Before anything, here are all the slides. I’ll try to explain one by one as a lot of people have told me they need the video and/or context to understand them =P

If you want to see the video, please click here

Continuing from this post… so many to mention but I will pull this off.

Toby Beresford taught me many things in one night. What we are doing MATTERS. Not that I didn’t believe in it, but he showed us numbers that show the size of the impact we are achieving. He can easily steer the world of social media with so much expertise we all have lots to learn.

Melinda Jacobs kicked my ass in inspiration talks. She put my brain back in place with one phrase on the last day which I’m grateful for, but her straight-forwardness is something we all need to learn to have when facing clients. Don’t let your guard down, and keep fighting no matter what comes forth. Believe in it with all your might. At least that’s how it sounds in my head.

Andrzej Marczewski has to be one of the experts with most experience in the industry, plus he knows Dave, another expert with even a book published, whose stories made us all cry tears of laughter but, overall, learn from our own mistakes and failures and keep moving forward even if we can’t design a game and save the world. He can definitely design #gamification systems with ease and simplicity.

Michael Wu should teach us how to keep track of the #gamification data and how to analyze it. He is truly an expert at putting everything into numbers, just like most stakeholders like it. His formula on the linear increment progression for accurate (near optimal) level design will solve the system-design side of the problem instantly.

Roberto Alvarez most definitely should keep track of all of us making sure we answer to what the community wants to know. His Podcast Professor Game is helping all of us learn who is doing what and how each of us are impacting the industry. Still a long way to go, he only has interviewed the top 10 gamification experts already.

This list should continue as I meet more experts. If I didn’t mention you, don’t worry, I’ll keep posting on this subject. You keep doing what you are doing.

 

Always after such a huge event filled with all experts from around the world, keeping the momentum of such a trend as #gamification, #engagement can’t be one of those things missing.

This post is dedicated to all those I met, I know and I want to be working with. I believe, the one thing we are missing as #gamification experts is to truly gamify the conference.

So here is my idea on what we can all offer using our #gamification superpowers.

Michiel Van Eunen should be making ANY and EVERY icebreaker event on the planet. An escape room brings people together in ways most won’t expect. Oh, and the level of production he invested was amazing. I do think everyone MUST learn from him how a great strategy isn’t about the budget.

Marigo Raftopoulus must be selecting the projects. She made VERY clear what we all must be focusing on and how powerful #gamification is. We really need to pay attention and try to use this for the good of the planet and humankind. Quoting Ben Parker: With great power, comes great responsibility.

An Coppens should be leading a team on systematic failure supervision and prevention. She is one of the few people who has seen far enough to run THREE levels of her own framework to deploy #gamification solutions and one of the people with most experience with bad clients in the industry. Her skills are unprecedented and her perseverance a huge example for us to follow.

Sylvester Arnab IS in charge of raising funds. He is without a doubt someone who inspire me to keep going. He is making a difference for the industry in the numbers impacting world-wide solutions with his hybrid thinking. Be Co-everything. He always teaches me we can accomplish a lot more and there is a lot of people willing to help.

Pete Jenkins and Vasilis Gkogkidis should stay running the Gamification Federation and we should all join. They were the most amazing hosts proving their social connection skills are what the world and the industry needs to follow a great cause. They managed to pull the conference with success in only 2 months notice and 2 weeks of preparation. They @#%$ rock.

Keep reading here… still many more to thank.

The core idea of gamification is take from games the best concepts and use them in real-life/non-game contexts.

Learning from games is the best thing we can do as experts, as we cannot hope to reveal all the secrets on EVERY single game or think we can possibly build one super game that covers everything, we must take a good look into others and constantly analyze them and take the best ideas from them.

I’vee been playing Diablo III for a while and it is fantastic. I believe that the part that caught my attention the most is the balance of the system.

Despite what many will mention in forums and several discussions around, the game is incredibly well balanced. Now, this is NOT a game review so let’s first get started there: What do I mean with balance?

Balancing game systems is not about a great story vs graphics vs gameplay.

It refers specifically on how well every type of character in the game can perform. Meaning that it doesn’t matter if you are a wizard or a barbarian, both type of players must be EQUAL.

This is one of the core components in gamification success. A balanced system will let all players feel they are treated fairly while the other hand might have them feel the system is against them.

So, how does Diablo III balances all player classes?

It’s actually complex in a mathematical way but incredibly simple from a game designer point of view.

The key lies within the stats of the player. There are SO MANY stats that it becomes absurd trying to learn each of them by heart knowing how much damage your wizard can make against undead which will change completely right after you pick up that brand new wand.

Having MANY stats allow the mathematical balancing of the players be a lot easier because you have room for all player types to perform and experiment with different abilities.

