be used to buy better tools to clear squares more efficiently. There was also a series of in app purchases (IAPs) that allowed you to get access to these for real money. A few months later a chap called Bryan Hednerson opened the cube and discovered he would not only get a revenue share of a new game called Godus, but he would also be the main god of the game. Read More ...

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