Using Gamification in Startups - Now You’re Playing with Power
Dudi Peles
July 2013
About Me
Founder of Jivy Group, Playful Shark
Advisor & Mentor for Startups
Teacher: Beit Berl, Kibbutzim Seminar, TAU
PhD student: STS @ Bar Ilan
Active & founding member in GameIS
Blog: www.dudipeles.com
Mail: [email protected]
Let’s look at some successful “startups”
Sold to Google for $1.1B
Founded in 2008, Raised $6M on 2010 Most popular site for programmers with over 1.7M registered users
Raised $5.8M on 2013 20 million pageviews and over 100 million Facebook and Twitter impressions monthly
Founded on 2011, Raised $12.5M on 2012 Used by over 1M users to learn to code
On 2011 raised $50 million on a $600
million valuation
Increased Facebook likes & shares by 92%, Tweets by 68% in just a few months
What do they all have in common?
They apply the basic elements that make games fun and engaging to
things that aren’t games
How do we measure startups success ?
Let’s dig deeper…
Only 2 ways: 1. Users pay 2. Someone else pays (mostly advertisers)
How do apps or sites make money ?
Let’s dig even deeper…
Why do users or advertiser pay money ?
3 main reasons: 1. There are lots of users 2. Users spent a lot of time and return 3. There is a service or content worthwhile paying for
And deeper…
Value = (Conversion + Virality) * Retention * Monetization
So what's the bottom line?
3 main things to work on: 1. Convert user better, Bring more users 2. More… time on site, page views, returning users 3. Charge more for more
So what does it have to do with game elements?
Goals, Points, Levels, Discovery
Points, Status, Leaderboards, Badges
Points, Badges, Progression
FLOW, Points, Badges
FLOW
Points, Badges, Discovery, Status, Leaderboards
Points, Badges, Leaderboard, Goals
Value
FLOW Points Status Leaderboards Badges Progression Goals Discovery Levels
Conversion Virality Retention Monetization
Make your user do what YOU want him to do
Now you’re playing with power
Games can change the world
There are thousands of failing apps and sites that
are doing the same
What's the Problem?
The Problem with games
• Most games are bad (4 out of 5 AAA games fails)
• They end
• New content keeps the players, not game mechanics
The Problem with good games
60 70 80 85 90
The Problem with extrinsic motivation
Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars (Alfie Kohn 1999)
Value for User
Value for Your Business
The Problem with gamification
There Be Dragons: Ten Potential Pitfalls of Gamification, by Sebastian Deterding (2011)
Value for User
Value for Your Business
Foursquare
There Be Dragons: Ten Potential Pitfalls of Gamification, by Sebastian Deterding (2011)
We give you points
You Check in
Value for User
Value for Your Business
Stack overflow
There Be Dragons: Ten Potential Pitfalls of Gamification, by Sebastian Deterding (2011)
We give you a reputation (and build our content)
You answer questions
• Improve conversion rates
• Increase virality
• Increase user retention
• Increase user monetization
• Use the product
• Self Improve (learn)
• Status / Recognition
• Fun
Make your users do what you want while giving them what they want
Value for User Value for Your Business
So how do I do exactly that?
Games are fun
For the past 40 years game designers
turned fun making into science
Become a game designer or advise with a game designer
My Gamification Experience
Making things more fun
• Mobile Marketing platform • Mobile Recommendation app • Bank site • Diet web site • Resume writing services • TV Rating app • BI systems • Crowd funding site • Sport content site • Social virtual environment app • Navigation app • Programming Course
Video games Design and Development program in Bait Berl, active since 2005
Introduction to video games programming
Introduction to video games programming
Introduction to video games programming
Introduction to video games programming
Introduction to video games programming
Was it worth it ?
Students Emersion: Attendance: 68% -> 98%
Exercise submitting: 44%* -> 86% Student Mail Interaction: 300% raise
* Students needed to submit only 70%, taking this in consideration the 44% will turn to 63%
Was it more fun ? When asked to pick the 3 most fun
courses out of 12, 50% of the students chose the programming course !
Thank you
For any question just mail me: [email protected]