gamification book

Gamification Book: Actionable Gamification – Beyond PBLs

“Yu-kai is at the cutting edge of the field of behavioral design.”

– Nir Eyal, author of Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products

After 20+ years of Gamification practice and study, after consulting for clients such as Google, Accenture, and Tesla, I decided it was time to share my knowledge and expertise with everyone around the world.

To share my knowledge, I decided to write and publish a book about Gamification, but not just any book: my goal was to write the definitive book about Gamification that empowered a reader to immediately take action on their personal and professional lives.

I’ll admit I was nervous when I published the book, but today, I am immensely proud and humbled by the positive impact that my book has created.

actionable gamification yukai chou book

Actionable Gamification – Beyond Points, Badges, and Leaderboards has had a positive impact on readers, ranking 4.6 out of 5 stars on Amazon. It has become the de facto learning material in classrooms around the world and has been organically translated into over 15 languages.

Pictures with me and readers from around the world

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Reviews of the Gamification Book

I’ve been following Yu-kai’s work on gamification for years and have enjoyed his deep insights and actionable recommendations. Octalysis is a powerful and pragmatic framework to understand human nature and positive motivators that encourage people to do their best work. It should be required reading for anyone building, managing, or collaborating with a team, community, or ecosystem.

-Susie Wee, CTO of Networked Experiences at Cisco Systems


Yu-kai’s Insights were instrumental in helping Lucky Diem supercharge our client La Quinta’s bookings per user by 206% and incremental revenue per user by $157 (132% Lift) against the control group. Being able to achieve a viral coefficient of 530%, I would recommend any business to work with Yu-kai and learn his Octalysis Framework.

-Andrew Landis, Founder & CEO of Lucky Diem


I’ve been tracking the development of Octalysis for over 2 years now, and It’s become a comprehensive framework for enterprise gamification. Psychology is at the core of every activity, and game designers are masters at it. Yu-kai’s framework has mapped out the various dimensions for reasoning about and optimizing a gamified enterprise process. I have no doubt that it will make its way into business school text books soon.

-Moataz Rashad, Former Head of Software Architecture at Sony Mobile


Yu-kai is the real deal. His experience, expertise and passion make this a “must read” for those looking to grasp the possibilities available through applied gamification.

-Jeff Gates, formal counsel to U.S. Senate Committee on Finance and author of The Ownership Solution, Democracy at Risk, and Guilt By Association


Yu-kai’s reputation precedes him in the field of gamification. HIs Octalysis framework is both elegantly simple and intricately complex. His book is not only extrinsically rewarding to read, but intrinsically motivating to apply; it’s wickedly effective, and yet divinely true. Octalysis brilliantly unified all these seemingly conflicting aspects of gamification into a single cohesive framework with a hidden twist in the middle of it – it’s sensational.

-Michael Wu, Chief Scientist of Lithium Technologies


This book is probably the most important and well researched guide to Gamification that is on the market today. If you think Gamification is about gaming stuff them you are dead wrong. It’s about how your brain works and is motivated.

I interviewed Yu-kai for the Business Book Talk Podcast and his understanding and depth of knowledge kept me on the edge of my studio seat for over 45 minutes. This is probably one of the best values on Amazon today if you are a business manager, marketing expert or entrepreneur. I can’t wait for his next book.

-Bob Garlick, Host of Business Book Review Podcast


Yu-kai’s book makes gamification practical. It is chock full of specific examples, suggestions for implementations, and pitfalls to avoid. Actionable Gamification is a gold mine of insights, and those who study and practice what it offers will have a powerful toolkit of incentives for business and personal contexts. Run, don’t walk, to get your copy – I highly recommend it.

-Chuck Pickelhaupt, VP of Emerging Technologies R&D for Fidelity Investments


Yu-kai shows us that gamification is about customer centric thinking, and certainly much more than adding game pieces to our customer experience designs. His Octalysis framework is a guide by which we can construct our services to resonate naturally with our customers. This way of thinking will lead us to design products and services that engage our customers, and motivate them to interact with us more frequently and over a longer period of time. The end result is greater value for the organization.

-Paul Brown, Regional VP of AIG Japan


Yu-kai’s Octalysis framework brilliantly explains the intricate relationships between human behaviors and their inner drives. Accompanied by numerous application examples, Octalysis is the turn key for gamification in any product and service design.

-Dr. Jianming Dong, Chief User Experience Architect at Huawei


Don’t waste your time with other books that only scratch the surface or include information without any practical application. Yu-Kai is master of the craft and has written a book that is fun to read as it is pragmatic. If you are looking for an out of the box book where you can simply add a “game” to some element of “work” you will be disappointed (but not as disappointed as finding a book like that, only to see the outcome failing).

The key here is the Octalysis framework – an easy way to audit any process, class, or element of your life for game elements, and then take action to boost on include more, driving better results. Order two copies of the book, since you will want to share it as soon as you read it!”

-Jon D Harrison, Author of “Mastering The Game: What Video Games Can Teach Us About Success In Life.


actionable gamification yukai chou book


My book is NOT about why Gamification is important or why it’s awesome. There are a ton of historical books about Gamification on the market that define the term and speculate about its origins.

My Gamification book is meant to be actionable, empowering you to immediately apply the lessons and techniques to your life and to your company.

I hope that you will join me on this amazing journey to gamify life. And if you do buy my Gamification book, then please leave a comment below and give me your feedback.

With sincerity and appreciation,

Yu-kai Chou

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Every week I hop on a conference call to teach, answer questions, and give feedback to members of Octalysis Prime. If you want to take your Gamification practice to the next level, then come join us.

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20 thoughts on “Gamification Book: Actionable Gamification – Beyond PBLs”

  1. Thank you for your hard work. Truly fundamental knowledge about how to approach the creation of products!

  2. Love the Book ! Plowed through it in a few days and started to play on the website. Videos are a blast, bring back the puzzled looks on the animals faces and the sound whenever you say the word Octalysis. Classic stuff.

  3. Bought the book a couple of days ago, now I need to convince people in the office i am actually working while i read on my kindle. 😉

  4. Ryan Julyan  Preorder is not available yet, but do signup to the mailing list above to get notified when its ready.

    I’ll be filling out more details of what the book entails soon.

    1. n/a,I understand you have strong feelings on this topic. Fine. But please don’t let strong feelings cloud your sense of judgment.One last point. The Rohrmann et al. study is noteworthy for two findings:1. There is no difference in testosterone level between white Americans and black Americans.2. Testosterone levels are higher in middle-aged black Americans (45-69) than in young black Americans (20-44.In my humble opinion, the second finding nullifies the credibility of the first. Perhaps you feel otherwise. Fine.

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