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Coursera Gamification Class: Week 2 Review By Sudarshan Gopaladesikan Game Thinking 1. Why Gamify? a. Why do we even look towards game design to help solve our problems? b. Dodgeballcheck-in app for bars. Predecessor to Foursquare. i. ProblemHow to reach critical mass of users so that it becomes viral? People will only use if they see that many others are using the app as well. c. Foursquare, the popular check-in app solved Dodgeballs problems on 5 levels: i. Engagement gap 1. To close the gap between populations who really use the service and those who dont, Foursquare made each check-in an enriching experience. ii. Choices 1. Foursquare gave users the ability to make a lot of choices within the app. The ability to check-in was coupled with the ability to share achievements and compete with friends. iii. Progression 1. Foursquare offers progression within the app through providing a user level and a tier of badges. iv. Social 1. Foursquare made it social by allowing people compete for Mayorship among other badges and achievements. The ability to share notifications was a hit as well. v. Habit 1. Foursquare made the behavior of checking-in a habit because checking-in meant so much more than a simple button press. It meant competing with friends, gaining credibility in locations, and having fun while doing it. d. I would just like to point out something designers should be aware of when it comes to giving user choices. In reference to the popular Barry Schwartz book, Paradox of Choice, he argues that giving people

2 too much choice leads to regret, missed opportunities, and creates frustrations. A simple frustration from a gamified environment could lead to negative associations with your product, brand, or organization - something we all want to avoid. 2. Thinking Like a Game Designer a. I am a game designer. i. This is your state of mind. Your Zen. Approach your real world goals as if they are games and those involved are players. b. Different than being a game designer i. Thinking like one doesnt necessarily make you into one. A game designer focuses on many more sub dimensions than gamification needs to worry about. c. Different than thinking like a gamer i. You are the designer, not the gamer. The gamer plays the game, and it is your job to think about the nuts and bolts on how to create an immersive experience. d. In a gamified environment, your players/users/customers will want: i. To feel like the game revolves around them. ii. The game offers autonomy while giving the player the ability to make meaningful choices. iii. The game is constructed by rules and systems in such a way that it gives the user maximum freedom to explore in the gamified environment. e. The key is to get your target audience to play, but also have them keep playing. f. I like approaching how to think like a game designer as a gamer actually. When I am replaying a game that I found immersive and addicting, I try to take a step back and analyze why is it that Im getting pulled into the game in the first place. Try it sometime. You will be surprised to see how many elements a game designer has put to make games FUN, even in games as simple as Tetris and Bejeweled! 3. Design Rules a. Pathway of the Player (in reference to social utopia games like TapZoo) i. Onboarding 1. How to get the player into the game? TapZoo uses a simple step by step interactive tutorial that lets someone set up their zoo so they can make profit. ii. Scaffolding 1. The level-ups, training wheels, or hints in the game. In TapZoo, the ability to create animals that bring in more revenue help you level up faster. iii. Pathways to Mastery

3 1. There has to be a path from scaffolding to mastery. Mastery is defined by having a lot of knowledge and skill about a game. (ex. Strategy on how to build most profitable zoo) b. General elements of good game design for Onboarding: i. Guides ii. Highlighting iii. Feedback iv. Limited options v. Impossible to fail c. Balance is key. A game has to be balanced; otherwise it will be unfair for one of the players. i. Take chess for example. The game starts out balanced, but once someone loses enough pieces, the game becomes clearly unbalanced. It is at this point where a game comes to conclusion. ii. To keep the game going, balance is required. Take Runescape for example. With so many attributes such as (attack, defense, thieving, crafting, slaying, magic, etc.), there is something for everyones skill level. Other elements such as surprise gifts give the player momentum to maintain this balance. d. Create an Experience i. The turntable fm example used in class was great. Although the activity was just listening to music on your laptop, it was transformed into an experience because it has a nice UI. e. The only drawback that I see to creating an experience is that it might be too distracting from other activities the user wants to do. We should give autonomy to the user, and sometimes think about gamified environments that operate silently and when the user is ready. f. The process of starting with limited options and slowly scaffolding to an increased selection of options, it is important to remember iteration. Drawing from the advantages of the agile software development cycle, working in an iterative process will keep the flow of the game balanced. 4. Tapping the Fun a. FUN i. Winning, problem-solving, exploring, creating, chilling, teamwork, recognition, triumphing, collect, surprise, imagination, sharing, role-plying, customization b. Not much to say here. These are all great examples of things that are fun. However, surprise is a special example that should be taken into special consideration. i. The vast majority of todays gamification efforts are simply based on positive reinforcement (do something, get reward).

