Out of the 30+ frameworks and models I’ve created, the Digital Convergence Model is one of the highest-level models. I first presented at the HarvardXR 2023 Inaugural Conference and anchored on three foundational pillars: Immersion, represented by the Metaverse; Value, embodied by Web3; and Engagement, fostered through Gamification.
These pillars are synergistically empowered by an overarching “roof” of Artificial Intelligence (AI), which, when harnessed optimally, facilitates a harmonious convergence of technology and humanity.
However, the immense power of AI also gives rise to the potential emergence of a “Digital Leviathan,” a force that could dominate various aspects of society and human lives. The challenge, therefore, lies in moderating this force, steering it in a direction that serves the beneficial purposes of humanity and preserves balance in holistic wellbeing.
After its debut at Harvard, I was requested to present this to the President of Kazakhstan by being a chapter of a book on how to transform Kazakhstan into a leading tech nation.
During the process of creating the Digital Convergence Model, I was able to utilize my deep background in Gamification (rated #1 Gamification Guru in the world), my time as Chief Experience Officer for Decentral (working with Ethereum Cofounder Anthony Di Orio), and being Head of Creative Labs and Digital Commerce for HTC/VIVE (pioneering Metaverse platforms).
It also allows my recent experiences in AI to become relevant to where the world would go through these technology trends.
So let’s dive into what the Digital Convergence Model entails.
A Model to understand our Digital Future
Pillar One: The Metaverse (Immersion)
The first pillar, the Metaverse, signifies the immersive potential of technology. It encompasses a spectrum of realities – Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed, creating a Persistent World where individuals can forge a unique Digital Identity and foster Social and Collaborative Spaces. This pillar stands as a testament to the boundless possibilities that technology can offer, creating avenues for richer and more interactive experiences that transcend the confines of the physical world.
The Metaverse can serve as a catalyst for fostering a culture of innovation and creativity, transforming sectors such as education, healthcare, and entertainment. It promises to offer immersive experiences that enhance learning, facilitate advanced healthcare solutions, and redefine entertainment. Moreover, it can foster a new dimension of social interaction, where individuals can connect and collaborate in virtual spaces, transcending geographical boundaries, and fostering a global community that thrives on collaboration and innovation.
Pillar One involves the following components and opportunities:
Virtual Reality (VR)
Virtual Reality offers immersive experiences that transport users to different realms, allowing them to explore new worlds and perspectives. VR can revolutionize education, offering students immersive learning experiences that enhance understanding and retention.
Augmented Reality (AR)
Augmented Reality overlays digital information onto the physical world, enhancing the user’s perception of reality. It holds potential in sectors like healthcare, where AR can assist in complex surgical procedures, and in retail, offering customers an enriched shopping experience.
Mixed Reality (MR)
Mixed Reality merges the physical and digital worlds, creating a space where users can interact with both real and virtual objects. In the industrial sector, MR can facilitate complex assembly and maintenance tasks, enhancing efficiency and precision.
Persistent (Permanent) World
A Persistent World refers to a virtual environment that exists continuously, irrespective of user participation. It fosters a sense of community and continuity, as actions and events have lasting impacts. This can foster digital communities that collaborate on various projects, fostering innovation, creativity, and excellence.
Digital Identity (Avatar)
Digital Identity represents a user’s persona in the virtual space, encompassing their characteristics, behaviors, and interactions. It holds the key to personalizing experiences in the digital realm, offering users a sense of ownership and control over their virtual selves.
Social Space
Social Space within the Metaverse facilitates interaction and collaboration among users, fostering a sense of community and belonging. This can revolutionize the way people connect, offering platforms where individuals can collaborate on projects, socialize, and even attend virtual events.
The development of the Metaverse can serve as a catalyst for innovation, fostering a digital ecosystem that is immersive, interactive, and inclusive. It holds the potential to revolutionize various sectors, from education to healthcare, offering experiences that are enriched by the seamless integration of various realities. It can also become a key component for international collaboration and place any organization in a key position for global innovation.
Pillar Two – Web3 (Value)
In the digital convergence landscape, the second pillar, Web3, embodies the essence of value. It represents a paradigm shift from centralized to decentralized networks, fostering a digital ecosystem where value is created, exchanged, and preserved through means such as cryptocurrencies and Non-Fungible Tokens. Web3 facilitates permanent ownership and interoperability, paving the way for a more inclusive and democratized digital economy.
