Gamification

Just yesterday I was forced to change my mind on gamification.

Gamification is where an internet service uses any sort of game theory to encourage participation.

Essentially the concepts of ‘play’ and ‘fun’ are used in an internet-based service.

Apparently there are four types of user personalities when it comes to gamification:

Killers: these guys focus on winning something, or rankings and the like.

Socialites: are driven by developing a social network of friends and contacts.

Achievers: have a focus on attaining status and achieving pre-set goals.

Explorers: have a focus on exploring and a drive to discover the unknown.

Actually I think there is a fifth type, the gambler: these guys can’t stop themselves even if they want to.

So, when in the past I have disliked gamification in apps or websites, it has been because it was targeted at a personality type that wasn’t mine.

A lot of older school business types don’t like gamification because it appears to them that they are being gamed, which they are.

Gen Y’s don’t seem to have a problem with this for some reason.

In an entirely unrelated discussion, I was just talking to an expert about how to get businesses to contribute more diligently to their own social media efforts.

The problem is content – the people in these businesses rarely have enough content for daily postings. And they generally can’t create it for shit.

I suggested an app or SaaS which gives them daily reminders to write that content.

Starting with small demands it could build up as they got used to the habit of creating (and posting) content.

And, as to the gamification aspect, I would add individual content creation targets with non-compliance penalties being a community ‘swear jar’ where those people not meeting their goals simply have to put money into a pot, which eventually would go to charity when full to a certain level.

For this style of gamification I think there is a sixth type of user, that of the boomer and Gen X character:

Contributors: users that are willing to pay for non-participation so long as the proceeds go to a good cause and the purpose of the function that has been gamified is not trivial