One of the things I have been asked on occasion is why I have included the Captain Up gamification platform on my blog. In my own words, I would describe it as “Short Term, Thin Layer” gamification (something I will elaborate on in a future blog). A layer of veneer that has little or no long-term engagement possibilities. The reason is because I wanted to. Simple as that. I thought that some people who read my blog may find it a bit of fun – short term or not. I have a few hidden Easter egg style rewards on there, but for the most part is a vanilla install that people can play if they like or ignore if they choose.
Using the Gamification User Types in the Real World
One of the main questions I get about my User Types, is how do you actually make use of them?
What I have provided is a simple framework to look at basic motivations of users who are using your system. However, if it was just an analytical tool, it would not be all that much use really! The main reason I developed the user types was to help you in the planning and design phase – not just with analytics and improvements!
There are two main ways to go about using the user types in the early phases of your design.
Collection of gamification thoughts from the last few weeks
Hi all.
Not a real blog as such today, just a collection of things I have been doing and saying for the past week or so!
A Video
First off, the video of my Gamification of a Career talk at Gamification World Congress has now gone up on YouTube 🙂
A Picture
I was asked on twitter how my User Types might fit with education, this picture was my first run at an answer.
Some Words
Here is a collection of some of the things I have been saying on twitter – may be of interest to some!!
- Gamification is not a technology. It is an approach to solving problems.
- Gamification can only be the answer if you fully understand the question.
- Use gamification to thank people for doing things, not to bribe them into doing them.
- If your system is broken, gamification won’t fix it. Chances are it will make it worse! Gamify to solve a specific problem.
- Remember. People play games because THEY want to. People use your gamified system because YOU want them to.
- Reward systems in gamification are not inherently bad – just badly implemented. Meaningful pats on the back can help early on in a program.
- Gamification can be used to motivate, it can also be used to manipulate – which do you think will lead to long term engagement?
- Good gamification is not about tricking people into using a system; it is about building a system people are happy to use.
- Gamification is not about understanding games, in the same way as driving is not about knowing braking distances.
- A lot of gamification is still like a monkey dressed as a ninja. It may look the part, but you wouldn’t rely on it in a fight!
An Infographic
Finally, an infographic I made that talks you through my gamification framework using lots of other ideas from my blog!
Gamification: Quests, Objectives, Goals and more
One of the great things about games is how they handle objectives. Very rarely will you play a game these days that sets out one huge objective and just leaves you to it, they all break the main objective into sub-objectives. You tend to have an overall story line or a quest. This is then broken down into levels, missions or sub-quests, these are then further broken down into objectives, goals or tasks.
One of the main reasons for this, is that it is much easier for us to manage short term goals than long term goals. This can be attributed to things like how we process data, how our memories work, how we handle decisions etc. The further away a decision is, the more abstract it is to us (according to Construal Level Theory), the closer it is the more concrete. What this means to us here is that long term goals or objectives are hard for us to focus on properly, they seem to abstract, unreal. Short term goals are closer to the now and so feel more real and more importantly attainable.
Gamification User Types 2.0
I mentioned that I was trying to simplify and improve my gamification user types. Version 2 is just that and a little more. After more research and the results of mine and others surveys on the matter, I have realised a few things. The four basic types; Achiever, Socialiser, Philanthropist and Free Spirit are all fine. They work and can be left exactly as they are. I am also happy that the extrinsic types (Consumer, Networker, Self Seeker and Exploiter) are ok, however – they have caused a lot of confusion with people. I made everything a little too black and white – it was as if people saw my intrinsic types and extrinsic types as good and evil!