Embracing Web3 can catalyze a transformative shift in the economic landscape. It can foster a new era of financial inclusivity and transparency, empowering individuals and communities to have greater control over their digital assets. Moreover, it can spur innovation in various sectors, from finance to art, creating opportunities for economic growth and diversification.
Decentralization
Decentralization is the cornerstone of Web3, promoting a distributed network where no single entity has complete control. This structure fosters transparency and inclusivity, allowing for a more democratic and equitable digital space. Decentralization can pave the way for innovations in governance and business, fostering a society where power and control are distributed more evenly.
Cryptocurrency
Cryptocurrency, a digital or virtual currency that uses cryptography for security, has emerged as a revolutionary financial instrument. It facilitates peer-to-peer transactions, bypassing traditional financial intermediaries. The integration of cryptocurrencies can foster a more inclusive financial ecosystem, offering individuals greater control over their financial assets and transactions.
Interoperability
Interoperability refers to the ability of different systems and networks to work together seamlessly. In the context of Web3, it facilitates the integration of various blockchain networks, allowing for a more cohesive and collaborative digital environment. Fostering interoperability can mean creating a digital infrastructure that is both robust and flexible, capable of adapting to the rapid pace of technological advancements.
Permanent Ownership
Permanent Ownership in the Web3 space refers to the ability of users to have complete control and ownership over their digital assets, be it data or digital collectibles. This concept is often facilitated through Fungible and Non-Fungible Tokens, which verify the ownership and authenticity of digital assets.This could revolutionize the art and creative industries, offering artists and creators new avenues to monetize and protect their work.
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT)
Non-Fungible Tokens are unique digital assets verified using blockchain technology. They have gained prominence as a means to authenticate and transact digital art, collectibles, and other digital assets. NFTs can foster a vibrant digital economy, offering new opportunities for innovation and entrepreneurship in the creative sector.
The adoption of Web3 principles can serve as a catalyst for a digital revolution, fostering an ecosystem that is decentralized, user-centric, and value-driven. It holds the potential to redefine various sectors, from finance to art, creating a digital landscape that is more equitable, inclusive, and innovative.
Pillar Three – Gamification (Engagement)
As the digital landscape evolved, it became apparent that the mere interaction with technology was not fostering happiness and fulfillment. This realization paved the way for the rise of gamification, a concept that seeks to enhance the user experience by incorporating elements of game design in non-game contexts.
The third pillar, Gamification, stands as a beacon of engagement in the digital convergence model. It leverages the principles of human-focused design (as opposed to function-focused design), which is encapsulated in the Octalysis Framework, to create experiences that are not only engaging but also enriching. Through elements such as the Hero’s Journey and behavioral design, gamification seeks to enhance human happiness and well-being, fostering a digital environment where individuals find joy and fulfillment.
The integration of gamification principles can revolutionize various sectors, fostering a society where technology serves to enhance human happiness and well-being. It can transform educational systems, corporate training programs, and even governmental services, creating experiences that are engaging, enriching, and aligned with human desires and aspirations.
Human-Focused Design
Human-Focused Design places the user at the center of the development process. It emphasizes creating experiences that resonate with human emotions and motivations, fostering a digital environment that is not only engaging but also fulfilling. This approach can revolutionize sectors like education and healthcare, creating solutions that are tailored to human needs and aspirations.
The Octalysis Framework
The Octalysis Framework is a comprehensive tool that analyzes the underlying factors that motivate individuals to engage with a product or service. It encompasses eight mutually exclusive but collectively exhaustive “Core Drives” that influence human behavior, offering insights into creating experiences that are both engaging and rewarding.
The Octalysis Framework has impacted over 1.5 Billion User Experiences worldwide, referenced in over 2500 Ph.D. Theses and Academic Journals, and taught at places like Harvard, Stanford, Oxford, Yale, Tesla, Google, and the governments of United Kingdom, Singapore, The Netherlands, Ukraine, Kingdom of Bahrain, South Korea, and Thailand. The adoption of the Octalysis Framework can foster innovation in various sectors, creating solutions that are aligned with human motivations and desires.
The 8 Core Drives are below:
Core Drive 1: Epic Meaning & Calling
Epic Meaning & Calling is the Core Drive that is in play when a person believes they are doing something greater than themselves and/or were “chosen” to take that action.
Core Drive 2: Development & Accomplishment
Development & Accomplishment is our internal drive for making progress, developing skills, achieving mastery, and eventually over-coming challenges.
