Reflections on Gamification Thinking

This is a book about thinking mode, which systematically introduces the theory of gamification and helps us to understand the application of gamification thinking mode in business field.

Core content

Four suggestions for applying gamification thinking to business: first, don't be evil; Second, don't care too much about the reward mechanism; Third, describe your users; Fourth, build your game system. ?

First, don't do evil.

Not doing evil is the basis of designing games. The original intention of the game is to make people do things more interesting, but efficiency is not the purpose of the game. Don't treat gamification as a disguised tool that can squeeze customers and employees. Gamification is a way of working, and its goal is to bring people real fun and happiness.

Second, don't care too much about the reward mechanism.

Now, high integral and high number of points have become the least important elements. When designers design games, one of the most common mistakes is to regard points, leaderboards and badges as the game itself, paying too much attention to the reward mechanism of points and not paying attention to the real core of the game.

External reward is not the most important element, because of the "crowding out effect", external reward will significantly reduce the player's internal motivation.

Third, describe your users.

The more accurate the portrait drawn for the user, the finer the user division, and the better the effect.

Richard Bater, a game researcher, divides game users into four categories, and then designs game elements that meet their own preferences:

1. Winners like to upgrade constantly and get badges;

2. Explorers, like to find new content;

3. Socialists like to interact with friends online;

4. Black boy likes confrontation and PK.

If your group is your own employees, you can divide people with different characteristics into a group and set game elements according to their respective goals and needs.

Fourth, build your game system.

It is very difficult to design a systematic game mechanism, which can not be completed by adding a few game elements casually. Most of the initial fun of the game comes from its uncertainty and creativity.

After a game is designed, we can only make preparations, make adjustments at all times, try and make mistakes again and again, grasp the essence of the game, and constantly adapt to changes, so as to better apply the gamification mechanism to our real life.

The real gamification management is to help employees build their own feedback system. At present, the so-called gamification management implemented by most enterprises usually refers to a series of similar rules of the game, such as punishment and reward for employees, which is not much different from the traditional management methods. The only difference is that they look like games.

Golden sentence:

1. The original intention of the game is to make people do things more interesting. If the game you design will only make the current environment more depressing and boring, then the thing itself is evil and not worth doing.

2. The initial fun of the game comes from its uncertainty and creativity. If the external rewards such as points, leaderboards and badges are predictable and conditional, the player's internal motivation will be significantly reduced.

3. It is very difficult to design a systematic game mechanism, which can't be completed by adding a few game elements casually. We can only be prepared, make adjustments at all times, try and make mistakes repeatedly, grasp the essence of the game, and respond to changes with the same.