“Super better”, the words sound like the start to a newspeak dictionary entry from 1984. However, far from gaining a double plus good rating for conformity, it is actually an effort that dares to try and be different. Read more

3. It uses mechanisms, mostly from games, to motivate
users.
However it is not a game
Super better is a tool that helps people to achieve
goals.
the creators deliberately avoid even calling it
“gamified”, because of the negative connotations of
the word.
The creator opts instead to say that they consider it to
be “gameful design”.

4. When the creator found herself experiencing a
setback, as a result of a concussion that didn’t
heal properly, she used her 10 years of
experience as a game designer to turn her
recovery in to a game.
She came out with Super Better

5. Super better is a framework built around your motivation.
It places goals and other game elements around it that you can use to strengthen it.

7. Super better is unlike other adventure games.
It operates using quests, which when completed, award you points.
However as the game is entirely imagined by the user, with enemies,
quests and power-ups things internal to the user, the game is more like a
log book accompanying an adventure and suggestions for thinking.

8. Super Better is neither a game nor a gamified application.
Super Better is a tool to help you achieve goals.
A Game is an activity separate from regular life; Super better
is something that to work needs to be integrated in to real
life.
Gamification is the application of game mechanisms to
activities outside of a game, like progress bars for completing
a social network profile.
Super Better does not integrate itself or impose apparent
elements over your activities.

9. Super Better labs reject the concept of gamification.
“SuperBetter offers an alternative to gamification. Instead of taking the
psychological hooks and operant conditioning from games, we use their
deeply satisfying properties – things like agency, emotion, and
immediate feedback - to help people do what they really want to do: feel
better, reach their goals, connect with others, and live with meaning. We
call this a gameful approach to design.”
The big idea here is that super better does not aim to incentivise action
using extrinsic motivation, but provides a platform for people to explore
their own intrinsic motivations.

10. Bartle’s game grid is a framework for looking at how games are designed to
appeal to specific audiences.
The “x” axis runs from People are players,
“players” to “world”. doing anything with
real people puts you on
the left side.
The “y” axis runs In contrast dragons are
from “acting” to typically game
“interacting”. elements, rather than
other player, doing
anything with them
would be either acting
We’ve inserted on or interacting with
sample actions. the game.

11. On the graph there are 4 types of players who can be appealed to by altering game
features and therefore the relative size of each area of the graph.

12. Tipping the balance in order to appeal to a certain audience is merely a matter
of increasing the types of features that appeal specifically to one user base.
Weapons Challenges
Communication Glitches and
Easter eggs

13. Looking at the basic features, it’s immediately apparent that the game is designed deliberately
to not attract people who want to act out on others, ie. there are no features to kill anything
The most important feature of the game is that it allows the user to act of their world, this
forms the bulk of the game, as in most games of this type.

15. While Super Better is marketed as a solution,
built from the blood, sweat and tears of its
creator, it is not unique.
Other similar games and alternative models
are out there, popular, and gaining acclaim
fast.
These fall in to the two main categories of:
and

16. The Nike+ fuel band is a gadget for measuring your fitness.
Nike standardises activity patterns and turns them in to an
energy rating called “Nike+ Fuel”
Nike provides the facility to create localised leader boards
with either their friends, or for people to join public ones.

17. Re:mission is an educational game which improves outcomes.
It addresses the importance of:
• Compliance with oral chemotherapy regimens and other
prescribed medications
• Prompt reporting of symptoms and side effects
• Proper nutrition to increase the body’s ability to fight
cancer
• Anxiety, nausea, and pain management through breathing
and muscle relaxation exercises
Through randomised control trials it has been found that
re:mission improves:
• Treatment Adherence
• Cancer Knowledge
• Self-Efficacy

18. *the conditioning of voluntary behaviours through a system of rewards and punishments.
Created by Diabetes Hands Foundation and Joslin
Diabetes Center with support from Boehringer
Ingelheim.
Various missions help improve diabetic outcomes.
The user is given points for completing missions, such
as:
• Reducing salt intake.
• Leading a more active lifestyle.
• Taking the stairs instead of the lift.
The game uses a form of “operant conditioning”* in
order to alter users behaviour. This is a good
mechanism for inciting short term change, but not
long term. As soon as the user is removed from the
system they would no longer experience the stimuli
of the changes made.

19. BiLAT is a game developed to simulate the real life
situations that soldiers face every day.
The problem the US army was experiencing was that
soldiers were very well trained for combat
situations, and knew how to use a gun, but not how
to efficiently deal with the mediation and convening
of meetings they would be expected to do on a daily
basis with local leaders on the ground.
The game guides the user through a series of
situations.
All situations are effectively researched with people
on the ground and real situations that have
happened are referenced.

20. Syrum is the new game, to be released
soon, by Boehringer Ingelheim.
Although not strictly a serious game,
gamification of a process, or anything with a
specific learning objective, it’s a pretty
major milestone for Pharma because it is
the first real, fully fledged social game that
any company in the industry has released.
Syrum falls in to the context of serious
gaming. It educates people about drug
development.

21. Super Better Labs is also not the only lab
experimenting with using games for good.
Companies, Universities, and organisations
involved in serious games, learning games and
gamification.
http://www.playnormous.com/
http://www.gamesforhealth.org/
http://www.seriousgamesinstitute.co.uk/
http://www.rtassoc.com/
http://ict.usc.edu/

23. While Super Better labs dispute their categorisation as such,
they have created something that looks a lot like gamification
to any observers.
In the same way as anything else claiming to be gamification, it
inserts a “game layer” over the rest of the world, for users of
the game to use as a reference and guide for their activities.

24. Yes, the game is different to other pieces, because it does not
begin and end with set missions and the mechanisms are not
from some stale “playbook”.
The creators are correct in drawing a line in the sand, because
the concept is stale and it does differ because this gets users to
think differently, designing their own challenges, and narrows
its appeal to those who are likely to be changed and motivated
by the experience offered.

25. The game has a nascent community of followers and is gathering media
attention.
Although Super Better approached the wellness game paradigm in a
different way to most, allowing users to customise their experience and the
game itself, Super Better is one of many.
Ultimately it’s longevity will depend on whether users are successful in
achieving their goals, and whether they choose their more general model
over the more specific and prescriptive models out there in both serious
gaming and other solutions using gamification.

26. Contact:
Dan Winkler
Business Analyst telephone
+44 (0) 20 7148 6825
address
13/ 14 Archer Street, mobile
London, W1D 7BD +44 (0) 7912 275 066
website email
www.nitro-digital.co.uk daniel@nitro-digital.co.uk