Sary's notes on Actionable Gamification

Ch.1: Coonradt addressed the question, "Why would people pay for the privilege of working harder at their chosen sport or recreational pursuit than they would work at a job where they were being paid?" He then boiled it down to five conclusions that led to hobbies being more preferable to work. • Clearly defined goals • Better score-keeping and scorecards • More frequent feedback • A higher degree of personal choice of methods • Consistent coaching

Ch.2: So let us look at how a good game designer might tackle the problem. Instead of starting with what game elements and game mechanics to use, the good game designer may begin by thinking, "Okay, how do I want my users to feel? Do I want them to feel inspired? Do I want them to feel proud? Should they be scared? Anxious? What's my goal for their intended experience?

Ch.3: Development & Accomplishment is our internal drive for making progress, developing skills, achieving mastery, and eventually over. coming challenges. The word "challenge" here is very important, as a badge or trophy without a challenge is not meaningful at all.

Ch.3: Empowerment of Creativity & Feedback is expressed when users are engaged in a creative process where they repeatedly figure new things out and try different combinations. People not only need ways to express their creativity, but they need to see the results of their creativity, receive feedback, and adjust in turn.

Ch.3: Social Influence & Relatedness incorporates all the social elements that motivate people, including: mentorship, social acceptance, social feedback, companionship, and even competition and envy. If you see a product that reminds you of your childhood, the sense of nostalgia would likely increase the odds of you buying the product.

Ch.3: Scarcity & Impatience is the Core Drive of wanting something simply because it is extremely rare, exclusive, or immediately unattainable. Many games have Appointment Dynamics or Torture Breaks within them (come back 2 hours later to get your reward) Facebook Harvard launch made everyone waiting for access to it.

Ch.3: Unpredictability is the Core Drive of constantly being engaged because you don't know what is going to happen next. When something does not fall into your regular pattern recognition cycles, your brain kicks into high gear and pays attention to the unexpected.

This Core Drive “loss and avoidance” is the motivation to avold something negative from happening. On a small scale, it could be to avoid losing previous work or changing one's behavior. On a larger scale, it could be to avoid admitting that everything you did up to this point was useless because you are now quitting. Example: Special offer for a limited time only!

Ch.3: Left Brain Core Drives (Accomplishment, Ownership, and Scarcity) tend to rely on Extrinsic Motivation - you are motivated because you want to obtain something, whether it be a goal, a good, or anything you cannot obtain. On the other hand, Right Brain Core Drives (Empowerment, Social, and Unpredictability) are mostly associated with Intrinsic Motivations - you don't need a goal or reward to use your creativity, hangout with friends, or feel the suspense of unpredictability - the activity itself is rewarding on its own.

Ch.3: White hat gamification (Meaning, Accomplishment, Empowerment): If something is engaging because it lets you express your creativity, makes you feel successful through skill mastery, and gives you a higher sense of meaning, it makes you feel very good and powerful.

Ch.3: Black hat gamification (Scarcity, Unpredictability, Avoidance): On the other hand, if you are always doing something because you don't know what will happen next, you are constantly in fear of losing something, or because you're struggling to attain things you can't have, the experience will often leave a bad taste in your mouth - even if you are consistently motivated to take these actions.

Ch.3: Once one has achieved mastery in Level I Octalysis, they can then apply it to Level II Octalysis, where we try to optimize experiences throughout all four phases of the player/user journey. These phases are: - Discovery (why people would even want to try out the experience), - Onboarding (where users learn the rules and tools to play the game), - Scaffolding (the regular journey of repeated actions towards a goal) and - Endgame (how do you retain your veterans).

Ch.4: Explicit Gamification involves strategies that utilize applications that are obviously game-like. Users acknowledge they are playing a game, and generally need to opt into playing. McDonald's Monopoly Game is a good example of explicit gamification?. Everyone knows they are playing a game but the key purpose of the game is to get people to return to McDonald's and eat more french fries.

Implicit Gamification is a form of design that subtly employs gamification techniques and the 8 Core Drives of Octalysis into the user experience. Implicit Gamification examples are often discussed in gamification literature, such as the LinkedIn Progress Bar', the intrinsie motivation that drives Wikipedia', competitive bidding and feedback system via eBay, social comparison and motivation in OPower, and Unpredictability and Scarcity within Woot!?.