[Octalysis Guest Post] The Alchemy of Ingress

Ingress Gamification

“Ingress is an acceptable lifestyle choice”  – @Hosette, R1

How Ingress uses gamification and the 8 Core Drives of Octalysis to engage users

(Below is a guest post by Anne Miles. Email yukai[at]yukaichou[dot]com if you have would like to guest post about gamification/Octalysis/Behavioral Design)

For the past three years I’ve been immersed in a global gaming subculture that thrives around the augmented reality game, Ingress. Then I read Yukai’s book and was immediately struck by the Core Drives and how applicable they are to problem-solving in general.  As a User Experience professional, I’ve taken a lot from what I have learned playing the game. My clients and colleagues are always surprised when I say that. They see games as merely entertainment. (One in particular can’t finish a sentence without saying “Roll Tide,” yet he isn’t connecting how deeply games can impact people. Seriously.)

What I know, and what many Ingress players know, is that while games can indeed serve as nothing but escapism or entertainment, they also have the potential to be a shortcut to personal and professional growth. They inspire, motivate, teach and yes, turn into obsessions. I’d like to share with you what I’ve learned about that through the game Ingress in Octalysis parlance. You can read more about Octalysis here. Then I’d like to explain how I’m using what I’ve learned in my own business. To do that, let me set the scene. You need to understand how Ingress works to understand how the Core Drives apply.

You can download an app on your Android or iOS phone that lets you track places in the world that have XM, or exotic matter, bubbling through them. These places all have certain things in common. There are breathtaking public sculptures or murals, important historic sites, natural wonders. Continue reading [Octalysis Guest Post] The Alchemy of Ingress

[Guest Post] When online brands meet social engagement – a match made in heaven

Engaged User

How behavioral economics has turned online brands into emotionally rewarding user experiences – offering a whole new engaging ecosystem within their online assets.

(Below is a guest post by the Gamification and Engagement Platform Captain Up. They are a tool that easily allows any website to implement game design elements to motivate behavior. If you notice, the little widget on the right side of my side is from Captain Up.)

Behavioral economics is a fascinating scientific field. It revolves around the way in which we make decisions and what drives us to do what we do. This is a new bonanza for prominent online brands – a better understanding of their followers and clients, more accurate compliance to their needs. There is no doubt that viewing user engagement as a revenue enhancer is an innovative concept for online brands and a noteworthy trend.

What was once only part of hugely popular social games like “Candy Crush” and “Clash of Clans” is now driving new and exciting engagement features for leading online brands.

Turning motivations into actions

It’s no secret that user acquisition and online marketing are an endless challenge, and that’s even before we get started on user loyalty. It is a Sisyphic struggle, constantly seeking to get new clients on board while also preserving the existing ones. However, the modern online marketer’s arsenal hasn’t really evolved over the past couple of years. User acquisition tools have mainly focused on more-of-the-same marketing methodologies generating more-of-the-same results. But there’s a wind of change blowing.

“Total immersion” – the essence of successful brands

In this day and age, maintaining a great brand is much more than advertising or marketing. It is not all about the quality of your product or service but about the adrenaline rush created by a flawless and exciting user experience, driving users in and getting them to come back for more.

This user experience is driven by what is called “total immersion”. The whole brand scenery surrounds the user, creating a unique atmosphere and a special vibe people get hooked on.

But what creates this atmosphere? Well… everything. From the big picture to the smallest details, every aspect of the user’s journey is pre-calculated and designed to support their decision making process.

Spot the right motivations and provide solutions

The basic assumptions for boosting user involvement and loyalty through engagement are:

  • People are looking for a sense of belonging – belonging to a community is a valid and powerful incentive to act upon. (Core Drive 5: Social Influence & Relatedness in the Octalysis Framework)
  • The right reward for the right action – customizing and offering the right rewards for preferred actions drives excellent engagement from users.
  • Good design has super-powers – getting a message through to users and driving them to action is a form of art combined with psychology. Great and carefully planned design can do magic to online user engagement.
  • People want to be engaged – they are just looking for a good enough reason to engage with your particular experience.
  • Content is king – it won’t do you any good trying to motivate and incentivize your users if your basic offering – your content, service, or product – isn’t good enough. Offer great content and start from there.

