Gamification

Designing a simple “Thin Layer” gamified system.

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Cropped gamification Designing a simple 8220 Thin Layer 8221 gamified system

I thought this week, after 2 years of avoiding it, I would write a short starter for actually creating a gamified system.  This will cover the basics of what I call a Thin Layer system – also known as PBL (Points, Badges and Leaderboards) system.

Now, before you all shout at me for explaining how to do a system that I can often be heard saying is not the best type of gamification, consider this. Thin Layer is the most common type of system out there and it is the easiest to start with. It can also be very effective over short periods of time, for things like short campaigns, education and on boarding into deeper systems. The point is (as Kris Duggan from Badgeville once pointed out to me), sometimes, something is better than nothing, as long as it is well designed and created for a purpose. My view is, of you are going to try – you should at least be armed with the right information to make the best go of it possible. Read More ...

Game Thinking – Breaking it Down

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Game Thinking 4 Game Thinking 8211 Breaking it Down

Ever since I first started considering Game Thinking, I have been trying to come up with a way to break down all of the parts that make it up. The first attempt was my article about the differences between serious games and gamification. This gave me a basic outline of the 4 areas I considered to make up Game Thinking.

Since then, I have been thinking about this a lot. I have been trying to break it down even further. The next step was my article on the term serious games. This broke serious games up into 4 basic types. Teaching Games, Simulations,  Meaningful games and Purposeful games. Read More ...

A Formulaic Approach to Loyalty – the 4 Keys

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3 steps A Formulaic Approach to Loyalty 8211 the 4 Keys

Still looking at loyalty this week, I wanted to see if we can create a more formulaic approach to it. Now, huge caveat – there is no proof or evidence to support this in anyway, but it makes sense to me, so I thought I would share it!!

There are three basic states of Engagement and Loyalty. Not Engaged, Engaged and Loyal.

If you are running a shop, these three phases would play out as;

  • Won’t shop with you for reason XY or Z.
  • Will shop with you because of reason XY or z.
  • Will shop with you under any circumstance.

The question is, how do you convince people to shop with you and then how do you convince them to be loyal to you? Read More ...

What is a game or Why There is a Time and a Place for Philosophical Debates.

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Rules rule What is a game or Why There is a Time and a Place for Philosophical Debates

After my last item about serious games (Too Broad a Term to be Meaningful), one topic of debate came up. How can we determine if the term Serious Games is too broad, if we don’t really understand what games are?

I have looked into this question before and it has to be said, at an academic and philosophical level – it is muddy as hell. Generally it is accepted that a game is structure play (where play is free from form and rules). Here are a few definitions (taken mostly from Wikipedia).

Philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein is often cited as discussing games in great detail in his book “Philosophical Investigations” in 1953. The simplest quote i can find about his view (that may well be paraphrased!) was Read More ...

Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation

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20130212 081506 Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation

One of the most tedious arguments in gamification is that of Intrinsic Motivation vs. Extrinsic Motivation . Not only is it tedious, it is also one of the most written about topics on the web relating to gamification and is one of the main reasons people cite when they tell you why they think gamification is rubbish. They feel that all gamifiers rely too much on extrinsic motivators.

I have tackled this in various forms of the last 2 years, but not directly written an article mentioning those two words in the title.  As such, I am often accused of not understanding the whole argument because I sometimes say that extrinsic rewards don’t always suck.  So, here we go, oh and do a search for better articles after you read this one! Read More ...