What gamification is and is not, and how understanding and leveraging game mechanics can affect all aspects of a business, from marketing to management all the way through recruitment and sales.

1. THE POWER OF
GAMIFICATION
SEBASTIEN ARBOGAST

2. Photo by Artem Bali on Unsplash

3. Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash

4. Photo by NESA by Makers on Unsplash

5. LET ME INTRODUCE YOU TO GAMIFICATION

6. WHAT IT'S NOT!
GAMIFICATION
• Throwing scores and badges around without any consistent
design
• Using game metaphors all over the place
• Using a game to advertise or market a certain product
• A quickfix for a bad system
• A way to make something boring more "fun"
• A gadget gimmick that can only have marginal effects

7. THE PROCESS OF GAME-THINKING AND
GAME MECHANICS TO ENGAGE PEOPLE
AND SOLVE PROBLEMS
WHAT IS GAMIFICATION?

8. PRINCIPLES

9. WHAT IS ENGAGEMENT?
Recency
Frequency
Duration
Referrals
Feedback
Involvement
AND HOW CAN YOU POTENTIALLY MEASURE IT?

10. THE GAMIFICATION LOOP
Engagement
Challenge
AchievementReward

11. WHAT GAMERS REALLY VALUE
HIERARCHY OF REWARDS
1.Status
2.Access
3.Power
4.Stuff
STICKYNESSINCREASES
EFFECTIVENESSINCREASES
COSTINCREASES

12. AND HOW IT AFFECTS OUTCOME
REINFORCEMENT

13. UNDERSTANDING PLAYER MOTIVATION
THE CONCEPT OF FLOW

14. BARTLE PLAYER TYPES
5% exclusive
20% non-exclusive
10% exclusive
40% non-exclusive
10% exclusive
50% non-exclusive
75% exclusive
80% non-exclusive
You have to identify your own proportions and adapt your game design accordingly
Acting
Interacting
EnvironmentPeople
Killers Achievers
Socializers Explorers

15. PROGRESSION TO MASTERY

16. THE MDA FRAMEWORK
Mechanics
Dynamics
Aesthetics

17. MECHANICS

18. THERE ARE A MANY!
POINT SYSTEMS
• Experience points (XP)
• Redeemable points (RP)
• Skill points
• Karma points
• Reputation points
• Life points

19. LEVELS
• Levels indicate progress on the path to mastery
• Sticky because there is no shortcut
• Must be more and more difficult (number of points to get to a
level is not linear)
• Using a progress bar or percentage can be a good idea
• You can use metaphors like colors, precious metals or traveler
types (tourist, explorer, adventurer, roamer, backpacker)
• Make it visual

20. LEADERBOARDS
• Really speaks to killers and achievers
• Show ranking in context (player in the middle)
• Slice it socially (amongst friends), geographically
(by city) or globally, over time (eg last week), or
even by skill score
• Make interactions easier between players at the
same level since they are playing the same game
• If possible give hints as to how the player can
move up one rank
• Be careful about privacy and safety
• Keep it positive: no public shaming for bad scores
• Make it social, easily shareable

21. DYNAMICS

22. BADGES
• Used to brag about achievements to other players
• Allow you to create challenges for players
• Can add an element of surprise (Foursquare badges)
• Can be used as milestones for progress
• Encourage social promotion (make it shareable)
• Can be used instead of levels
• Too many badges kill badges
• Can be used as a sign of belonging (eg sticker on a laptop, branded
mug or suitcase, etc.)

23. ONBOARDING
• Insist heavily on the first few minutes
• Give points right away
• Don't force people to register to enter the game
• Give them a taste of what the game will be about from a get go
• Give information and rules progressively, not all at once
• Make your players win directly
• Design a very clear path at the beginning: action, reward, action,
action, reward, register, action, action, share, …

24. CHALLENGES AND QUESTS
• Fluctuations in the game
• Compensate seasonality
• For special events (eg launching a new city)
• Break the monotonous nature, the routine of the game
• Better specific to given group of players at a certain level
• Encourage cooperation and/or competition
• Let players join if they want, or leave them alone if they won't

25. SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT LOOPS
Different loops for different levels, increase virality

26. HOW TO DESIGN A
GAMIFIED EXPERIENCE?

27. LIST ALL THE ACTIONS YOU WANT TO ENCOURAGE IN
PLAYERS
STEP 1
• Show up to my talk
• Stay awake and vigilant
• Ask questions
• Give me feedback about my presentation
• Post about my talk on social media
• Laugh at my jokes
• Ask me questions later
• Answer my questions

28. RANK THOSE PLAYER ACTIONS
STEP 2
• Place those five top actions on the Bartle quadrant
SHOW UP
AWAKE
ASK QUESTIONS
GIVE FEEDBACK
POST ON SOCIAL MEDIA

29. PLACE YOUR ACTIONS ON THE SCALE OF MASTERY
STEP 3
SHOW UP
AWAKE
ASK QUESTIONS
GIVE FEEDBACK
POST ON SOCIAL MEDIA

30. ASSIGN A VALUE IN POINTS TO EACH ACTION
STEP 4
Experience Redeemable
Skill
eg reliability
Karma Life
Show up 1000 100
Stay awake
3 - 1 à zone
out
Ask
questions
2000 100
Give
feedback
500 500 10
Post on social
media
100 10
Reputation points are usually given by others

31. DESIGN BADGE SYSTEM
STEP 5
• Think of a badge series to guide people to reaching each level
(trainee, apprentice, jedi, jedi master, sith lord)
• Think of a series of badges to show community belonging
• Think of a few surprise badges that people only discover when
they get them
• Identify a logo for each badge
• Make those badges visual, give out personalized laptop stickers
or merch (think Youtube buttons)

32. DESIGN YOUR ONBOARDING EXPERIENCE
STEP 6
• What questions will you ask your players first?
• What actions will they be able to perform even before they
register?
• How many points will you give them right away?
• Which rules are you going to reveal at each step of the
onboarding process?
• Which opportunities to fail can you remove at the beginning?
• Design a first challenge for newbies

33. DEFINE A SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT LOOP FOR EACH LEVEL
STEP 7
• What is the motivating
emotion? (curiosity)
• What's the social call to action?
(show up)
• How do you reengage players?
(ask questions)
• How do you make progress
and rewards visible? (…)

34. STEP 8
• Decouple the game implementation from the business
implementation in order to be able to change them independently
• While making the overall experience as integrated as possible
• Even better if you combine game mechanics and dynamics with
the basic features of a social network:
• User profiles
• Connections between players
• Action feed for each user
IMPLEMENT A BASIC GAME

35. GAMIFICATION BY DESIGN
GABE ZICHERMANN
More details
Case studies
Implementation example