Hooked for Good, with Gamification

The same physiological mechanism that hooks people on Fortnite or Pokémon Go can be harnessed to foster customer connections, spur employee ingenuity, or even solve biological mysteries.

By Christophe Lanternier

For 15 years, biologists struggled to decipher the crystal structure of the HIV virus. Then, in 2008, scientists at the University of Washington found the key to a solution. They developed an interactive online game that challenged players to make a molecule matched to a human receptor, like a 3D puzzle. The game, which they named Foldit, attracted millions of amateurs. In 10 days, the mystery was solved.

Foldit is an extraordinary example of gamification, a technique that applies the fun and satisfying design elements of games to engage people in real-world activities, such as problem solving, promoting a product, or learning. Over the past decade, gamification has become all the rage. In a world where people are constantly barraged with messages, it’s a powerful way to capture and retain audience attention. Gamification is changing how we play, work, and interact with others. And as Foldit demonstrates, its potential is immense.

Perhaps you’re looking for creative ways to build and sustain a connection with customers or engage employees in tough tasks. Maybe, like the biologists, you’re trying to solve a seemingly intractable problem. Or you might simply be wondering what it is about those challenges from your favorite microbrewer that you can’t resist. Here’s the lowdown on how you’re getting hooked — and how you can do the hooking for your particular audience.

What is it?

Gamification is all about engaging an audience in a way that enhances the user experience — motivating people to play for points or prizes or for the sheer fun of competing with others. A key design principle of gamification is that it keeps people coming back for more. Think about social media. When you post something on Facebook or LinkedIn, you feel the anticipation of getting responses and the excitement that comes with receiving them. You watch the number of “likes” grow. These feelings induce you to post more, go back to see your feedback, and so on, over and over again.

Consider some of the more successful examples of gamification:

· M&M’s Eye Spy pretzel game helped put the candymaker’s new pretzel-flavored M&M on the map. Users competed to find the tiny pretzel in an image of masses of M&M candies. The game attracted 25,000 “likes” and thousands of “shares” and comments.

· The Nike + Fuelband inspired millions of users to track their physical activity and workouts with a bracelet and an app. In return, they got feedback, reward messages, the ability to challenge friends, and connection to an online community.

· Heineken, a sponsor of the Union of European Football Associations’ Champions League, created its Star Player Game app that challenges users to win points by making predictions about a football game while watching it in real time. (Will the team score in 10 seconds? Will the goal be made by the head or the foot? )

· 4food.com, a fast-food burger outlet that promises to “de-junk” fast food, has a website that is essentially a game suite. It encourages users to profile their tastes in exchange for a free meal, to make recommendations and win coupons, and to brand and market their own burger creations to earn credits, among other things.

Of course, gamification is more than just a consumer marketing tool.

· Khan Academy uses all kinds of gamification elements in the online video courses it offers for free. (That’s by design: the academy grew out of online math lessons founder Sal Khan developed for his nephew, who hated math in school.) A visualization map lets users follow their progress through a subject, as though advancing through a video game. Users gain rewards and reinforcement by build winning streaks for solving problems quickly. They also earn points for time spent on instruction or exercises.

· The UK Department of Work and Pensions modernized the old suggestion box with Idea Street, launched in late 2009. Within one year, the game had attracted 4,500 users and generated 1,400 ideas — 1,100 of which were seriously considered. Ultimately, 63 were implemented.

· Lawley Insurance had no luck persuading employees to maintain the company database. So this independent insurer developed a contest to motivate people to correct missing or inaccurate information and keep records up to date. Users earn points for logging activities (such as phone calls and meetings with prospects) and managing sales opportunities (such as updating close dates). In its initial launch, the game got employees to log in two weeks what normally took more than seven months.

· SAP’s Roadwarrior helps the company’s sales team stay prepared. The tool simulates the sales planning meeting (pre-customer call), using multiple choice questions. Leaderboards track the best players, and players can challenge winners to a quiz duel. The game also helps team members stay motivated and up to date on product changes.

So how does it work?

