Archive for the ‘ Engagement & Motivation ’ Category

Education MMOs: UR Doin It Wrong

Many game people like the idea of educational MMOs (or at least acknowledging the real learning opportunities present in entertainment MMOs), and educators like the idea of gamified curriculum to engage what they perceive as a gamer generation of kids, so there has been momentum for educational MMOs for many years now. But are education MMOs effectively targeting the aspects of MMO design that really get players engaged and motivated, or are they focusing too much on making the sale and pleasing whoever is paying for the game development? [ READ MORE ]

Could Gameplay Combat TV Ad Zapping and Zipping?

Gameplay may help stop television watchers from "zapping and zipping" through commercial breaks. Would a good game make you pay closer attention to television commercials? Would you tune into certain programs or watch the news on a particular station if you knew there would be a round of trivia or some game token to collect? Consider the possible benefits and pitfalls of gameifying television commercials, especially for local businesses that typically have not been able to keep up with the feature-film quality production values in many big brand commercials today[ READ MORE ]

Nicole Lazzaro: a Useful Theory of Fun

Do you think about the full spectrum of fun when you design user experiences? Do you spend as much time thinking about player emotions as you spend on the game mechanic and rule design? Check out Nicole Lazzaro's work. She is insightful, comprehensive, and she thinks outside the box of the mainstream video game industry. [ READ MORE ]

Know the Limits of Game Mechanics

If you're a website or app designer, there is a good introductory slideshow now for using game mechanics effectively in non-game product designs, thanks to Sebastian Deterding. It's a wonderful summary of how games are effective motivators and the pitfalls you might encounter if you try to leverage game mechanics in your user experience design for products that aren't traditional games. It's best watched in fullscreen because there is a lot of small text, but it's well worth your time[ READ MORE ]

Three Tips for Special Event Games

It could be argued that special events, like holidays and splashy promotional games, need to happen infrequently to retain their value. Focusing our marketing game designs on the most important KPIs is crucial. It's also important that we judge the success of marketing game campaigns on whether they attain the specific results they were intended to achieve, not whether they accomplished every possible marketing goal with just one game. [ READ MORE ]

Game Industry Outsiders Weren’t Surprised. At All.

The typical pro game developer is not surprised when the latest AAA console game sells well, but they seem a few beats behind when it comes to understanding how their craft relates to engaging, motivating interactive entertainment like Club Penguin, Stardoll, IMVU, Second Life's Ozimals, Foursquare, Polyvore, and HuffPost Badges. I don't think the problem is elitism, just that the world of entertainment looks very different from inside the vertical market known as the games industry[ READ MORE ]

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