Here’s a quick example:

Characters have 4 basic attributes: Strength (STR), Dexterity(DEX), Intelligence (INT) and Vitality (VIT). The easy way is to create 4 classes that depend primarily on each attribute: Barbarian, Demon Hunter, Wizard and Crusader. You realte each of them with an attribute and you get certain balance. Think of it as rock, paper scissors.

STR > DEX > INT > VIT > STR

That way you have a Barbarian beating a Demon Hunter beating a Wizard beating a Crusader beating a Barbarian loop.

Now, as you can see, mathematically it will be complex when you get to 9,803 DEX points, however, understanding that DEX beats INT, all you need to do is a simple equation:

IF (DEX ATTACK > INT DEFENSE) { Damage Wizard = DEX ATTACK – INT DEFENSE }

It may seem a bit to “cody” for some, but it really is a simple question followed by basic math.

Now, how does all this round up against a gamified system.

In #gamification you will be dealing with many personalities. In Diablo you think of them as Character Classes. In your office or classroom they’ll manifest in very different ways.

Since you can’t measure emotion or learning, you need to build up standard abilities of your players based on their preference and styles. Close the system down to 4 types (usually the most accepted amount in EVERY brain study ever) and make sure that there is the same type of loop.

Reward growth of each ability based on what challenge the player faces: The four types are BLUE, RED, GREEN and YELLOW. If you finish a RED mission, you get BLUE points, you finish a GREEN one, you get RED points. Based on the same principles as before: BLUE > RED > GREEN > YELLOW > BLUE. That way, people will be free to choose their own style and then GROW and PROGRESS based on such style.

Hope I’m not too overboard with explanations here… Hope you like it.

#Gamification IS about analyzing games and making great systems. If you can play ANY game and figure out the mechanics they use and how to take advantage of the rules, you are already a #gamifier.

The core idea of gamification is take from games the best concepts and use them in real-life/non-game contexts.

Learning from games is the best thing we can do as experts, as we cannot hope to reveal all the secrets on EVERY single game or think we can possibly build one super game that covers everything, we must take a good look into others and constantly analyze them and take the best ideas from them.

I'vee been playing Diablo III for a while and it is fantastic. I believe that the part that caught my attention the most is the balance of the system.

Despite what many will mention in forums and several discussions around, the game is incredibly well balanced. Now, this is NOT a game review so let's first get started there: What do I mean with balance?

Balancing game systems is not about a great story vs graphics vs gameplay.

It refers specifically on how well every type of character in the game can perform. Meaning that it doesn't matter if you are a wizard or a barbarian, both type of players must be EQUAL.

This is one of the core components in gamification success. A balanced system will let all players feel they are treated fairly while the other hand might have them feel the system is against them.

So, how does Diablo III balances all player classes?

It's actually complex in a mathematical way but incredibly simple from a game designer point of view.

The key lies within the stats of the player. There are SO MANY stats that it becomes absurd trying to learn each of them by heart knowing how much damage your wizard can make against undead which will change completely right after you pick up that brand new wand.

Having MANY stats allow the mathematical balancing of the players be a lot easier because you have room for all player types to perform and experiment with different abilities.

Here's a quick example:

Characters have 4 basic attributes: Strength (STR), Dexterity(DEX), Intelligence (INT) and Vitality (VIT). The easy way is to create 4 classes that depend primarily on each attribute: Barbarian, Demon Hunter, Wizard and Crusader. You realte each of them with an attribute and you get certain balance. Think of it as rock, paper scissors.

STR > DEX > INT > VIT > STR

That way you have a Barbarian beating a Demon Hunter beating a Wizard beating a Crusader beating a Barbarian loop.

Now, as you can see, mathematically it will be complex when you get to 9,803 DEX points, however, understanding that DEX beats INT, all you need to do is a simple equation:

IF (DEX ATTACK > INT DEFENSE) { Damage Wizard = DEX ATTACK - INT DEFENSE }

It may seem a bit to "cody" for some, but it really is a simple question followed by basic math.

Now, how does all this round up against a gamified system.

In #gamification you will be dealing with many personalities. In Diablo you think of them as Character Classes. In your office or classroom they'll manifest in very different ways.

Since you can't measure emotion or learning, you need to build up standard abilities of your players based on their preference and styles. Close the system down to 4 types (usually the most accepted amount in EVERY brain study ever) and make sure that there is the same type of loop.

Reward growth of each ability based on what challenge the player faces: The four types are BLUE, RED, GREEN and YELLOW. If you finish a RED mission, you get BLUE points, you finish a GREEN one, you get RED points. Based on the same principles as before: BLUE > RED > GREEN > YELLOW > BLUE. That way, people will be free to choose their own style and then GROW and PROGRESS based on such style.

Hope I'm not too overboard with explanations here... Hope you like it.

#Gamification IS about analyzing games and making great systems. If you can play ANY game and figure out the mechanics they use and how to take advantage of the rules, you are already a #gamifier.

