This is the fourth part of a presentation I gave at the USC Institute of Multimedia Literacy about my career and recent developments in the game industry. In Part 1, I discussed how indie development and digital distribution now allow for a greater variety of games, much as it was when the game industry was in its infancy. In Part 2, I discussed I discussed the elements that make an activity a game: fun, goals, rules, conflict, choices, and a win/loss condition. In Part 3, I examine those elements more closely. In Part 4, I look at how game design techniques can be applied to activities that are not, strictly speaking, games.

The integration of game design techniques and mechanics into non-game environments (e.g., work, exercise, education, etc.) to improve engagement, loyalty and learning is called gamification.

The rest of this presentation covers the Core Drives of Gamification as defined by gamification expert Yu-Kai Chou. According to Chou, a successful game or game-like experience must appeal to many of these core drives, depending upon the individual player or user, to be engaging.

Epic Meaning and Calling

This drive appeals to those players who are looking for a sense of importance. Game mechanics and elements that appeal to this drive include:

• Narrative
• Elitism
• Humanity Hero
• Beginner’s Luck
• Free Lunch
• Chosen One

Empowerment and Creativity

This drive appeals to those players who are looking for empowerment. Game mechanics and elements that appeal to this drive include:

• Milestone Unlock
• Real-time Control
• Chain Combos
• Beginner’s Luck
• Boosters
• Instant Feedback

Social Pressure and Envy

This drive appeals to those players who play games for the experience of playing with others. Game mechanics and elements that appeal to this drive include:

• Gifting
• Group Quests
• Touting/Bragging
• Must Marketing
• Thank-You Economy
• Mentorship

Curiosity and Unpredictability

This drive appeals to those players who play games for the experience of discovery. Game mechanics and elements that appeal to this drive include:

• Glowing Choices
• Miniquests
• Easter Eggs
• Random Rewards
• Surprises
• Humor

Loss and Avoidance

This drive appeals to those players who, once they have invested in a game, do not like to lose their progress. Game mechanics and elements that appeal to this drive include:

• Sunk Cost Tragedy
• Lost Progress
• Guilting
• Scarlet Letter
• Visual Grave
• Weep Tune

Scarcity and Importance

This drive appeals to those players who do not like missed opportunities. Game mechanics and elements that appeal to this drive include:

• Appointment Dynamics
• Prize Pacing
• Patient Feedback
• Count Downs
• Throttles
• Moats

Ownership and Possession

This drive appeals to those players who seek to acquire things. Game mechanics and elements that appeal to this drive include:

• Virtual Goods
• Building from Scratch
• Collection Set
• Earned Lunch
• Protection
• Recruitment

Development and Accomplishment

This drive appeals to those players who are motivated by achievement. Game mechanics and elements that appeal to this drive include:

• Points and Badges
• Leaderboards
• Progress Bars
• Boss Fights
• Quest Lists
• Aura Effects

Depending on the player, each of these mechanics help to foster interest in the game or activity. However, this intere is secured in stages:

• Acquisition: Getting users initially interested in taking part in your activity
• Engagement: Maintaining that interest throughout a single session
• Retention: Securing that interest in returning for the next session

There are a number of methods that can be used to acquire players or users for your activity:

• Advertising
• Publicity
• User Invitations
• Influencers
• Pre-Existing User Base

Once acquired, the following game design principles can be employed to engage the user:

• Have the game easy to learn, but difficult to master
• Use a simple and fun gameplay loop
• The effort the player puts into the activity must be perceived as being of less value than the rewards received
• Provide intermittent positive reinforcement
• Interactivity should be at a rhythm that’s addictive
• Wait times for interactivity should be minimal

Retention is maintained over several time intervals. The most critical is 1-Day Retention: having a player interested in returning after his or her initial experience in the activity. Factors that can play a role in 1-Day Retention are:

• A “wow” factor in the first three minutes of the activity
• A well-crafted tutorial
• A goal system
• Appointment gaming

A sense of closure after the initial session

Next most critical is one-week retention. Factors that can assist in making that goal are:

