engagement

Engagement – What are we talking about?

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10309649 10153344097952619 1236186563670714891 n Engagement 8211 What are we talking about

Engagement. A word that is thrown about in gamification with all the abandon of a child dancing and singing to Frozen…

The thing is, what exactly are we talking about? What is engagement.

As ever, I took to the dictionaries to see what the word on the street is. Looking up engagement is a fruitless task as you get such gems as

A formal agreement to get married

And

The action of engaging or being engaged

However, looking up engage is a far more satisfying experience.

[with object] Occupy or attract (someone’s interest or attention) Read More ...

Thin Layer vs Deep Level Gamification

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With it nearly being Christmas, I thought I would put out one more blog post before the traditional years round up!

This time I want to look at a concept I have been talking about for a while, but have never really explained properly. Thin Layer and Deep Level gamification.

Thin Layer Gamification

This covers things that are added to the “top” of a system. Points, badges, game like interface components. This type is less about engagement as it is about entertainment, but has its place as I explained last week. Read More ...

Teams and Competitive play.

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Last week there was no post from me. The reason was that I was working on rebuilding my games review site (www.yetanotherreviewsite.co.uk). Take a look, you may like it!!

Anyway, it got me thinking, as I looked over the games we have reviewed over the years. What do people like playing? Obviously the answer is – All sorts! However, it made me consider the nature of competition in games and especially gamificaiton.

The general rule of thumb is competition between people is bad mojo for gamification. It leads to bad feeling, lack of engagement, people at the bottom of leaderboards feeling less important than those at the top etc.  However, we keep using it – even though we know all of this! Often this is because we know that it will cater to at least some of the people (for instance I am using Captain Up leaderboards etc for gamifying this site).  I know it won’t appeal to everyone, but with luck it will amuse some. Read More ...

Game Mechanics in Gamification

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This is a long post for me, so get a cup of tea now!

One of the main things that I have found whilst research and writing about Gamification, is that the terms and the language we use don’t always seem to fit what were actually doing. As gamification matures, so to should the language that we use to discuss it. One term that seems to get particularly abused, which we have borrowed from game design, is Game Mechanics. This all came from various discussions I had been having with people in the games industry.  All of them told me that they felt that most people in gamification are getting this (and more) wrong. Read More ...

Feedback and Drivers in Gamification

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I spoke about rewards and reward schedules a couple of weeks ago, now I want to look at feedback.  If I am honest, this will repeat ideas I have mentioned before, but is should give a little more meat and context.

Feedback comes in many forms, not all of them as obvious as we may think. It is also vital to any gamified system that feedback exists. It helps user keep track of how they are progressing, how they are “doing” within the system.  One of the complaints about the “real” world is that feedback is often very slow. End of year reviews, report cards, midterm exams.  In the game world, we are used to constant and instant feedback.  Collect something and you are notified immediate.  Complete a level and you are told, gain experience and you are notified.  All of this happens straight away, no waiting around months and months to understand how you have done.  In call of duty, you don’t have to wait until the end of the month to find out how you have performed in the last 20 matches.  You are told constantly during the match and they you are given a summary of achievements at the end. Read More ...

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