Gamification taps basic psychological elements (fun, the joy of play) and their deeper physiological sources. Biologically, it triggers the continuous loop of “wanting and seeking” and “liking” by stimulating the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the brain. Dopamine induces the seeking impulse, and when you get the reward, it stimulates you to seek more. In other words: it hooks us. Some people call this “the winner effect”: like the poker player on a winning streak, the more we win, the more we want.

Dopamine release is an evolutionary mechanism designed to enable humans to move successfully through the world. It ensures that rather than sit around and starve to death, we continue to learn and survive, learn and survive.

Men and women participate in gamification in equal numbers, and the average age is 35. But the biological and psychological lures are so deeply ingrained in the human brain that all of us are potential players. Yu-Kai Chou, one of the pioneers of gamification, identified eight core psychological drives that gamification feeds. Among them: the need to be part of something greater than ourselves, the need to interact with others (in friendship or competition, or for mentoring), the desire to possess things, the desire for something we can’t have; and the urge to know what will happen next.

Amy Jo Kim, another gamification guru, classifies gamification types according to their primary motivation. These motivations are important to consider when developing gamification for targeted audiences.

Explorers are motivated by the opportunity to learn, explore boundaries, and know the rules and loopholes.

Expressers are motivated by the chance to express themselves. They enjoy using tools and systems that enable them to do so. Through their creativity, they look for status and recognition.

Competitors enjoy putting their skills and prowess to the test. External rankings and mastery are important to them, as is building friendly relationships through competition.

Collaborators like working with other people toward a greater goal. They value partnership and shared learning.

What makes a game successful?

According to Kim, the essence of the game is “the journey towards mastery.” A well-constructed journey will attract an audience. If you doubt that, just remember the mushroom-eating, turtle-throwing Italian plumber who attracted millions of players over the past 30 years. (Super Mario, for those of you who are videogame-clueless.) The journey must have three steps:

Onboarding. Here, the new player discovers the story, the goal, the point system, and the basics of how to play. This step is where a game designer presents the core drives that the game will address.

Habit-building. Once familiar with the moves, the player can now engage on his or her own. The challenge for the designer is to figure out how to take the player through repetitive actions — aligning candies (as in Candy Crush), throwing birds with a slingshot (as in Angry Birds), killing bad guys (countless games), and so on — without getting bored.

Because the game must satisfy the winner effect, the game designer must keep fueling the “win-state” to get the player to keep returning. Keeping players entertained means progressively increasing the difficulty of challenges, by creating new and more complex patterns. The trick is finding the sweet spot: making the changes occur soon enough so players don’t get bored, but not too fast to frustrate them.

Mastery. Also known as the endgame, this step is attained only by the most persevering. Because such players are a game’s greatest evangelists, it is crucial that this step be exciting. The designer needs to ensure that these players promote the benefits of reaching mastery, to motivate all the other players to continue.

Finally, no game would be complete without compelling rewards. To make players happy, the game must keep feeding them with points, money, badges, status, rankings on leaderboards or other systems — whatever its particular rewards — so they can track their progress while satisfying their hunger for more.

Good marketers have long understood the importance of this game element. A classic example is the frequent flyer mileage program. The monetary value of the accumulated miles doesn’t even matter; flyers just want to earn more of them. On top of winning prizes (“free” flights), players also win status: they bypass long lines, win upgrades to first class, and earn privileges, like access to the lounge.

Onboarding, habit-building, mastery and rewards are essential elements for gamification. Games intended to be learning tools need challenges that connect to learning objectives as well as levels that indicate progress.

Take a closer look at the websites, apps, and products you use every day. You’ll start to see just how many are using elements of gamification to keep you coming back for more. And whether you’re selling candy or cross-training shoes, trying to boost employee engagement or productivity or aiming to unlock the key to a devastating disease, gamification may be just the ticket for capturing and keeping your audience through the element of fun.

For more on about Yu-Kai Chou’s gamification framework, go to http://yukaichou.com/gamification-examples/octalysis-complete-gamification-framework. Learn more about Amy Jo Kim’s theories and work at amyjokim.com.