Book Image

Actionable Gamification

By : Yu-kai Chou
Book Image

Actionable Gamification

By: Yu-kai Chou

Overview of this book

Effective gamification is a combination of game design, game dynamics, user experience, and ROI-driving business implementations. This book explores the interplay between these disciplines and captures the core principles that contribute to a good gamification design. The book starts with an overview of the Octalysis Framework and the 8 Core Drives that can be used to build strategies around the various systems that make games engaging. As the book progresses, each chapter delves deep into a Core Drive, explaining its design and how it should be used. Finally, to apply all the concepts and techniques that you learn throughout, the book contains a brief showcase of using the Octalysis Framework to design a project experience from scratch. After reading this book, you’ll have the knowledge and skills to enable the widespread adoption of good gamification and human-focused design in all types of industries.

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Table of Contents (21 chapters)
Free Chapter
1
Introduction
Introduction
2
Chapter 1: When the Surreal Blends into our World
How a Game changed my Life
The First Game I Designed
Why Gamification?
Human-Focused Design: The Better Term for Gamification
The Conquests of Gamification
3
Chapter 2: The PBL Fallacy
A Story about Social Media
An Obsession with Grunt Work
Secondhand Sushi Making
A Trojan Horse without Greek Soldiers
The Threat and Opportunities in Gamification
The Story of the Good Designer vs. Bad Designer
4
Chapter 3: The Octalysis Framework
Chapter 3: The Octalysis Framework
A Gamification Design Framework for Everyone
The 8 Core Drives of Gamification
Left Brain (Extrinsic Tendency) vs. Right Brain (Intrinsic Tendency) Drives
White Hat vs Black Hat Gamification
How to Apply Level 1 Octalysis to Actual Systems
Quick Intro to Level II Octalysis and Beyond
5
Chapter 4: Putting Gamification in its Place
Chapter 4: Putting Gamification in its Place
The War on Words
Semantics vs. Value
Tomato: Fruit or Vegetable
Explicit Gamification: Games that Fulfill Non-Game Purposes
Implicit Gamification: Human-Focused Design that Utilizes Game Elements
Implicit vs. Explicit Gamification
4 Application Fields of Gamification
6
Chapter 5: The First Core Drive - Epic Meaning & Calling
Chapter 5: The First Core Drive - Epic Meaning & Calling
The Core Drive High Above
The Encyclopedia that Pwned Me
Newton’s Legacy is Beyond a Fruit
Mjolnir is Not Just a Tool
Your Parents are Bigger Than You!
Game Techniques within Epic Meaning & Calling
Core Drive 1: The Bigger Picture
7
Chapter 6: The Second Core Drive - Development & Accomplishment
Chapter 6: The Second Core Drive - Development & Accomplishment
Development & Accomplishment in Games
The First Gamification Site that I was Addicted to
“I overpaid for my product. Take that, suckas!”
Never make Users Feel Dumb
Star of Bethlehem - Guiding Users Forward
Limitations of eBay’s Design
Wait, that’s not new!
Game Techniques within Development & Accomplishment
Core Drive 2: The Bigger Picture
8
Chapter 7: The Third Core Drive - Empowerment of Creativity & Feedback
Chapter 7: The Third Core Drive - Empowerment of Creativity & Feedback
The Computer Game that Became a National Sport
Gamification Fatigue?
Tic-Tac-Draw
The General’s Carrot in Education
Folding into the Crowd
The Elysian Stairs to Health
Empowerment and Creativity in the Corporate Space
Draw a Gun for Bad Endgame Design
Game Techniques within Empowerment of Creativity & Feedback
Core Drive 3: The Bigger Picture
9
Chapter 8: The Fourth Core Drive - Ownership & Possession
Chapter 8: The Fourth Core Drive - Ownership & Possession
Wait, it’s mine? Hold on, I do care then!
Stamps of Sanity
How Stoned Can You Be
The First Virtual Pet Game
The Endowment Effect
Identity, Consistency, and Commitments
Game Techniques within Ownership & Possession
Core Drive 4: The Bigger Picture
10
Chapter 9: The Fifth Core Drive - Social Influence & Relatedness
Chapter 9: The Fifth Core Drive - Social Influence & Relatedness
The Mentor that Stole My Life
We’re all Pinocchios at Heart
The Average Person is Above Average
Social Influence vs. Epic Meaning within a Team
Corporate Competition as an Oxymoron
Game Techniques within Social Influence & Relatedness
Core Drive 5: The Bigger Picture
11
Chapter 10: The Sixth Core Drive: Scarcity & Impatience
Chapter 10: The Sixth Core Drive: Scarcity & Impatience
