Talk Notes: Gamification: Gabe Zichermann: ISEPP Lecture Series

IESSP Lecture Series: November 17, 2011

• Talk title: Games: The New Science Of Engagement (Gamification),
• Gabe Zichermann (@gzicherm, personal website, slideshare)

This was a fantastic talk. Gabe Zichermann helped codify the gamification, writing a number of books on the topic, including "Game Based Marketing: Inspire Customer Loyalty Through Rewards, Challenges and Contests" and also the O'Reilly book "Gamification On Design".

Slideshare is here:

Gamification - Designing for Engagement

View more presentations from Gabe Zichermann

The tweets I posted are below:

• He spent 8K hours playing Civilization; "I've met the creator of Civilization, and it was awesome"

  • "I was educated by games by 8K hrs of Civilization, equiv to 4yrs of work; Where in World Is Carmen San Diego"

• "Here's an exercise: think about a hypothetical coffee shop, where you're waiting in line: which would you choose? Choice A: you'd get whatever coffee you ever desired and it would be instantly served when you ordered, or Choice B: you'd get bypass the entire line"

  • "In most exercises, Choice B usually wins"
  • "Economists: your time isn't that valuable, esp if you're salaried: 3m you save in line can't used productively"
  • "Rational people [as defined by economists] would choose A. But in actuality, none of us are rational; Humans aren't rational animals"
  • "Gamification says it's okay to design choices for irrational people for good experiences"

• "We are irrational -- we make choices in split seconds, and our rational minds backfill and justify our decisions to ourselves"

  • "Gamification allows us to create systems that are aligned with our own internal intrinsic processes"

• "Here's an idea for game: plot of land, till soil, plant seeds, wait plants to grow, sell it; does it sound like fun? No. It's like serfdom!"

  • "Farmville shows that mechanics are fun, not the theme;"

• "although change appears to be difficult, many things chg very dramatically: Moore's law, CO2 count, .."

  • "These are examples of change that comes out of nowhere: exponential (collective) vs. linear (indiv)"

• "Gamification foundation: desire to mastery: intermed steps: incentive, challenge, achievement, feedback"

  • "Can't learn German overnight: requires social feedback: which is core of almost any good game"
  • "Games are intrinsically wired to produce pleasure: through dopamine: the wonder drug"
  • "Merely the effort to learn a game [eg, juggling] causes pleasure and 15% increase in brain grey matter
  • "Games may increase 'fluid intelligence' [vs crystalline]: novelty, creativity, do things hard way, network"

• "Game challenge tends to increase exponentially: [showing levels of Plants vs Zombies]"

  • "In my generation: all we had to do was jiggle joystick, press button; current gamers req 6 skills before 2yo"
  • "Alternate explanation of current ADHD: 'current world is too slow' [that's why people tweet: haha]"

• "Gamification: is the process of using game thinking/mechanics to engage audiences/users"

  • "It's not just throwing badges up on your website: like FourSquare, etc.; if no desire, gamification won't work"
  • "Gamfication can ignite desire, like throwing gasoline on fire"

• "Narrative for bandages or soup companies doesn't need games, shooting zombies"

• "Designer Kevin Richardson rethought automated speed cameras: fine based on income: $250K speeding tkt poss."
  • "Portland is one of the rare places that examples gets applause." Haha.
  • "Richardson: all ppl driving past camera entered into sweepstakes for speeding fine winnings." (wow)
  • "20% reduction in speeding violations. Unprecedented reduction!"
  • "Imagine ramifications to US tax code; think about incentives [or lack of] for filing on-time"
• "Showing Target POS system: scores based on how long sales transaction should take: immediate feedback to cashier"
  • "Turnover is down, speed is up, customer satisfaction is up. Gamification incr feeling of personal control"
• "Rypple/DueProps: I've done my time in khaki-land/corporations: annual reviews suck. no immed feedback"
  • "Empowers ppl to give positive feedback to all employees, all the time; instant feedback, reduce cycle time"
  • "Companies like Facebook are using Rypple; StackOverflow is another gamified experience. Karma principle"
• "Problem: Altruistic actions can be systemized; monetary reward is counterproductive; Ex: helping elderly after they fall"
  • "Maybe I can trip old people & get $5 for helping them; changes altruistic behavior"
  • "Notion: karma points given that don't turn into $$; just makes u feel good"
• "Charlie Kim runs Nextjump; wants employees to work out/fitness; put gym in every office; 3-4% worked out"
  • "Put out cash reward, split $20K/yr; got 12% participation; next: team based play & leaderboard"
  • "Now 75% participation: team based & leaderboard; not even gyms have that high participation!"

