Actionable Gamification: Beyond Points, Badges and Leaderboards

While I am not a designer, I am interested in behavior economics. This was an inspiring and eye opening book. Chou does a great job of clarifying and classifying human motivation, which if nothing shows the reader the ways designers in manipulate their audience. An unexpected take away for me and my family, who love discussing film, and literature, is the way the Octalysis model has added depth of understanding regarding characters and their motivations.

Yu-kai is an absolute beast in the fields of Gamification and Behavioral Science, his model "Octalysis" is the only one I've seen that is able to incorporate everything else in the space in a single framework that is truly actionable. You will learn about this blue octagon that contains all the 8 types of motivation that exist, but also how to apply them to different scenarios/situations based on their position around the octagon (some work better in the sort term by creating a sense of urgency, while other work better in the long term, making people feel empowered and in control of their actions). Before this book, I used to think "motivation" was a single thing that worked the same way for everybody. Now, I will never see it like that anymore, but instead as a powerful tool to drive people's behavior in pretty much any field or market.

Ask people about their jobs and many will tell you of the tedium, satisfaction-free time they spend earning their living. That is without adding toxic management or a negative social environment. It really doesn’t have to be this way. After reading ‘Reality is Broken’ by Jane McGonigal (reviewed in this column,) I felt sure that gamification could well alleviate much of the unnecessary drag of the workday, and vastly improve the quality of the work experience. Gamifying work does not rest on the altruism of business owners; there is a vast literature confirming that people who are engaged and find satisfaction from their work, produce a higher quality and quantity of results. I have been looking for a book that could guide a company or a unit in gamifying relevant work, and Yu-kai Chou’s is the best I have found. Here is why. He has developed an eight-part model which he calls the Octalysis. It is not an eight-step process for developing a stunning game. Rather, it is based on the credible assumption that almost every successful game, appeals to ‘Core Drives’ that all people possess. These drives motivate us towards decisions and activities. On this assumption, it is equally credible that if none of these Core Drives are behind the action or output that you desire from staff, you should not be surprised if there is no motivation; and the desired outcome never materializes. As you read through this review, it is useful to think about how you could use these “Core Drives” to promote the activity you desire from your staff. The first of these drives is “Epic Meaning and Calling”, and is the motivation behind the success of Wikipedia, (for example,) the free, online, reliable encyclopaedia. This mammoth work is only free because many intelligent people and specialists give their time freely to the encyclopaedia’s epic calling – the protection of humanity’s knowledge. The second drive is our internal desire to make progress. This is where the majority of gamification efforts focus – awarding points, badges, or a place on a leader board. The third drive is the sense of empowerment that comes from being engaged in the creative process, figuring out new things and trying different combinations. The satisfaction derived from this drive has the brain effectively entertaining itself. The fourth drive is the sense of ownership and possession. When people feel ownership of something, whether it is a company, a project or a process, they innately want to increase and improve what they ‘own’. The fifth drive is social influence and the feeling of relatedness to others, things or places. This drive would include all the social elements that motivate people, such as mentorship, social acceptance, social feedback, companionship, and even competition and envy. The sixth drive is fuelled by the scarcity of what we desire, and an impatience to get it now. This explains people’s desire for what is extremely rare, exclusive, or immediately unattainable. The seventh drive is what keeps us engaged when we don’t know what will happen next – the drive of unpredictability and curiosity. This is the drive that is behind gambling addictions - we don’t know if it will be the next card, or just one more spin. The final human drive is the fear of loss - “Special offer for a limited time only!” – and the avoidance of pain and discomfort. To achieve a desired outcome, whether it is adherence to a health regimen or installing air-conditioning ducts flawlessly, one or more of these common human drives needs to be present. Where none is present “there is zero motivation and no action takes place,” Yu-kai Chou explains. The diagram of these eight drives is arranged in the form of an octagon. “Left brain’’ type activities associated with logic and analytical thought, are arranged symbolically on the left side. The “right brain” type activities of creativity, self-expression, and social dynamics are arranged on the right side. The positioning indicates both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. Those drives at the top of the octagon are more positive - the “White Hat” motivations, the joy of achieving or receiving. Those at the bottom are the “Black Hat” motivations, and are more negative, such as the fear of a loss of some sort. To be able to derive the benefits of gamification requires a serious amount of analysis, testing, and adjusting. Successful gamification of a leisure or work activity, requires that the participants want to play, not have to play. As such, the first step is finding why people would even want to try out the experience, what positive or negative core desire could and would the ‘game’ address. Additionally, you will also need to communicate very early on exactly why the user should participate in your game, and become a player. The second phase is to develop the rules and tools of the game so that the participants are motivated to achieve the outcome you desire. Then you will need to ensure that the participants learn the rules and tools to play the game. If the rules are too complex, the motivation that could exist will quickly be dissipated. One only needs to hold the image of a cell-phone game in mind to grasp the importance of accessibility to the game, for retention and satisfaction. The third phase is to have the participants engage with the game repeatedly and with ever increasing satisfaction. The reason the participants engaged with the game on day 1 is often very different from that on day 100. The core drives might well change as the experience and competence of the player evolves. One of the many psychological insights to which Chou refers, is ”flow”. In positive psychology, flow, or ‘being in the zone’, is the mental state in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement and enjoyment. Dr. Csikszentmihalyi’s model flow state is achieved when the challenge of an activity is in accord with the participant’s level of skill. If the challenge is too low and the participant’s skill is high, they will be bored. If their skill is too low for the challenge, they will experience anxiety. Gamification needs to take all these and other considerations into account. No simple task. However, if gamifying an activity over an extended period leads to lower costs, higher quality, greater worker satisfaction, larger profits, etc., the effort required is certainly justified. If gamification is justifiable in any part of your business, this book is a good, basic, starter’s guide. Readability Light -+--- Serious Insights High -+--- Low Practical High -+--- Low *Ian Mann of Gateways consults internationally on strategy and leadership and is the author of the recently released The Executive Update.