Core Drive 3: Empowerment of Creativity & Feedback
Empowerment of Creativity & Feedback is expressed when users are engaged in a creative process where they repeatedly figure new things out and try different combinations. People not only need ways to express their creativity, but they need to see the results of their creativity, receive feedback, and adjust in turn.
Core Drive 4: Ownership & Possession
Ownership & Possession is where users are motivated because they feel like they own or control something. When a person feels ownership over something, they innately want to increase and improve what they own
Core Drive 5: Social Influence & Relatedness
Social Influence & Relatedness incorporates all the social elements that motivate people, including: mentorship, social acceptance, social feedback, companionship, and even competition and envy.
Core Drive 6: Scarcity & Impatience
Scarcity & Impatience is the Core Drive of wanting something simply because it is extremely rare, exclusive, or immediately unattainable.
Core Drive 7: Unpredictability & Curiosity
Unpredictability & Curiosity is the Core Drive of constantly being engaged because you don’t know what is going to happen next. When something does not fall into your regular pattern recognition cycles, one’s brain kicks into high gear and pays attention to the unexpected.
Core Drive 8: Loss & Avoidance
Loss & Avoidance is the motivation to avoid something negative from happening. On a small scale, it could be to avoid losing previous work or changing one’s behavior. On a larger scale, it could be to avoid admitting that everything you did up to this point was useless because you are now quitting.
Through extensive research, nearly all behavior is based on one or more of these 8 Core Drives. Therefore, when there are none of these 8 Core Drives behind a Desired Action, there is no motivation, and no action takes place.
Left Brain Core Drives (Extrinsic Tendency) vs. Right Brain Core Drives (Intrinsic Tendency)
In addition, each of these 8 Core Drives have different natures within them. Some make the user feel powerful, but do not create urgency, while others create urgency, obsession, and even addiction, but make the user feel out of control. Some are more short-term extrinsically focused, while some are more long-term intrinsically focused. As a result, these 8 Core Drives are charted on an Octagon not simply for aesthetic purposes, but because the placement determines the nature of the motivation.
Left Brain vs Right Brain Core Drives
The Octalysis Framework is arranged so that the Core Drives that focus on creativity, self-expression, and social dynamics are organized on the right side of the octagon and called Right Brain Core Drives. The Core Drives that are most commonly associated with logic, analytical thought, and ownership are graphed on the left side of the Octagon and are termed Left Brain Core Drives.
It is worth noting that the Left Brain and Right Brain references are not literal in terms of actual brain geography but merely a symbolic differentiation between two distinct functions of the brain.
Importantly, Left Brain Core Drives tend to rely on Extrinsic Motivation – someone is motivated because they want to obtain something, whether it be a goal, a good, or anything they could not obtain. On the other hand, Right Brain Core Drives are mostly associated with Intrinsic Motivations – an individual does not need a goal or reward to use your creativity, hangout with friends, or feel the suspense of unpredictability – the activity itself is rewarding on its own.
White Hat vs Black Hat Gamification
If an individual is engaging because it lets them express their creativity, makes them feel successful through skill mastery, and gives them a higher sense of meaning, it makes them feel very good and powerful. On the other hand, if they are always doing something because they don’t know what will happen next, they are constantly in fear of losing something, or because they are struggling to attain things they can’t have, the experience will often leave a bad taste in their mouth – even if they are consistently motivated to take these actions.
It’s important to note that Black Hat Gamification can also be used for extremely positive and transformative activities, such as helping individuals become more productive, healthy, while enhancing their relationships. In fact, many people voluntarily submit themselves to Black Hat Gamification in order to go to the gym more often, eat healthier, or avoid hitting the snooze button on their alarm clock every morning.
Another factor to note within the Octalysis Framework is that the top Core Drives in the octagon are considered very positive motivations, while the bottom Core Drives are considered to feel more urgent but obsessive. Techniques that heavily use the top Core Drives are called “White Hat Gamification,” while techniques that utilize the bottom Core Drives are called “Black Hat Gamification.”
Based on the Octalysis Framework, a good Gamification practitioner should consider all 8 Core Drives in promoting positive and productive activities so that everyone ends up happier and healthier afterwards.
Hero’s Journey
The Hero’s Journey is a narrative framework that outlines the adventures and transformations that a hero undergoes in a story. In the context of gamification, it serves as a blueprint for creating engaging narratives that resonate with users, fostering a deeper connection and engagement with the digital experience throughout the 4 Experience Phases of a Player’s Journey: Discovery, Onboarding, Scaffolding, and Endgame. This narrative approach can be utilized in educational curriculums, fostering a learning environment that is both engaging and inspiring.