The Lure of being Exclusively Pointless
The Value of Rare Pixels
The Leftovers aren’t all that’s Left Over
Persuasively Inconvenient
Curves are better than Cups in Economics
“This guy’s not expensive enough.”
“I Don’t Feel Good When My Pocket Is Too Full After A Purchase”
Game Techniques within Scarcity & Impatience
Great! So now what?
Core Drive 6: The Bigger Picture
12
Chapter 11: The Seventh Core Drive - Unpredictability & Curiosity
Chapter 11: The Seventh Core Drive - Unpredictability & Curiosity
And, Now it’s Fun
The Core Drive in a Skinner Box
Sweepstakes and Raffles
A Lucky Day with Lucky Diem
Suspense and Mystery in a Blender
Faking your Way to Virality
Google’s Curious Second Button
Woot! Creates Midnight Cinderella’s
Game Techniques within Unpredictability & Curiosity
Core Drive 7: The Bigger Picture
13
Chapter 12: The Eighth Core Drive - Loss & Avoidance
Chapter 12: The Eighth Core Drive - Loss & Avoidance
Cropping your Losses
Affection Held Hostage
“Why don’t you take all my money?” in Poker
The Good Chasing the Bad
Zombies Make you Skinnier
Flipping other Core Drives Off
Ultimate Loss vs Executable Loss
A Caveat: Avoiding the Avoidance
Game Techniques in Loss and Avoidance
Core Drive 8: The Big Picture
14
Chapter 13: Left Brain vs Right Brain Core Drives
Chapter 13: Left Brain vs Right Brain Core Drives
Using Octalysis in the Real World
Left Brain vs. Right Brain Core Drives
Extrinsic vs Intrinsic Motivation
Slight Semantic Differences with the Self-Determination Theory
Motivation Traps in Gamification Campaigns
The Problem with Educational Systems
Pay to Not Play
How Market Settings Reverse Social Settings
The Advantages of Extrinsic Motivation Design
How to Make an Experience More Intrinsic
Left Brain vs Right Brain Core Drives: the Bigger Picture
15
Chapter 14: The Mysteries of White Hat and Black Hat Gamification
Chapter 14: The Mysteries of White Hat and Black Hat Gamification
Origins of the Theory
The Nature of White Hat vs Black Hat Core Drives
Zynga and Black Hat Gamification
Black Hat with a Clear Conscious
Gamification, Manipulation, and Ethics
When to Use White Hat Gamification Design
Careful Transitioning between White Hat and Black Hat
No Buyer’s Remorse from TOMS
What about Core Drives 4 and 5?
16
Chapter 15: Understanding Other Gamification and Behavioral Frameworks with Octalysis
Chapter 15: Understanding Other Gamification and Behavioral Frameworks with Octalysis
Scientific Research and Game Studies
Octalysis View of Self-Determination Theory
Richard Bartle’s Four Player Types
Nicole Lazzaro’s 4 Keys To Fun
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s Flow Theory
Fogg Behavior Model
Jane McGonigal’s Theories
The World is Your Playground
17
Chapter 16: Level I Octalysis in Action
Chapter 16: Level I Octalysis in Action
Octalysis Review of Facebook
The Score is a Smoke Screen
Octalysis of the Speed Camera Lottery
Octalysis of the Waze Navigation App
The Endgame Phase of Waze
The Next Step: Identify Potential Improvements for Waze
18
Chapter 17: Designing a project from scratch with Octalysis
Redesigning Yukaichou.com
The Octalysis Strategy Dashboard
Level I Octalysis Ideation Process
Core Drive 1: Epic Meaning & Calling
Repeating the Octalysis Process
Summary of Level 1 Octalysis in Action
19
Chapter 18: The Journey Goes On
Chapter 18: The Journey Goes On
20
Wall of Gratitude
Wall of Gratitude
Those who directly contributed to the book
Those who impacted who I am today
21
Notes
Notes

Mjolnir is Not Just a Tool

Some companies have approached me during my all-too-good-sounding soapbox, and asked me, “Yu-kai, this Epic Meaning & Calling thing is great and all, but our product is just a tool. It’s not meant to change the world and solve global warming. How can we add Epic Meaning & Calling to a simple tool?”

For this, one of my favorite examples is the mobile app Waze45. Waze is a GPS-based mobile navigation app that provides a wealth of user-generated information about travel conditions from the Waze community.

When you think of a GPS, it is purely functional as a tool. You turn left, turn right, and get to your destination - very functional as a tool, but not very epic. So how does an app like Waze create Epic & Meaning & Calling? And how do you instill that meaning without giving users long videos to watch or huge amounts of text to read?

What Waze did was brilliant. In the early days of Waze, when you first download the app...

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