A very useful and interesting book. I will use the system described in my work. Thanks to the book, I have become interested and plan to study behavioral psychology further. The material is written in a simple and accessible language, supported by examples and links to further literature. The acquired knowledge can be applied as soon as possible after reading (of course, the methods the author writes about were also used for writing this book).

Detailed and easy to read.

A very comprehensive book looking at design in terms core motivational drives and what motivates us as people. It explores the reasons why certain design techniques work as well as how to use them. Many companies who try to slap a "gamified" system on top of a product without knowing why it works end up unable to improve their system when it doesn't perform as expected. For those of the technical inclination, this would be like learning jQuery without understanding JavaScript. This book will help you understand how/why/when these systems work. Don’t let the word “Gamification” turn you off, many of the case studies and real world applications of this text far exceed the realm of “games” as you might think of them. Very thoroughly researched and full of both great theory and practical application. Pairs well with Evil by Design and Hooked. You can find a “No Frills” version of much of the content on the authors website as well. This really is the most comprehensive resource on the topic I have found to date.

Lo adquirí como guía para el diseño conceptual de una aplicación resultó en un modelo que puede ser usado en muchos ámbitos profesionales. Realmente me ha sido muy útil y el proyecto para el que lo compré va pa'lante. Nunca he hecho una app o videojuego, no soy programador, pero con este libro pude diseñarla. Magnífico libro.

Books is great, but not the packaging... If you look for a gift buy somewhere else.

もちろん英語力はありきだけど読みやすい。他の実用書や専門書とかビジネス書と比べてもまだ読みやすい。そこそこの単語力、中学生コンプリートレベルの文法力があれば良いんじゃないかな。

Un buon libro

at first I was reluctant to start reading this book for many reasons, from the top of my 22 years I do not have a perfect English, so I read the book translating it, and in addition to that I have not been used to reading everyday, long live the 21st century. However, as a designer in the digital world, I have learned a lot from this book which has become for me a bible of motivational psychology. Leaving a design school I saw frames for the video game like the one on the flow or even the model of bartle, and it is when one sees the comparative ones that one understands the power of this framework that is octalysis. Yu-kai chou, thank you for this experience.