• Another example application of gamification: Google travel expense policy: "Google wants to cut travel expenses & reduce carbon footprint; policy in travel system; easy to game"

  • "Can upgrade future trip, donate to charity, or get 50% cash back at end; has saved millions $$..."
  • "Incentive; publish prices of city pairs & per diems; any $$ under per diem is banked"
  • "But more importantly, people talk endlessly about how to save travel costs; Amazing results"

• "Other examples: hybrid vehicles: game in dashboard to motivate eff fuel usage; Fusion has Tomaguchi-like pet"

  • "Instead of stats, you have to take care of virtual pet; best is Nissan Leaf: compete vs friends"
  • "These car tools are $100MM investment; why? reinforce daily why you bought hybrid car!"
  • "Now, for 1st time, car dashboard is viral; even passengers are engaged; reinforces brand"
• "Book: Decoded by Jay-Z; target not trad biggest book buyers; so gamified: 1st person to find 300 pgs won prize"
  • "Prize: 2 tickets for any Jay-Z event, for life. Amazing price: didn't cost Jay-Z anything. Valuable to fans"
  • "Took 30d for someone to win; winner hired ppl to find all the pages [unanticipated gaming of system]"
• "Progression to Mastery: good example: WeightWatchers: badges, points; changes u in way only gamification can"
• "Bartle's Player Types: Killers, Achievers, Explorers, Socializers" [axis: ppl, acting, env, interact]
  • "Achiever: like Tokyo Fish Market: $1B fish sold daily, the old way: person standing in market"
    • "Most ppl aren't achievers: 'my goal: take kids to school, not get fired, watch 2 1/2 Men."
    • "World isn't designed so that everyone can win: achievers like it: want authentic wins"
    • "John Houston: working w/hypercompetitive; will find ways to compete even w/o incentives"
  • "Explorers: the story of how they do something worth more than monetary value: like finding all keys in Mario Bros"
  • "Socializers: [showing scene from Valley Girls]: scene is not about shopping, but socializing"
    • "Socializers: [showing scene from Valley Girls]: scene is not about shopping, but socializing"
    • "Bridge, mahjong, poker: all context for amazing social interactions; players will talk all nt long"
  • "No product has failed in history that creates authentic social interactions; Socializers are majority of ppl"
  • "Historically, most games have been social; 1974-present is abherration: audience not young males"
  • "Killers: [showing clips of fave shows: Extreme Couponing & Storage Wars]
    • "[on Storage Wars]: Killers want to kick ppl's ass, want to have everyone see it; must put them on rails"
    • "Killer goals often diametric opposite of community; killers win, community loses"
• "SAPS Principle: Status, access, power, stuff: in order of desire, and expense to community"
  • Status
    • "leveling up: even among anarchists, bike messengers; ppl derive status from how anti-establishment they r"
    • "3 or 4 domains of status: church, politics, industry; now myriads 100K status systems to climb"
    • "A guild leader in World of Warcraft as meaningful as deacon of somone's church: higher status = health"
    • "Higher status people are less stressed out, live longer, healthier"
  • Access
    • "like Jay-Z prize; Gilt Group flash sale site: top 0.1% shopper get Gilt Noir loyalty program"
    • "Gilt Noir gives you 15m earlier access: not free stuff; means you'll spend more $$; costs nothing to give"
  • "Power: editor in Wikipedia; guild in WoW; moderator in forum; power benefits are doing unpaid job"
    • "Wikipedia editor takes 20h/week; power to accept/decline articles is power"
  • "Stuff: don't people really want discounts & free stuff? not really; thot exp: free coffee or telepathic barrista"

• Q: "what would gamification suggest on the 1% and 99% wealth distribution?" * A: "no game designer assumes world is self-regulating. Killers ensure it"

  • "Casinos assume they're under attack constantly; has emergency stop button to stop game, to allow investigation"
  • "In any complex system of value, game designers must control the system; Securities regulation has lots to learn"

• Q: "Do any of these concepts apply in education?"

  • A: "Yes! Mr. Ananth Pai in Bear Lake, MN; did experiment where in 18 weeks, using team and gamfication, went from 3rd grade to 4th grade reading level. 'It's fun and social'"
  • Here's a link to Gabe's blog entry on this topic: there is a reference about a TEDx talk he did on on this, as well:
  • "Those games were both motivational; Lesson: must be fun first, and educational second"
  • "Parents/teachers; must not constrain experiences by what you think us; must put yourself in kids' shoes"

• Q: "Tell me about Folded, where they used games to solve protein folding game"

  • A: "Folded was game built to solve HIV"
  • "Eluded researchers for 20 years; mass labor game: 3K ppl played at peak; ppl good at it, algorithms bad at it"
  • "It's a game designed to get work out of people: the CAPTCHA is designed to make ppl work for outcomes"