• Quick new user leveling
• Limitations on how much a user can do in a single session
• Guilt, about leaving things unfinished
• Provide the possibility of missed opportunities
• Allow the player to create some kind of personalized space
• Lock the number of levels the player can achieve that first week

Last is one-month retention. However, this is not least important, because once you have successfully engaged players for this long, they have become your most loyal and expert players. Elements that can aid in achieving this goal are:

• Multiple goals
• Collection systems
• Crafting
• Leaderboards
• Social Competition

These methods are not only used in successful games, but in training, education, marketing, and even politics (such as state lotteries). Gaming and game-like elements are being incorporated into more and more activities in our everyday lives, as we see games being played by everyone, everywhere, all the time.

This is the third part of a presentation I gave at the USC Institute of Multimedia Literacy about my career and recent developments in the game industry. In Part 1, I discussed how indie development and digital distribution now allow for a greater variety of games, much as it was when the game industry was in its infancy. In Part 2, I discussed I discussed the elements that make an activity a game: fun, goals, rules, conflict, choices, and a win/loss condition. In Part 3, I look into those elements in more detail.

Fun

Well all know what “fun” is, right? Well, maybe not. What’s fun for one person is not necessarily fun for another. Every player has an opinion about what is enjoyable or engaging, but most will agree that a fun activity is one that has several of the following qualities:

• Novelty: The activity provides a new or unexpected experience.
• Immersion: The player has an illusion that s/he is in a different time or place
• Challenge: The player’s skills or abilities are tested by the experience.
• Stimulation: The player has an emotional experience from engaging in the experience, whether it is the thrill of victory or the agony of defeat.
• Harmony: The experience provides an opportunity to work cooperatively with or cooperatively against other players.
• Threat: The player faces some sort of threat or risk by participating in the experience.

Goals

A game’s objectives or goals provide a sense of progression towards advancing to the game’s ultimate win/loss state. Some of the qualities goals must have for the game to be engaging are:

• The player needs to see the goals as being worthy of obtaining.
• The player also needs to see the goals as being obtainable.
• Ideally, the goals should be just barely out of the player’s reach until the player has developed sufficient skill to obtain them.
• Once the player has obtained the goals, new goals should replace them.

Rules

A game’s rules should be reasonable: they must be easily understood by the players and be consistent with the game’s story or theme. Rules define the three phases of a game:

• Setup: The things that the players do at the beginning up the game: dividing up initial resources, determining which player starts first, etc.
• Progression: The playing sequence, or main game loop, that occurs repetitively as the players advance to the game’s end.
• Resolution: The conditions under which a game comes to an end

Choices

Choices are the decisions that the player makes in his or attempt to achieve the game’s goals. Goals should have the following qualities:

• Meaningfulness: The player needs to be able to perceive either a direct or indirect correlation between the available choices and the path to meeting the game’s goals.
• Balance: The various available choices should each have an equal chance of advancing towards a game’s goals, when all other game elements are considered.
• Replayability: There should be a random element in the game so that there is an uncertainty or variety in the outcome of a particular choice.

Conflict

Conflict occurs when the game’s rules, resources, or opponents become obstacles between the player and his or her goals.

• Games should be easy enough at the start that inexperienced players are not easily discouraged, but not so easy that they do not feel the game will soon present a challenge.
• The obstacles should become progressively more difficult as the players become more proficient at playing the game.
• The game should be difficult to master, even for experienced players.

Feedback

Feedback provides the player with information about the game’s rules, how he or she is progressing through the game, and whether the goals have been achieved.

• All player actions should produce some kind of results.
• Results should be visible to the player.
• Those results should be traceable back to the player’s actions.

Win or Loss

As a game comes to its resolution, or ending condition, players should know whether they or not they have achieved the game’s goals. For the win or loss to be satisfying:

• The player needs to perceive that the outcome was indeed based on whether or not the goals were achieved.
• The game’s results should not come across as being arbitrary.

In Part 4, I will look at how game design techniques can be applied to activities that are not, strictly speaking, games.