Gamification

Making a Free To Play (F2P) Strategy That Doesn’t Suck

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Money 1473160882 Making a Free To Play F2P Strategy That Doesn 8217 t Suck

As a parent, Free To Play (F2P) games are the joy and bane of my life in equal measure. Kids these days seem to be near impossible to entertain for any length of time. This being the case, video games are like comics were in my day – plentiful and cheap, especially on mobile platforms. Unlike comics, many games now present themselves as free.

Free is a tough term, though, like anyone games developers need to make money. So games that seem to be free on the App Store, tend to be Free to Play. The concept of F2P is that the game can be played for free, but you can pay for certain features. Read More ...

Fun and Gamification?

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Often when people talk about gamification, they speak about adding fun to everyday work related tasks. The whole Mary Poppins “A Spoonful of Sugar” analogy pops up regularly.  Anyone who has stuck with this blog for a while will know exactly how I feel about her…

The trouble with fun is how you define it. The Oxford dictionary (thanks Google), goes with

Enjoyment, amusement, or light-hearted pleasure: the children were having fun in the play area

Now, I’ve said this before, but it is worth saying again – fun is subjective. What you find fun, I may not. Consider the following event. Read More ...

What Can My Shaving Routine Teach Us About Gamification?

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Yeah I know, a bizarre title for a blog. Anyone who follows me on twitter will know that I am a bit obsessed with finding a decent shave. I have always hated shaving with a passion. My skin always comes out in a rash, it is time-consuming and just a ball ache.

I have tried most types of the modern razor, from single blade Bic disposables to Mach 3 to Fusion. Every time a new razor came out with more blades and promises of the “closest shave since out last product”, I have bought it.

Then I decided to grow a bit of a beard, but also decided to keep it trimmed around the neckline. This was when I decided that a razor with a massive number of blades was impractical, it was impossible to get a decent line, so I decided to go old school and get an old fashioned double-edged “safety razor”. After an initial cost, the blades are infinitely cheaper to buy than the cartridge type, which is a bonus. Read More ...

Three Rules for Meaningful Rewards in Gamification

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Rewards can be very powerful, which is why I have spoken about them so many times! I already wrote about the three keys of rewards (Relevant, In-Time and Meaningful). However, I wanted to just blast out a quick post on the meaningful bit of that! 1 and 2 are essential, 3 is a very big nice to have!

They have to …

  1. be earned
  2. have intrinsic value
  3. have extrinsic value

Feeling that you have earned a reward is much more satisfying than just being given the “I pushed a button” reward.

If the reward has some level of personal value to the user, like it represents the end of a tough journey to mastery, then it will feel much more meaningful. Read More ...

Target Gamification – My Top 9 Gamification Elements

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There are some questions I am asked more than others. Today I want to give a slightly longer answer to one of them than usual! The question? “What is your favourite gamification element?”

My usual answer fluctuates between feedback (which covers anything from verbal to full online economies) or progress, which I have written about in the past. Recently though I realised that this was just not enough of an answer anymore.

The truth is, I have no one favourite element, every solution requires something a little bit different. However, there is a sort of process that I go through when designing a solution or strategy. It starts with my core or target (see – it ties in with the title!!). Then I have a few things that help to support that core, then finally something that embraces it all. Let’s start with an image. Read More ...

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