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Framing Gamification: Choice and Competition
The third installment in my series on What Makes Games Fun on Gamasutra , I investigate the concepts of Choice and Competition and discuss their influence and how they can be used in non-game...
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Gamification and the Social Experience
At its fundamental level, Gamification involves measuring behaviors and rewarding them. Rewards can be thought of as coming in 3 basic forms: Monetary Privileges Labels Monetary describes rewards with...
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The Importance of Context in Gamification
Any fool riding a bandwagon can tell you what gamification has in common with a social game, or even a slot machine.  It’s the psychological triggers, the positive reinforcement. However, the better...
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Framing Gamification: Flow
The final installment in my series on What Makes Games Fun on Gamasutra.com I investigate the phenomenon psychologists call ‘Flow‘ and how it relates to the intangible aspects of games that make them...
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Are Extrinsic Rewards Dangerous?
I was reading through Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers recently and I came across a chapter where he lists our workplace motivations as: Autonomy Complexity Reward I was reminded Daniel Pink’s stance on the...
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What is a Game Mechanic?
With the explosion of gamification, there seems to be a lot of confusion around what a Game Mechanic is. While using the word as a blanket term to cover all aspects of game design isn’t exactly a...
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Reward Scheduling
A key component of game design, that can be traced all the way down to operant conditioning, is the concept of a rewards schedule. The idea that an individual is more likely to engage in an activity if...
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6 Critical Game Mechanics to Consider in Leaderboards (Part 1)
There is perhaps no other game feature as easily misused as the leaderboard. Not all leaderboards are created equally. The right one can transform a boring experience into a tense competition, while...
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6 Critical Game Mechanics to Consider in Leaderboards (Part 2)
Last week I introduced the first three of six critical game mechanics to consider when designing a leaderboard. Here are the final three visualization considerations that can significantly affect your...
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Are Extrinsic Rewards Right for My Employees?
A lot of people who are new to Gamification assume it comes in two flavors: Reward the user with virtual badges Reward the user with prizes and monetary rewards I’ll skip right to the big reveal:...
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