Gamification Features 4 FitCity

Paolo MassaI3 - FBKhttp://www.gnuband.org

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1. I show gamification features2. We decide which ones we will use in FitCity project

By 2020, anyone who ever used the term gamification will be embarrassed to admit it.Alex Halavais, associate professor, Quinnipiac University

The Future of Gamification. May 18, 2012. Pew Internet Report

(Gamification)s a modern-day form of manipulation. And like all cognitive manipulation, it can help people and it can hurt people. And we will see both.danah boyd, researcher, Microsoft and Harvards Berkman Center

The Future of Gamification. May 18, 2012. Pew Internet Report

Gamification is the use of game mechanics in non-game contexts in order to engage users

THERE IS ALREADY ABUNDANCE OF CHOICES!!!!

http://www.slideshare.net/amyjokim/gamification-101-design-the-player-journey

Gamification Features (and related research )

Badges

Virtual goods

Quests/missions/challenges

Points

Levels

Progress bar

Onboarding tutorial (for new user)

Leaderboard (global, local, social)

Warning: all gamification features are extrinsic rewards

Hamari, Juho; Eranti, Veikko (2011). "Framework for Designing and Evaluating Game Achievements". Proceedings of Digra 2011 Conference: Think Design PlayLiterature on intrinsic motivation would indeed seem to doom expected extrinsic rewards as detrimental to intrinsic motivation, via diminishing the perceived autonomy of the individual to carry out given activities (see e.g. Deci, Koester & Ryan 1999 for a comprehensive meta-review of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards)

Disclaimer

Not a lot of research yet (gamification is a new word ;)

Workshop at CHI (Conference on Human-computer Interaction) 2012

Workshop at CHI 2013

Some books (reality is broken, gamification by design)

Badges nothing new actually ...

Romans warriors

Boy scouts

Roman warriors

Badges

examples

Badges (Monti?!?)

5 functions of badges

Antin, J., & Churchill, E. (2011). Badges in social media: A social psychological perspective. Gamification workshop at CHI 1. Goal setting: goal given by the system (getting the badge becomes the goal, I.e. intrinsic again, but not towards the original goal, an healthy lifestyle)Simply engaging students is not enough. They need to be engaged for the right reasons. - Mitchel Resnick (Many students corrupt their learning in attempt to gain a badge) http://www.andrea-zellner.com/archives/917

2. Instruction: understand what is valued by the community3. Evaluate reputation: users judged based on badges4. Status symbol: Badges advertise ones achievements without explicit bragging.5. Group identification: shared activities bind users together, increase group identification, promotes increased cooperation

Badges

Trophy case always growing, i.e. when you get a badge, you never lose it!

Most badges can be discovered them only by receiving it or seeing it in another user profile

For most badges, it is not 100% clear who to get that badge (goal +/- fuzzy)

Badges

Warning: they require some editorial work, clever content/storytelling creators that can create "clever" badges for different activities (checked 50 profiles, explored X, ...)

Badges can be created by users!

Wikipedia barnstars!

(research on) Badges

Badges in Social Media: A Social Psychological Perspective. Antin, J.; Churchill, E.F. CHI 2011

Halavais, Alexander M. C. A Genealogy of Badges: Inherited Meaning and Monstrous Moral Hybrids. Information, Communication, and Society, 2012

Hamari, J., & Koivisto, J. (2013). Social Motivations to Use Gamification: An Empirical Study of Gamifying Exercise. (Subm.)The 21st European Conf. Information Systems.

We don't need no stinkin' badges: examining the social role of badges in the huffington post. Nathan Altadonna, Julie Jones CSCW, 2012 Vol. (), p.249-252

Stefano De Paoli, Nicol De Uffici, and Vincenzo D'Andrea. 2012. Designing badges for a civic media platform: reputation and named levels. In Proceedings of the 26th Annual BCS Interaction Specialist Group Conference on People and Computers

Carlo Maiolini, Stefano De Paoli, Maurizio Teli. Digital games and the communication of health problems. A review of games against the concept of procedural rhetoric. G|A|M|E, Italian Journal of Game Studies.

