So, what’s the limit?

It’s fair to say the game ends when someone wins. That could be your limit in terms of time but, you must define where can they play.

Yes, you can also say “anywhere” but, what’s the game about?

There is absolutely no game that has no boundaries. If you don’t limit the game in terms of place and time, it’s not a game, it’s just play.

But, what about Pokemon Go? Isn’t that a game you can play LITERALLY anywhere?

NOPE. You can’t play it unless you have your cellphone/mobile device with you. Starting to see the difference? The boundaries of a supposedly limitless game are defined by the tools you have to use.

The boundaries of time are also important. As “infinite” as it seems, Pokemon Go actually is a connection of many very short battles. This way, you play for a couple of hours and then go back to your life. In a gamified system you MUST think exactly like that. You get into the system, interact for a while with it, define your goals, check your progression and REST.

Think of a soccer match. If it didn’t have boundaries of space. You could keep kicking the ball all the way to the ocean… seems a bit off right? And in terms of time? How long can the players actually play without falling to the ground completely spent?

Defining the boundaries of space not only depend on the physical space but also on the tools you need to interact (like facebook)

Defining your boundaries of time not only depend on how long will it take the players to get to the Win State but, the amount of actual time they can play through each attempt.

Perhaps when we get to the definition of this game mechanics we can see even more examples.

Upcoming, Game Mechanics, the 12 categories.

How can the players interact with the system and what is their relationship with other players?

Another way to see this is answering how the players connect to each other and to the system.

Let’s say you give them points. What are the points used for? Can they spend them like money or can they use them to increase their abilities to upgrade themselves and tackle even bigger challenges?

Yes it starts to sound a bit redundant but, at this point, you want to define what the players can do with everything they have built and worked so hard for.

Can they hire other players to make theirs paths easier? Can they hire them to get help? Are they part of a guild?

I divided this Dynamic into Solo and Team relationships. Solo defines mechanics that the player uses to define himself within the system (like defining their rating as a hunter or a researcher) while the team relationships are about who they are working with (like building guilds or alliances).

What does that player level actually represents? Imagine you give 4 different paths. The Win State is defined by mastering two of those paths. The level of the player represents his progress in those paths, however, they can only achieve the master level by mentoring lower level players. At this point, your relationship dynamic should say something like: Players must be mentors of lower levels when they get to X level.

Notice how one thing is saying they are part of a guild and ANOTHER is defining HOW the players play with the system and between themselves. Regardless of the guild you are into, the players must GROW both ways, as an individual and as part of something bigger.

Upcoming, the last dynamic: Boundaries

You just got one gazillion points in your wallet! Are they good for something? Is it good to have that many? Is the goal of the game getting as many or as few points as possible?

The progression is the way for the players to know where they stand at any given moment. When a soccer player looks to the score board, they know if they are winning or losing based on a simple number and just a little bit of math.

When you define your progression you have to make sure there is a clear mechanic keeping track of it and a perfect order the players which way is north.

Let’s say in our example, getting a gazillion points (GP) is good but the goal of the game is to get 8GP You know you have 7 GP to go, you realize its not even half time and you see there are still plenty of opportunities for you to build upon those points. We know, we are moving TOWARDS the goal.

Now, in terms of categories, I divided progression into Alternative and Linear. In a Linear progression you have to go in  order from activity to activity to progress, so to reach goal 8 you need to finish tasks 1 through 7 first. However, in alternative progression you don’t have to follow a set of objectives in order, you just finish them in any given order according to your liking. You don’t have to reach goal 8 because they aren’t in order, but you have to complete 8 tasks to finish.

Other ways to see these is offering the players multiple paths. You will become either a doctor or a web designer but it’s really hard to become both, however if the goal is to achieve a degree in something, it doesn’t matter which way you go. Now, you can have systems that offer multiple choices (like paths) but, once in the path, you have to follow a linear progression to get to the goal and can’t change that road until a certain point in the system.

A cool idea is to tie each path to certain skills so the players will actually require such to move forward and overcome the challenge.

On our next post, we will check how players interact with the system: The Relationship dynamic

There is a huge difference between time running out and winning the game, right?

The Win State dynamic is ABSOLUTELY fundamental. Unless of course you think you can keep your players playing forever which is impossible.

After you have decided what your Narrative is, make sure you are clear on how the game ends.

What condition MUST be met in order to declare a win or a loss? In soccer, you know if you are 3 goals ahead that you are winning, but you DON’T WIN until the time is over and that goal difference stays the same.

Making it clear on the conditions of winning should clear out any doubts in the players’ head. Think of it as when you read the instructions on a new board game. You want to know what’s the point and how to win. All other details are usually figured out by doing the most outrageous thing: playing.

Make sure that even if your system can’t be beaten (like tetris, where you literally CAN’T win) there has to be some indication of success on each attempt. Always show how they are performing and make sure it FEELS in the right or wrong direction.

Maybe it’s all about how many points you manage to collect this day and everyday the points are reset but, knowing how many points you got today vs yesterday will give you a sense of accomplishment.

Our next post is about feedback. Once you know where to go, you have to plan your trip: The Progression Dynamic

 It’s not the same to play with your friends than against them. The Environment dynamic will dictate how the players will feel through their playing.

I always address this with a simple question: Is it a competition or a team effort?

Do you want a classroom to feel more cooperative and work together towards a goal or do you want them to prove who is better between the players?

It’s known that cooperation is preferred by women and competition is usually favored by men, however, you must be careful in your choosing towards each mechanic tied to this core.

If you promote a cooperation environment in a place that needs competition (like the sales department) you might end up demotivating your players. On the other hand, if you have players that want to work together as a team and won’t let them, it will result in catastrophe.

You can alternate between modes, just like a game where you can invite friends to play and help you when a level is too hard but, you will always keep your personal score.

Competition is really fun as long as it won’t stumble upon other players. Unless of course your players are all disruptors looking to take all the others out of action and you just want the last survivor.

Cooperation can also make people the game is unfair if not all players are “sort-of” forced to contribute to the same effort.

Just make sure you have defined your audience and are sure how they should feel why playing. It’s all about these emotions what will drive them towards our next post: The Win State Dynamic.

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