Captain Up – The new generation of user engagement solutions for super brands

Today’s brands realize that in order to attain a new level of brand loyalty and engagement with their fans they have to act differently and enhance the user experience dramatically. To do so, the startup Captain Up has developed a platform that aims directly to the heart of these needs.

Captain Up has developed a SaaS platform to provide a new generation of retention and loyalty, based on insights from behavioral economics. The user engagement platform enables online businesses and brands to add social and gaming mechanics, turning visitors into active loyal users.

The outcome is an immediate impact on user loyalty and behavioral patterns once exposed to the exciting features. Most users are drawn to the the new sensation of belonging and involvement, turning a lot of them into brand ambassadors.

Guest Post: “Game Over” for Climate Change!

Gamification for Climate Change

Best of times and worst of times for Behavioral Change

(This is a Guest Post by the WeForest Team. They are applying Octalysis to solve global climate change problems, and we love to promote efforts that make the world a better place. If you want to share a similar post, you can email victoria[at]yukaichou[period]com)

Shigeru Miyamoto from Nintendo once said: “For those who don’t play video games, video games are irrelevant. They think all video games must be too difficult.”

I say, same goes for fighting climate change.

Life as we know it is about to end. Quite literally!

Nowadays, everyone is busy in their own bubbles, whether it is sustaining a living, building a career or raising kids. We don’t often look around to check what is happening around us. Even if we do notice major issues such as poverty, pollution, climate change, natural disasters, we immediately think, “this is out of my league, there is no way I could solve such issues, I prefer to stay in my bubble.”

But what if these major issues will start affecting your bubble? What if you can still move on with your same routine, same lifestyle and still help in solving one of these looming and world-crushing dangers?

Confronting the Hard Truth

It is a fact that Global climate change is real and already starting to transform life on Earth. Glaciers have shrunk, ice on rivers and lakes are breaking up earlier, plant and animal ranges have shifted, and we already see the first climate refugees.

So yes, life as we know it is about to end. Or as James Hansen – the famous NASA and Columbia University scientist – puts it: “If we continue, if we extract oil and burn that and emit that into the atmosphere, we are absolutely at game over with climate change.”

So, let’s do something about it. In the Octalysis Framework, we know that Core Drive 1: Epic Meaning & Calling is a White Hat Core Drive, which means it is very powerful, but lacks urgency. People WANT to make the world better, but there is not immediate trigger to do it today. Core Drive 8: Loss and Avoidance is a Black Hat Core Drive, which means it motivates us immediately through the fear of losing something or having undesirable events happen.

Let’s see how to use that Core Drive 8 to lead into Core Drive 1.

Gaming and Climate Change

Gaming and fighting climate change –  Have you ever thought what they might have in common? Most people see nothing! But if you look deeper, you will find the link.

Gaming is all about problem solving, one of the motives that makes gamers enjoy playing video games is the sense of achievement and accomplishment they get when they pass a level or get a high score. This is Octalysis Core Drive 2: Development and Accomplishment, where we are driven be a sense of growth and desire to achieve targeted goals. So, what if you can take this sense of achievement to a whole new level and create an impact on a major global issue?

Another important aspect is the power of the crowd! The gaming industry can motivate huge crowds and create a movement that can definitely make a difference. Humans have an innate, intrinsic desire to belong to a social group and exert influence socially (Octalysis Core Drive 5: Social Influence and Relatedness). When we see a group of people that we relate to spring into action, we want to participate and play our part in that group. In the same vein, not participating when other people in our group are, may result in a fear of missing out (Core Drive 8: Loss and Avoidance).

