Action Archives - Gamified UK - #Gamification Expert

Yesterday I posted a tweet that got a few nice retweets.

Is there a middle ground where game designers and #gamification designers can meet and create amazing things? Surely yes!

— Andrzej Marczewski (@daverage) March 24, 2014

It is no secret that I would love to get the games industry to become more involved in gamification and have spoken to many people in the industry about it. Ian Bogost refereed to my original plea as a “gentle form of terrorism” saying that it was like me saying to the games industry

If you don’t like me crapping on your shoes, then teach me how to use the toilet.

However, generally there is a feeling that there is a middle ground, but that it may be too hard to find for it to be beneficial to anyone.

This got me to thinking why? Then it hit me, it is all in the purpose of design. I know this should have been obvious, but I can be slow at times.

As well as designing gamified concepts, I also dabble in game design. My wildly popular game Cops ‘n’ Robbers was a huge hit in my living room in the early part of 2000. I have made little games that some of you have played here and am in the process of creating a card game with the help of my 7 year old daughter. With this in mind, I have a pretty good vision of both design processes and they are pretty different in parts.

Game Design.

When creating a game, you tend to start with a basic idea. It may just be a theme you wish to explore, it could be an interesting mechanic you want to flesh out into a full game or you could have the whole game in your head start to finish. However the idea starts life, you pursue it because you think it will be enjoyable for you or others to play.

You then start to put the idea together into something coherent. You prototype the basic mechanics and game-play elements.

Next you experiment with how they fit together, why dynamics appear out of what combinations. You work out the themes and the story. Basically you put the meat on the bones of game, then the polish.

Along the way, depending on how you want to manage the game, you will consider collecting metrics from the game. This may be part of a continual improvement plan, it may be part of a monetisation plan.

Eventually after play testing and multiple iterations you have a final game ready for the mass population to play.

You measure the success by how much people enjoy the game. Depending on the scale of the game, you will also have to measure sales.

Gamification Design.

When creating a gamified system, you start with an objective. This may be employee engagement, it may be increasing sales of a product. However, the goal is to meet that objective.

Next, depending on how you feel you can best meet that objective, you start to design your system. First and foremost in many systems will be the metrics you need to collect. The metrics are what will allow you to know if you are on target to meet the objective or not.

You consider what gamification elements and mechanics will best help you achieve the goal and start to put them into your system.

You will probably take into account how different user types react to different elements and experiment with them on test groups of users. Using the metrics you are collecting you will balance the system to drive the best and most efficient results you can.

After multiple iterations you release the product.

You measure success by how many people reach your original objective.

At least this is how all game designers think we do things – sadly in many cases, they are right.

Divergence

It looks from this like there is no middle ground at all. Game design starts from the desire to make something that people will enjoy. In Gamification design, you are making something that will achieve a particular goal.

In game design, metrics are not always a main focus of a game – at least at the initial conception. In gamification design, metrics are what your system will live and die for.

In game design you use mechanics, themes and more to help to make the game more enjoyable. In gamification design you add things that will help drive the user towards your business objective.

However, I still feel that there is a commonality. Whilst it seems the goals are mutually exclusive, they may not be in reality. Game design does have an objective – the objective is to create a game that is enjoyable, even if it is only you who finds it so. So everything you do is driven by this goal. You add and remove ideas as you find they work or don’t work.

Gamification design is no different. The goal may not be “fun”, but it is to make something less difficult or tedious to do. Gamification is often about lowering a barrier to achievement in some way.

Working together, we could re-align parts of the journey. Yes, the reason for creating a gamified system will always be different to creating a game as will the general process. However, there is no reason we can’t meet in the middle and maybe push mechanics and gameplay design a little higher in the minds of gamifiers.

Sticking Plasters

Of course I have to start with thin layer gamification. I’ve said it many times, you can’t polish a turd. If you stick a thin layer of gamification on a broken system, it will have no long term effect. If your expenses system is so hard to use that people are often late, or don’t bother using it – consider why before you consider gamification. Is it because you need 40 video tutorials to understand how it works? If that is the case, the system probably needs to be simplified. If that is not possible, how about gamifiying the tutorials, so at least people watch them and know how to use the system!

Bad Game, Bad Game

Another big reason gamification doesn’t work, no matter how well thought out the technicalities of it are, is that it just isn’t engaging. I’m not a rocket scientist. I can read up on the subject and understand the principles, but at the end of the day, I’m not going to try and build a space rocket in my back garden. That being the case, why are so many non game designers trying to build games? Often the things being built that in the designers own words are “meant to be fun”, just aren’t It is hard to make a good game, it is also hard to take game elements and make an engaging experience.

No Rules

Sometimes it can all go wrong because you don’t set the boundaries clearly enough. If there is a way to cheat in a system, someone will find it. You either have to include that “emergent” game play into your system – or you have to make sure that it is not possible. Clearly define the rules up front and if possible enforce them automatically so that there can be no question in peoples mind of what the rules are!

The Wrong Type of Gamification

If you design a system that really encourages a structured learning process, where people have to achieve certain levels of expertise before moving on, then achievers will love it (using my user types), but other users such as free spirits and philanthropists will be far less interested. You have to cover more bases than that, unless you are trying to get only one type of user to use the system. If it is a learning system, allow the philanthropists to answer peoples questions, give the socialisers a way to communicate. Let the free spirits create their own modules and explore the content in their own way. Finally, let the players (remembering that players are a group of users in their own right in my user types) earn points and badges.

The Wrong Type of User

The final one I want to look at is the actual user. You may have a wonderful system that is designed to cover every user type there is. You may have perfectly balanced your user journey and your reward systems with intrinsic motivation. So why is it not working? Possibly because you are trying to gamify someone who just isn’t interested? You have to consider the people involved. Are they disengaged because there is a bit of their role that is not very interesting. For instance, do they not bother to enter sales calls, even though the system is easy to use? Then maybe you can gamify that. However, what if there is a person who just isn’t into sales. What if they are the wrong person in the wrong job? Gamification is never going to engage them in a role they just plain don’t like. It could actually make it worse. But, game thinking still has the answer. Allow them to evolve beyond their current role. A boss rules people, a leader encourages and nurtures them. They are not afraid to help people achieve everything they can. Gamification may not be the way, but a simple understanding of what makes people tick can.

Contrary to popular belief, gamification and game thinking is not bullshit. Sadly, many of the implementations we have seen and some of the people who are talking about it, do have the faint odour of manure about them.

Gamification is not always the answer. Sometimes it is much easier than that. Look really hard at why you want to gamify something in the first place. You may be able to solve your engagement problem far more quickly and cost effectively if you just improve the foundations of what you are building first. You have to have good foundations and a solid structure before you start painting the walls.