Introduction

This book is not about why gamification is amazing. It is not about how gamification is the future and how inspiring life could be with it. It is not necessarily for the late adopters who are simply curious about what gamification is. It also does not focus on what the gamification industry is doing as a whole, especially when that is continuously changing every month. Rather, this book is about implementing good gamification design into your products, workplace, and lifestyle.

It is a deep exploration into what makes a game engaging and how to apply those engaging elements into real-life productive activities. It is about how you can use gamification and scientifically proven methods to improve your company, your life, and the lives of those around you.

Effective gamification is a combination of game design, game dynamics, behavioral economics, motivational psychology, UX/UI (User Experience and User Interface), neurobiology, technology platforms, as well as ROI-driving business implementations. This book explores the interplay between these disciplines to capture the core principles that contribute to good gamification design. I will be sharing my observations in multiple industries and sectors based on my 14-year journey of passionately and relentlessly pursuing the craft of Gamification.

Chapters in this book tend to build on previous chapters, so skipping around is not suggested. That said, if you have been an avid reader of my online work and viewer of my videos, you might already have a firm grasp of the 8 Core Drives within the Octalysis Framework. In that case, feel free to skip to a section that you want to focus your attention on.

If you are extremely busy and aren’t sure if you want to commit to this book, I recommend starting off with Chapters 3, 5, 10, 14, and 15 to decide whether you would like to read the entire book.

Within the book, there will be many everyday scenarios to illustrate the potential of these Core Drives and the flexibility of their applications beyond traditional “gamification” examples. I myself still constantly gain new insights and revelations on a daily basis when I reflect and speculate upon the various possibilities contained in the 8 Core Drives. I hope you do too.

As this book is titled “Actionable Gamification,” my goal for it is to become a strategy guide in helping my readers master the games that truly make a difference in their lives. If you absorb the contents of this book, you will have literally obtained what many companies have paid and still pay tens of thousands of dollars to acquire.

My ultimate aim is to enable the widespread adoption of good gamification and human-focused design in all types of industries. I care deeply about creating a world that is sustainably more enjoyable and productive. In that world, there no longer will be a great divide between what people have to do and what they want to do - our lives will become better as we spend time enjoying everything we do.

I’m excited for you to dive into the contents of this book so that we can start to build a world that harnesses the power of play together. Let’s begin.

Yu-kai Chou