Hence, as a gaming company or a gamer, you could do a lot about it actually.

Fighting the New Dragon: Climate Change 

Gamification is the next big thing. Games are no longer just about scores, building fortresses or fighting the dragon anymore; learning from successful games is now a very powerful tool for motivation, education, and spreading awareness. Several initiatives have already started making an impact through social gaming, which makes us strongly believe that global public awareness about the climate change issue could be significantly increased through Gamification. In fact, we believe that only a gamer could have what it takes to combat the new dragon, aka climate change.

What steps does it take to fight Climate Change? 

Did you know that the total electricity consumed by idle electronics equals the annual output of 12 power plants? There are many solutions that one could put in place. Starting from basic actions such as choosing greener computers and game consoles to activating the power management features on your computer. If we can present various ways for people to contribute to climate change, and let them choose how they will participate, they will feel empowered in their autonomous choice perception (Octalysis Core Drive 3: Empowerment of Creativity and Feedback).

In addition, act as an ambassador to the cause and promote it among people you know (Core Drive 5: Social Influence and Relatedness). Awareness is the first step to know about the issue and afterwards start looking for solutions.

WeForst: Planting Trees for every in-game behavior!

As Oxford Scientists put it: “Trees are the best technology to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere” and that’s what we are focusing on at WeForest.

Our main mission is to fight climate change through reforestation and landscape restoration projects. Reforestation is not just about planting trees, it’s a process of reviving a whole community with all its living organisms. By planting trees, you give new life for our Earth and for the community surrounding it, initially by absorbing carbon dioxide and by being a proactive tool in in meeting the international goal of avoiding climate change greater than 2 degrees Celsius.

Planting Trees adds to people’s innate desire for progress (Core Drive 2: Development and Accomplishment). Every tree is like a reward that people can collect, and if grouped together the trees could form part of a collection set. Perhaps you can collect different kind of tree types: teak, mahony, oak, sequoia and get special powers if you complete a tree collection set (Core Drive 4: Ownership and Possession – we are driven by the feeling that we own something).

At WeForest, we offer trees as a currency for companies to engage their millions of gamers. With this powerful tool, gaming companies may choose to plant a certain amount of trees for every gamer who passes a certain game level. With this, everyone will have his share in solving the problem, whether it is the gaming company, the gamer or the organizations. This is one idea of many other solutions.

As we can see, fighting for our planet can be a well-designed gamified experience, using Octalysis Core Drive Motivational design. We can all be part of this virtual movement and create a real difference. Let’s collaborate and plant trees to make our Earth cooler and hopefully receive the message “Congratulation. This story has a happy end. Thank you.”

Check our website to know more about our different reforestation projects (www.weforest.org) and if you have any inquires or suggestions, please dont hesitate to drop us a message.

Empowering Creativity Through Moral Choices

Empowering Creativity Through Choices and Consequences

Creativity through Choices and Consequences

By Christine Yee

Humans are inherently driven to play, imagine and create. Games that enable the healthy expression of Core Drive 3: Empowerment of Creativity & Feedback, can offer intensely compelling experiences.

One emerging and increasingly prevalent game design strategy focuses on providing players opportunities to consider weighty moral choices. This reflection leads them on an inward journey to venture beyond the confines of their current perspective and mindset.

A related tactic involves creating situations where players are asked to perform seemingly simplistic actions that lead to consequences that force them to reflect on how their choices derived these outcomes. Again this strategy compels players to rethink their boundaries and definitions of their personal system of beliefs, expectations, and ethics.

With both types of game designs, players are empowered to use their creativity to influence the course of the storyline. The consequences serves to provide feedback on their actions and decisions. This offers a very different and interesting experience from typical games that requires making calculated decisions that follow a pre-determined path.

