What is Gamification, Really?

Hello Theo,

Thank you for the comment.

Yes, I’ve read Jane’s book. Great book indeed, but I didn’t finish all of it yet. Our CEO actually put forth a webcast with Jane McGonigal back in June. The webcast is still accessible on-demand here if you are interested.

Totally agree. If you take a look at the next post (which is just published), points and badges are the most shallow gamification design there is. And people will most likely get tired of them soon. Continuous feedback is great, but it’s efficacy depends on the application. Feedbacks can sometime be interruptive too. The key is to have the right feedback at the right time. But I agree that given today’s BPM, we definitely need more feedback, lots more.

So my question to you is that are you willing to work at a job you love for free? Completely free, even if you know that they are using you and manipulating you, but you are still doing what you love. There is more to it than just intrinsic rewards. Certainly intrinsic rewards are more motivating, but you also need extrinsic reward to reinforce the intrinsic. And there is a notion of fair and justice that has to be enforced too.

It seems that you like reading, so I would also recommend another book on this very subject “Total Engagement.” It is by  Prof. Byron Reeve, a renowned game researcher at Stanford University. It’s probably more academic than it’s necessary compare to “Reality is Broken,” which is more for the general public. But since you are a gamer, I also recommend this post “The Future of Enterprise Software will be Fun and Productive.” Although software doesn’t fix everything, but if the tools are gamified, that is the first step. How you gamify would have to be design by creative designers.

In game design, it is very common to have several currencies and metrics, all going at the same time, at different rate. There are the rapid, immediate, action-based metrics. These are often shown as some kind of progress bar. The information is just there. This type of feedback is passive. If you want it, it’s there, it won’t ping you or pop up something to draw your attention. It is less interruptive (to my point above that feedback that are too frequent can sometimes be interruptive). And there are also those that are achievement, ranks and level up. These are more attention drawing and interruptive, and they have to be carefully planned to ensure smooth UX. I think these different types of metrics can map to the casual process and the hardcore process you mentioned.

Alright, Thank you for the great comment. I look forward to chatting more in the future. See you next time.