Knowing you are doing the right thing in #Gamification is really hard when you don’t have the right tools at hand. Now, the first thing you should keep in mind are your KPIs. These little guys will tell if ANY project is going in the right direction, however, one thing is the business side of the system and a different the gamified side. When building your system first hand, before ANY data comes in (which is ultimately the one and only compass you must follow) there are a couple of toys you can use to see the north:

Dynamics.

In our Game master framework, the first thing you do is build the game dynamics. Each of them provide a simple question to see if you have dealt with all basic components of a gamified system:

• Narrative > Why are the players here?
• Environment > How do the players feel? Are they playing together or against each other?
• Win State > How do you know you win/finish the game? At what point can I call a victory or a defeat?
• Progression > How do I know if I’m going forward or backwards? Do you provide enough feedback to your players?
• Relationships > How do players play between them and by themselves? Are there enough tools that will allow them to play?
• Boundaries > How long and where can the players play?

SAPS

Introduced by Gabe Zichermann, this simple model helps you check that your rewards are in place and well done:

1. STATUS: It refers to a position of a player in relation to the rest. This DO NOT mean at any point better or worse. Status as a reward can be received in many different ways.
2. ACCESS: Players gain access to information, items, objects, experiences or anything that NOT all players do. STATUS can grant ACCESS to some place (like a palace or the store in front) therefore killing two stones with one bird
3. POWER: The word EMPOWERMENT applies too. The ability to do something not all players can. STATUS can grant ACCESS to information that gives the player POWER to make decisions other players can’t (for example)
4. STUFF: Things not all players have. Things players earn by completing tasks, quests or challenges. STATUS can grant ACCESS to a place where the player has the POWER to use the information he earlier gained to earn STUFF they couldn’t get anywhere else.

When using SAPS make sure players receive rewards that are well rounded in all FOUR types. STUFF can be perceived as money (and it usually is). Not the best way to reward players because by human nature, MONEY IS NEVER ENOUGH!

4K2F

Nicole Lazzarro made this amazing thing called the FOUR KEYS TO FUN where she explains FOUR different kinds of FUN:

1. EASY FUN: Curiosity, surprise, wonder, awe. This are basic elements to consider. Everybody likes having simple fun.
2. SERIOUS FUN: Excitement, Zen focus, engagement. The feeling you get when doing something you like.
3. PEOPLE FUN: Amusement, Admiration, teamwork. Everything is more fun with someone else, right?
4. HARD FUN: Frustration, Fiero, relief. How good does it feel when finishing off a hard project? There. That’s it.

Inclusion

This part refers to the player types and the differences. Make sure to include them in your design as well. We based our framework in the use of the HEXAD from Andrzej Marczewski. All details can be found in his website and in one of the following posts.

The Hexad covers basically 6 different type of players. Based on the work by Richard Bartle, Marczewski proposes four intrinsically motivated player types and 2 additional ones: The player/user type and the disruptor.

1. Achiever: Motivated by MASTERY, this type of player will try to achieve EVERYTHING in the system (finish each and every quest). Think of them as the “A” student, always in front of the class, always studying. Favorite question: “Am I the only who read the instructions?”
2. Philantropist: Motivated by PHILANTROPIC PURPOSE. Really important to make the difference. These players will want to help others just because they want to. They also like to be or lead teams in order to accomplish meaningful goals. Great Leaders. Favorite question: “Why won’t you separate plastic?”
3. Socialiser: Motivated by RELATEDNESS, this players will want to connect with as many others as possible. They love social games, cooperation and competition as long as it means connecting with more players. Favorite question: “So what’s the best place to party around here?”
4. Free-Spirit: Motivated by AUTONOMY they will want to follow their hearts through the game. They use their guts as guidance and love to explore EVERYTHING that seems explorable. Favorite question: “Can I go to the top of the mountain?”

Now, this are just 4 different ways to test your design. We are missing the most crucial one, but we’ll talk about it in another post. This one is already too long.

 

 

I read this information a while back, but I wanted to share it with you.

Violent GAMES do NOT, I repeat, DO N-O-T, cause aggression.

The full article is here (please, support them by clicking) and you can read even further  here 

It’s great to know this because the brain KNOWS the difference between killing polygons and people. So please tell your parents about it.

Let everyone know that according to an FMRI study:

Excessive users of violent video games do not show emotional desensitization

Abstract

Playing violent video games have been linked to long-term emotional desensitization. We hypothesized that desensitization effects in excessive users of violent video games should lead to decreased brain activations to highly salient emotional pictures in emotional sensitivity brain regions. Twenty-eight male adult subjects showing excessive long-term use of violent video games and age and education matched control participants were examined in two experiments using standardized emotional pictures of positive, negative and neutral valence. No group differences were revealed even at reduced statistical thresholds which speaks against desensitization of emotion sensitive brain regions as a result of excessive use of violent video games.