In these types of scenarios, right versus wrong is not simply a black and white distinction. As the player’s emotions strongly contribute to their decision-making and reflection, these strategies add a unique and interesting twist to game play.

What Is Meant By Moral Choices and Consequences?

Naturally, in every game, players have to make calculated choices which entail either desirable or undesirable results. But if you think about what real life is like, not all choices can be calculated. Consequences have to be anticipated by using imaginative foresight and they have to be judged according to a person’s subjective set of individual values.

There is a story of a little boy who overheard two men kicking and physically abusing a fox. The dilemma is apparent: should he ignore the situation or step in to do something? Should the fox be sacrificed to ensure that one’s own safety is preserved by avoiding a potentially violent confrontation? Or should a person demonstrate the highest level of compassion by intervening on behalf of a defenseless animal?

As it turns out in this particular situation, the little boy decided to heroically jump in and grab the fox while kicking and screaming at the perpetrators. He succeeded in running away and bringing the fox to safety (FYI, this was a true story that was recently shared on social media).

Philosophers who seek to understand morality and our social dilemmas explore deeper and more extreme scenarios and questions that cannot be definitively resolved.

One example is the question of the overcrowded lifeboat.

Continue reading Empowering Creativity Through Moral Choices

The Hero’s Journey: A Life of Legend

Image of a man staring down a mountain on his hero's journey

A LIFE OF LEGEND: HOW THE HERO’S JOURNEY CHANGES EVERYTHING 

Written by Timothy Barber

Have something to share about gamification? Become a guest author on my blog! Please write to me if you’re interested.

You know you’ve thought about it. We all have.

You imagine some ne’er-do-well purse-snatcher creeping up behind an unsuspecting woman, and sprinting away with ill-begotten goods.

What’s next? You spring into action, maybe yelling out some pithy admonition as you chase down the assailant. You revel in the applause as you detain him and return the purse.

Or maybe, you imagine yourself on your morning commute, happening to notice someone sitting listlessly on the edge of the bridge, looking out at the morning waters ripple and lap at their feet. You, without even a thought that you’re going to hold up traffic, rush to their side and talk them down from their attempt to solve temporary problems with a permanent solution. As you tearfully embrace, the bystanders in their cars look on in admiration.

If you haven’t thought about it all that personally, there’s nothing wrong with that – think about your favorite movies, your favorite books. Literature and film are littered with people cut from the heroic cloth, bettering the lives of those around them… and sometimes even saving the world.

It’s irresistible, right? The draw of the heroic call.

It would be tempting to think that this is the result of our recent glut of superhero films, or things like The Hunger Games, Harry Potter, & The Lord of the Rings. It’s tempting to think that it’s just part of the 21st century culture we’ve grown up in. But is it, really?

YOUR PLACE IN MANKIND’S ONE GREAT STORY

Let’s examine our belief for a second. We won’t have to think about it much longer than that to recognize that every single human civilization in history has hewn closely to their love of heroism. Classic tales like Horatius at the Bridge & (others) have captured the imagination and the attention of historians for centuries.

One particular historian, Dr. Joseph Campbell, once published a book in 1949 called ”The Hero With a Thousand Faces”, which contained insights that he had gleaned from researching folklore, myths, and tales from every manner of world culture. His discovery is obvious, and ubiquitous – and yet we often miss our place in it.

It’s called ”The Hero’s Journey”, and it was the culmination of Dr. Campbell’s search for patterns in world cultures from Babylonian antiquity to contemporary stories.

There is a staggering amount of overlap between even the most seemingly different of cultures in the way that they share stories of virtue and valor. The Hero’s Journey is that overlap. And you’re right in the middle of it.

The same myths, told a thousand different ways. A single hero, with a thousand different faces. One of those faces is yours.

Continue reading The Hero’s Journey: A Life of Legend

An Octalysis Analysis of WhatsApp

The front page and logo for WhatsApp

How “WhatsApp” says “What’s Up” to Octalysis Core Drives!