Behavioral Design
Behavioral Design integrates insights from behavioral science to influence user behavior positively. It focuses on creating digital environments that encourage positive behaviors and habits, fostering a digital ecosystem that is conducive to personal growth and well-being. This approach can be utilized in public health campaigns, encouraging individuals to adopt healthier lifestyles through engaging and rewarding digital experiences.
Economy Balancing
Economy Balancing involves the careful design and management of reward systems within a gamified environment. It ensures that users are motivated to engage with the platform, offering rewards that are both enticing and balanced. This means balancing the formulas of Labor x Skill Leverage x Luck Factor, while understanding the value output of Platform + Ecosystem + World Utilities.
This concept can be applied in corporate training programs, creating a balanced reward system that motivates employees to enhance their skills and performance.
The integration of gamification principles can foster a digital ecosystem that is engaging, rewarding, and human-centric. It holds the potential to revolutionize various sectors, creating experiences that resonate with human emotions and motivations, fostering a society that is not only technologically advanced but also joyful and fulfilling.
The Digital Convergence Roof – Artificial Intelligence (Automation)
Artificial Intelligence (AI), the “roof” of the Digital Convergence Model, plays a pivotal role in synergizing and scaling the three pillars, acting as a powerful catalyst that amplifies their capabilities and potential. Here, we dive into the intricate ways in which AI serves to enhance each pillar:
AI Scaling the Metaverse
In the realm of the Metaverse, AI acts as a potent force that scales Virtual Reality (VR) content, solving the inherent challenges associated with creating large and cost-prohibitive 3D assets. It facilitates the generation of myriad worlds, enhancing the depth and richness of the immersive experiences that the Metaverse promises. Moreover, AI can foster dynamic and interactive social spaces, where Artificial Intelligence Non-Player Characters (NPCs) can be deployed, enhancing engagement and interaction in the thousands of virtual worlds.
The integration of AI in the Metaverse can revolutionize sectors like education and healthcare, offering personalized and immersive experiences that are tailored to individual needs and preferences, all created in real-time at near-zero costs due to the AI world-builder.
AI Amplifying Web3
When it comes to Web3, AI serves as a powerful tool that can scale digital collectibles content and foster interoperability between various chains. It can automate the process of writing code to bridge interoperability gaps, a task that has been challenging due to the incentive-driven focus of organizations to only enhance their own platforms. Moreover, AI can enhance the value proposition of Web3 by protecting assets in an AI-abundant world, ensuring that assets with a rich human story retain their value, safeguarded by the scarcity principles of blockchain technology.
This could mean fostering a digital economy that is both robust and inclusive, where value is created and preserved through decentralized networks, fostering innovation and economic growth.
AI Enhancing Gamification
In the sphere of Gamification, AI serves to personalize the experience, tailoring the Core Drives and Game Design Techniques to individual preferences. It can analyze user behavior to offer challenges and rewards that align with individual preferences, whether they favor unpredictability or stable gains, easy challenges or hard ones. Moreover, AI can balance the entire reward economy, ensuring a fair and engaging environment for all users despite their highly varied personalization of game-play.
This could translate to educational and corporate training programs that are both engaging and enriching, fostering a society that is not only technologically advanced but also human-centric, where individuals find joy and fulfillment in their digital interactions.
Moderating the Digital Leviathan
The immense potential of AI, while promising, also harbors the risk of giving rise to a “Digital Leviathan,” a force that could potentially dominate various facets of human life and the environment. The challenge, therefore, lies in moderating this force, steering it in a direction that serves the beneficial purposes of humanity and preserves ecological balance.
This entails fostering a culture of research and innovation grounded in ethical principles. It involves nurturing collaborations between government, industry, and academia to develop AI solutions that are aligned with the nation’s goals of fostering a harmonious and sustainable digital future.
Digital Convergence Model: Our Digital Future
In summary, the Digital Convergence Model offers a comprehensive overview of the key themes and concepts shaping our digital futures. By weaving together insights from gamification, the Metaverse, blockchain technology, and AI, it provides a structured guide for professionals looking to navigate the evolving digital landscape.
The emphasis on human-centered design, engagement, and storytelling underscores the importance of creating digital experiences that resonate deeply with users, fostering a digital future that is not only technologically advanced but also rich in human connection and value.
As we continue to explore the potential of these technologies, the framework serves as a foundation for understanding and shaping the digital spaces that will define our collective future.