Virtual goods

They can be traded, gifted sold (create a parallel economy, if someone cares...)

NO: implementing exchange of virtual goods can create social and legal issues, better to avoid them.

Chinese online gamer killed for selling virtual sword (2005)

Quests / Missions / Challenges

Quest/Missions similar to badges

Badge is the final certification of a quest/mission

But points can be awarded as well (and real world gift?)

Set your challenge

Badges are challenges given by systemAlternative: you can set your own challengesPro: You have a commitment (forge motivation) and the interface can use them as a reminder (keep motivation).Cons: if this is totally free, the system cannot measure if the challenge is surpassed or not and how much. If this is not free, it can be basically a badgeEx: I'll run the half marathon in 3 months timeFlow in sport Psychologists who study happiness find that people who only set themselves long- term goals (such as making a million dollars 20 years hence or retiring to Florida when they turn 65) are in general less happy than people who set goals that can be reached next mont, next year or later the same day

Set your challenge set a goal

Points

XP=experience pointsYour XP always increases! Most actions in app increase XP.Map a fit tool = +250 XPLog a run = +50 XPInvite a friend = +1000 XP...

Levels

Going over X points = reaching Y level

Progress bar

Visually show how much is missing before next level.Shall be always visible in the interface.Increase stickiness

(research on) Points and Levels

Optimizing Adaptivity in Educational Games. Erik Andersen, Center for Game ScienceAutomatic generation of levels in an educational game for teaching fractionsHowever I would suggest hardcoded levels/points, e.g. 15000 points = level 1018000 points = level 11 ...

Points and levels

Shall they encodeyour activity on application or

your real fitness level?

Let's choose! (I vote for activity on app)Focuses on the positive things (whatever you do, it grows). Always grow, never decrease.

Your fitness status (not a gamification feature but important)

Not the level and XP!Public or private?

Levels unlock abilities?

Often features or abilities are unlocked as players progress to higher levels.Shall we do this so that users remain sticky because they want to reach level X in which they can use feature/ability Y? No: requires too much editorial work in inventing (non-essential) abilities

Are points redeemable?

Gifts (t-shirt, pedometer, )Points are a virtual currency and you create a virtual economy: opportunity for business but very difficult to manage (require dedicated, clever person)I suggest NO

Points/Levels vs Badges/Quests

Points/Levels focus the player In a linear, predictable way

Towards the main goal (exercise/stay fit)

Badges/Quests allow the playerTo get alternative/parallel experiences

Can also be certifying moments for the main goal

Badges and points for which activities?

Points:Login once a day

Share on facebook

Invite X friends to play

Create route / tag route

Upload/track an activity

Create a new exercise (with burned calories...)

Place fit tool on map

Run on route X

View video of fitness exercise

Read text doing X makes you more fit because ... (motivational)

Badges

Performed an action X times

visited 50 other users profile

Check-in in a certain location,

Performed activity 5 times overall, 3 times in 1 day

We'll decide which activities give points/badges later on

BadgesPerformed an action X times

visited 50 other users profile

Check-in in a certain location,

Performed activity 5 times overall, 3 times in 1 day

Tutorial (step by step)

First steps = forced actions (that also gives you your first points, level 1 and first badge!!!)Goal: onboarding/avoid user gets lost and leave

(research on) tutorial

The impact of tutorials on games of varying complexity. Erik Andersen, Eleanor O'Rourke, Yun-En Liu, Richard Snider, Jeff Lowdermilk, David Truong, Seth Cooper and Zoran Popovi Proceedings of ACM CHI, 2012 # unique levels each player completes

# time they played

return rate=# times players loaded the game web page

45,000 (new) players (!!!!)Context-sensitivity of help

Tutorial freedom (can skip?)