Written by Mayur Kapur

Have something to share about gamification? Become a guest author on my blog! Please write to zen@yukaichou.com if you’re interested.

WhatsApp is the world’s most popular Instant Messaging (IM) App, with 600 million users globally (as of September 2014). In addition to text messaging, users can send each other images, videos, and audio media messages as well as their location using integrated mapping features.

WhatsApp is free to download and try for the first year. After that, you can extend your subscription for $0.99 per year (although some people get a “free extension”).

WhatsApp was recently acquired by Facebook for a whopping ~$22 Billion, so I thought it would be a good idea to apply the Octalysis Core Drives framework to WhatsApp, to understand what really makes it so engaging and so much fun!

Click here to learn more about Yu-kai’s Octalysis Gamification Design Framework and click here to better understand the Player’s Journey for the different phases of a user’s total experience with a product/service.

So, here it goes –

Discovery Phase

Here are the core drives in action during the first phase of the “player journey”, the Discovery Phase

  1. Unpredictability & Curiosity (Core Drive #7) – This core drive is often seen as one of the key reasons why people want to try out a new app and WhatsApp is no different. You hear so much about WhatsApp from your friends, etc. – you just can’t wait to find out “first hand” what the buzz is all about! You wonder which of your contacts you’ll find on WhatsApp.
  2. Social Influence & Relatedness (Core Drive #5) – All your friends/relatives/colleagues have WhatsApp, it would be so socially “uncool” for you not to have it!! You must have it on your phone so as to be part of those cool friends/classmates/colleagues WhatsApp groups out there. And it has high ratings – so why not try it out?
  3. Loss & Avoidance (Core Drive #8) – Ultimately, one key reason why apps like WhatsApp are so popular, is because they allow you to do a lot of awesome instant messaging (IM) stuff for free! You can exchange an infinite number of messages, images, audio, video, location, contact info – all for free! Can you even imagine having to pay for all this stuff? Clearly, by helping you avoid all these costs, WhatsApp appeals very strongly to this particular core drive.

Representing the above on the Octalysis diagram, here is what we have –

Mayur Kapur's Octalysis Analysis diagram of WhatsApp

Continue reading An Octalysis Analysis of WhatsApp

An Octalysis analysis of Red Cross Connection

Red Cross Connection app logo

Written by Bianca Gelli

Have something to share about gamification? Become a guest author on my blog! Please write to zen@yukaichou.com if you’re interested.

I was thrilled when Yu-kai invited me to publish my Level 1 Octalysis Certificate submission so it is with great pleasure that I share my analysis of the Red Cross Connection gamified campaign.

Red Cross Singapore built the campaign as a call to the youth of Singapore to eliminate blood shortages. The effort did a tremendous job with Discovery and Onboarding, but in my opinion, it needed some serious work on Scaffolding and End-game dynamics. Stick around and see if you agree with me. 

The analysis has remained mainly intact, only improved from the insights I got from Yu-kai’s review on it. Funny story, when I submitted it, I happened to be in the monthly top 10 on Yu-kai’s website leaderboard and I earned a review! Free Lunch mechanic! Whoohoo!

Now, to the analysis. I kept Yu-kai’s guidelines for the submission so it is easy to follow.

  1. Pick any product or gamified system in the market that you think does a very good job on engagement (ideally its successful, and you know about it already).
  2. Provide a brief intro of what it is. Even better, but optional, is if you come up with a full Strategy Dashboard.
  3. Analyze it with an Octalysis Chart with the Octalysis Tool (www.yukaichou.com/octalysis-tool) or drawings/ppt through the 8 Core Drives.
  4. Identify not only what among the 8 Core Drives is already present (make sure you tie that into how that motivates people, instead of just dropping terms), and put in suggested ways that this can do even better by improving more of the 8 Core Drives.

Continue reading An Octalysis analysis of Red Cross Connection