A Trojan Horse without Greek Soldiers
Generic game mechanics and poorly constructed game elements such as levels, boss fights, or quests often fall into the same hole as PBLs. Simply put, applying traditional “game elements” ubiquitous in popular gameplay without diving deeper into user motivation contributes to shallow user experience: it’s all flash and no bang. An almost humorous example of this is when people I meet call something a “quest” instead of a “task” thinking that this automatically makes the same original actions fun and engaging. Sure, having a playful attitude can make a big difference, but it only goes so far, especially when your customers and employees may already distrust your motives.
The truth is, simply incorporating game mechanics and game elements does not make a game fun.
Games aren’t necessarily fun because of high quality graphics or flashy animations either. There are many unpopular, poor-selling...