On-demand help

Usefulness depends on game complexity: play time increase by 29% in complex game but no increase in two simpler gamesNO for games with mechanics that can be discovered through experimentation.

Appointment

Appointment Dynamics are game dynamics in which at a predetermined times/place a user must log-in or participate in game, for positive effect.Ex: Farmville cropping, bar happy hoursNO: it requires tons of users and lot of real-time preparation and management

Countdown

The dynamic in which players are only given a certain amount of time to do something. This will create an activity graph that causes increased initial activity increasing frenetically until time runs out, which is a forced extinction.Ex: you shall run 10 km before midnight todayNO: it requires real-time management and can be risky

Multiple players

You can play this part only together with X other players: they could be online at same time or even physically close (close GPS coordinates)NO: requires presence in time (and space), i.e. requires lots of users

User profile

We'll decide later on, for now we focus on individual motivation and how to exploit gamification to be persuasive and addictive for the single user.

Endomondo

Runkeeper

Avatar (customizable?)

No: it requires good graphic designerSo what? Just the photo uploaded by the user as in Facebook

Stanford Universitys Virtual Human Interaction Lab (VHIL), researchers demonstrated that watching customized, look-alike avatars lose or gain weight as we do exercise makes us work out longer and harder. Participants who received vicarious reinforcement from their avatars volunteered to do on average eight times more exercise repetitions than participants without avatar feedback. That bodes well for the potential use of Mini-like avatars at home or at gyms, where people are more likely to work out in front of screens. (And, in fact, many home fitness games, including Wii Fit and EA Sports Active, use avatar feedback to engage players in harder workouts.)Another experiment at Stanford Universitys Virtual Human Interaction Lab (VHIL): simply showing subjects a short animation of their look-alike avatar running in the laboratory inspired subjects to spend on average an hour more running in the first twenty-four hours after they left the laboratory. (There was no motivation effect watching a random avatar; it worked only when the avatar was highly customized to look like the subject.)Fox, Jesse, and Jeremy N. Bailenson. Virtual Self-Modeling: The Effects of Vicarious Reinforcement and Identification on Exercise Behaviors. Media Psychology, 2009, 12: 125.

Comparison with others?

What is seen on other users' profile? Can they set visibility for different features?Can you directly compare with other users?

We'll decide later on, for now we focus on individual motivation and how to exploit gamification to be persuasive and addictive for the single user.

Global leaderboard

UHM, often counterproductiveThe main goal becomes being in the leaderboard and the main emphasis is on fierce competition for being there (fight for staying/entering for a small portion of users, incentive to try to game the system, see Digg) (and envy/disinterest for most users)If we put it, better to have a weekly leaderboard, I.e. always refreshing (even if app-holic will try/succeed in staying on leaderboard every week...)

Digg Top users list REMOVED!

2007 - Kevin Rose: Some of our top users the people that have spent hundreds if not thousands of hours finding and digging the best stuff are being blamed by some outlets as leading efforts to manipulate Digg.So, in response to the increased criticism and an ever increasing amount of noise around this topic, Digg decided to remove the list beginning tomorrow and true to their word, replaced the list with a link to their blog.

Social leaderboard

shows you versus your friends. I may be the 475,296th best player in the world at X but Im number 5 among my friends

Social leaderboard: Bragging/trash-taking friends

Local leaderboard/players

Better just to suggest nearby players as in runkeeper

Social appreciation != gamification

Post on facebook, twitter, runkeeper, So that your friends can support/trash talk youWhat to post?

When?

We'll decide later on

Noom

Gamification: how long?

Can gamification features resist for 1 year? 10 years?

Shall they be designed just for the beginning?

Gamification Features

Badges: YES

Virtual goods: NO

Quests/missions/challenges: YES

Points + Levels + Progress bar: YES

Onboarding tutorial (for new user): YES

Leaderboard (global, local, social): MAYBE