Context Archives - Gamified UK - #Gamification Expert

People often say that “Content is King”. I have always maintained that whilst that is true, “Context is Queen”, and we all know who really wears the pants in a relationship!

When you create gamified solutions there is often a risk and even a desire to throw the kitchen sink at the design, deciding on the mechanics you want to include well before you have any idea of what the project will actually require!

Included in this risk is the desire to create things that have no relevance at all to the project, but look pretty! One of the biggest perpetrators of this crime is the “mini game”. Many gamification designers are, at their heart, game designers in some form or another. Our enthusiasm for games can sometimes spill over into the creation of meaningless games that do nothing to address the overall needs of the solution.

Sometimes there is a contrived attempt to shoehorn learning into the game, to make it fit, but often this is half hearted and does not really consider the reasons for its existence in the first place!

This is where contextual relevance becomes important.

You have had a great idea for a mini game booster and have spent hours creating it, stop and think “Does this fit the context of the solution and is it relevant?”

There is nothing wrong with creating a little mini game, but it has to fit the theme of the solution. It has to make sense and have relevance at the point the player gains access to it. If your theme is getting a rocket to the moon, how does a corporate logo based Candy Crush clone fit in? What does it achieve? It is fine if it is there just as a little distraction, but be honest about that – don’t then try and shove a quiz question in there when ever you lose a life. It is either there for nothing but fun, or it has a serious purpose – not both!

If you want to create a serious game, to boost learning, then make it properly. Don’t just have a game idea and throw learning content on top – it has to be integrated properly!

I have played many serious games over the last few years and the worst ones are always the ones where the learning feels as though it has been a secondary requirement (yes they are worse than the ones that are just badly made games in my mind!).

By all means, make games, I do and it is one of the best bits of my job. But, make sure they fit in and have a reason to exist, don’t just create them to try and show people that you can – it isn’t a competition!

Gamification Design Lenses

To help you with your designs and to get you all thinking from different perspectives, I have just released a new set of lens cards to help out. Take a look on slideshare – https://www.slideshare.net/daverage/gamification-design-lenses

Gamification Design Lenses from Andrzej Marczewski

Gamification often takes and claims inspiration from game design. One of my side hobbies is making the occasional game, as well as spending the last seven years reviewing games for my site yars.co.uk. I thought I would just put a few gamification ideas into context based around my personal knowledge of games and game design. I am y no means an expert, but I hope you will find it interesting.

Tl;TR?

First up, points. I have made games with point systems and I have made games without. Generally I use the points as a way to represent progression and skill – ie, the higher the score, the further your skills have progressed. This is intrinsic on its own, it is a way for the individual player to see how they are doing and if they are improving. This only works if the points reset each time, that way the player can easily see that if they score higher next time – they have improved. Cumulative points don’t allow you to do this, they just show how many points you have collected over time, which is a little less useful. You could consider a personal leaderboard, that just shows the player their scores over time for an exercise- thus easily showing them their improvement.

Save Them 5 tips for good Gamification I learned from designing games — Save Them

As well as this, I have combined points with group leaderboards to allow people to show off their score and compete with others to gain higher scores. For some this competition is fun and is a way to compare their skills to those of others.

Robbers 1024x580 5 tips for good Gamification I learned from designing games — Robbers

The key learning from the use of points and leaderboards has been that they are not the reason people play the games. They play because the games are enjoyable – fun if you will. They offer challenge, require skill and keep the player informed of progression. Without the points, they would achieve some of this, but many players would suggest to find a continued reason to play if there was no way to measure their progress!

The other type of game I have played around with is based purely on narrative. These were games with a purpose, they were intended to make some kind of point. The picture below is from a game called Context. It asked you to make decisions with carrying degrees of context, giving you more of the story as you made each choice. No points, no leaderboards, however every choice had an outcome that had some meaning.

Context 5 tips for good Gamification I learned from designing games — The Context Game

My current project is a simple card game that I am designing with and for my 7 year old daughter. The development of this has taken time, with me creating complex and what I thought was interesting mechanics and rules initially. Over time, these have been cut away to a few simple core mechanics that allow the game to be picked up quickly by my daughter, but takes time to actually learn the tactics for. I suppose this advice would be keep it simple to pick up, but ensure there is depth as well.

Magical Kingdom Cards 1024x580 5 tips for good Gamification I learned from designing games — Magical Kingdom Cards

Lessons learned

Keep the player informed of their progress. Points (non cumulative and cumulative) can be used to do this.
Group leaderboards are a way to generate competition between players as well as give players a chance to see how their skills match up to others. This is fun for some, but not for everyone.
Giving players choices that have a meaningful outcome is a powerful way to keep a player engaged without points.
The same can be said of a good narrative.
Keep onboarding simple, but ensure as skill increases there is depth and challenge to the “game” to keep better players engaged.

Contextual Relevance in Gamification

Gamification Design Lenses

5 tips for good Gamification I learned from designing games.

Lessons learned