4 However, the stock market isnt entirely based on that, yet it is powerfully addictive. The reason is because of unpredictability. We as humans sometimes make sub optimal opportunity cost decisions because we like to pay a price to be unpredictable. 5. Understanding Fun a. Nicole Lazzaros 4 Keys i. Easy Fun 1. Fun that is not taxing. Easy to access. ii. Hard Fun 1. Fun that is achieved after doing something challenging. On the path to mastery. iii. People Fun 1. Social games are fun for a reason. iv. Serious Fun 1. Fun can be derived from doing something satisfying that is meaningful to the community and/or you. b. Mark Leblanc 8 Kinds of Fun i. Sensation ii. Fantasy iii. Narrative iv. Challenge v. Fellowship (Social) vi. Discovery (Exploring) vii. Expression viii. Submission c. The economic principle of marginal utility well applies to having fun. Certain events are fun, but only for a while or for so many times. Because of that, game design should try to appeal to many different types of fun to keep that balance so the game doesnt break. 6. Finding the Fun a. Fun can be found anywhere, it is just a matter of being able to find it. i. Subway station had electronic stairs that played the piano when stepped on. Creates a fun interaction. ii. The deepest trashcan gives the illusion that you are dropping your trash into the depths. That idea is fun. iii. LinkedIns progress completion bar taps into the goal-oriented side of us. We are driven to finish the bar, and the feedback is our constant motivator. b. The concept here was that fun can be subtle. This type of fun would be derived from imagination funone of the types of fun Prof. Werbach refers to. Im sure it has more types of fun associated with it (esp. examples like LinkedIn)

GAME ELEMENTS 1. Breaking Games Down a. Here is a list of useful elements: i. Points, quests, resources, avatar, social graph, progression, and levels ii. Tic-Tac-Toe: board, tokens, players, competitive, turns, win/draw states. b. A game is derived from elements but creates an experience (the play). c. The game element of using a board in tic-tac-toe can be extended to the idea of having boundaries. As a game designer, it is very important to determine where you want the player to explore and how to explore. Boundaries of the game create the games magic circle d. To draw in from psychology, the idea of using turn-based mechanisms is interesting. Research into reinforcement schedules should be done to see if turn based apps would benefit having variable, fixed, and/or ratio intervals. 2. The Pyramid of Gamification Elements a. DynamicsThe big picture aspects. i. Constraints 1. The constraints are the boundaries that make the game meaningful under a particular context. The constraints allow players to play a certain way so that they arrive at meaningful decisions. ii. Emotions 1. Emotional expressions are normal when playing a game. Capturing certain emotions are key. iii. Narrative 1. This could be an immersive story or could be the element that makes the human feel like they are in the center of the game. iv. Progression 1. How does the user feel like an amateur to an expert. v. Relationships 1. Who does the user get to interact with throughout the experience? b. MechanicsThese are the elements that drive the game forward i. Challenges, chance, competition, cooperation, feedback, resource acquisition, rewards, transactions, turns, win states c. ComponentsThe specifics of the game that make up higher tier elements. i. Achievements, avatars, badges, bosses, collection, combat, unlockables, gifting, leaderboards, levels, points, quests, social graph, teams, virtual goods.

3. PBL Triad a. Points i. Keep Score, determine win states, convert to rewards, feedback, display progress, data for designer, and all are on same point system (equal) b. Badges i. Representations of achievement, credentials, flexible (can mean anything), style, signal importance, collection, social display c. Leaderboards i. Global, local, friendstyle leaderboards. However, this zero sum competition sometimes demotivates people from playing. ii. Serves as feedback for competition, useful for those who are really competitive. d. The one thing I want to mention about the PBL model is that this model as well as other pairs of elements can help businesses and companies move towards a paperless resume. i. Similar to the Mozilla Open Badge Project, if people were to receive scores, feedback, and credentials, they should be able to show-off their work for potential real world benefit. 4. Limitations of Elements a. Elements are simply parts of the game. They are not the whole game itself. b. Not all rewards are fun; not all fun is rewarding i. This points towards the notion that external rewards may damage initial motivation for why a user participates in a certain action. A right balance of rewards is needed. c. There is no cookie cutter solution to gamification. The constant use of PBL is creating a mass library of gamified environments that use PBL. Just like video games, repetition is boring, and we need to focus on dynamic gamification implementation. d. Other than elements, think about: i. Meaningful choices 1. What choices will the user make? Are they ensured to be meaningful? ii. Puzzles 1. Are there puzzles that make the game challenging? iii. Mastery 1. Is there a path to mastery so I can claim myself to be an expert? iv. Community 1. Am I by myself in this endeavor or are there people with me? If so, how do I relate to the other players? v. Different types of Users

7 1. To cater to the diversity of the world, how can my gamified environment cater to as many different types of players as possible? e. I agree with the main point that elements arent everything. A gamified environment should not put so much focus on the elements so that it forgets about creating the experience. f. To create an good experience, think about how satisfactory the freedoms would be to a player, given the games constraints. 5. Bing Gordon Interview (A few key ideas I found) a. We as a society have all grown up with games as a normal medium of media. Because games are all around us, we are familiar with its shapes, forms, and existence. i. This puts pressure on CEOs and companies to understand gamification to create successful workplaces for Gen Y workers. b. Feedback is a 2 way street. As much as the designer works on providing feedback to the user, the user also can provide feedback to the designer. This 2 way street should be important to recognize. c. Bing made one mention about risk/return analysis when designing golf courses. In the notion of cognitive psychology and rational decision making, humans make tons of irrational and sub optimal decisions. Creating mathematical temptations with risk/return analysis is a great way to engage users. i. This states that game theory can be a playful experience. As game theory is relies on mathematical models, gamifications use of game theory is the use of the human brains irrationality to make the game unpredictable and exciting. d. Play is key e. If gamification is the solution to finding out how to communicate, learn, and build relationships more effectively, then lets take the time to understand it.