Actionable Gamification

Actionable Gamification

by Yu-kai Chou
Released December 2019
Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
ISBN: 9781839211706

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Book description

Learn all about implementing a good gamification design into your products, workplace, and lifestyle

Key Features

  • Explore what makes a game fun and engaging
  • Gain insight into the Octalysis Framework and its applications
  • Discover the potential of the Core Drives of gamification through real-world scenarios

Book Description

Effective gamification is a combination of game design, game dynamics, user experience, and ROI-driving business implementations. This book explores the interplay between these disciplines and captures the core principles that contribute to a good gamification design.

The book starts with an overview of the Octalysis Framework and the 8 Core Drives that can be used to build strategies around the various systems that make games engaging. As the book progresses, each chapter delves deep into a Core Drive, explaining its design and how it should be used. Finally, to apply all the concepts and techniques that you learn throughout, the book contains a brief showcase of using the Octalysis Framework to design a project experience from scratch.

After reading this book, you'll have the knowledge and skills to enable the widespread adoption of good gamification and human-focused design in all types of industries.

What you will learn

  • Discover ways to use gamification techniques in real-world situations
  • Design fun, engaging, and rewarding experiences with Octalysis
  • Understand what gamification means and how to categorize it
  • Leverage the power of different Core Drives in your applications
  • Explore how Left Brain and Right Brain Core Drives differ in motivation and design methodologies
  • Examine the fascinating intricacies of White Hat and Black Hat Core Drives

Who this book is for

Anyone who wants to implement gamification principles and techniques into their products, workplace, and lifestyle will find this book useful.

Table of contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Chapter 1: When the Surreal Blends into our World
    1. How a Game changed my Life
    2. The First Game I Designed
    3. Why Gamification?
    4. Human-Focused Design: The Better Term for Gamification
    5. The Conquests of Gamification
  3. Chapter 2: The PBL Fallacy
    1. A Story about Social Media
    2. An Obsession with Grunt Work
    3. Secondhand Sushi Making
    4. A Trojan Horse without Greek Soldiers
    5. The Threat and Opportunities in Gamification
    6. The Story of the Good Designer vs. Bad Designer
  4. Chapter 3: The Octalysis Framework
    1. A Gamification Design Framework for Everyone
    2. The 8 Core Drives of Gamification
    3. Left Brain (Extrinsic Tendency) vs. Right Brain (Intrinsic Tendency) Drives
    4. White Hat vs Black Hat Gamification
    5. How to Apply Level 1 Octalysis to Actual Systems
    6. Quick Intro to Level II Octalysis and Beyond
  5. Chapter 4: Putting Gamification in its Place
    1. The War on Words
    2. Semantics vs. Value
    3. Tomato: Fruit or Vegetable
    4. Explicit Gamification: Games that Fulfill Non-Game Purposes
    5. Implicit Gamification: Human-Focused Design that Utilizes Game Elements
    6. Implicit vs. Explicit Gamification
    7. 4 Application Fields of Gamification
  6. Chapter 5: The First Core Drive - Epic Meaning & Calling
    1. The Core Drive High Above
    2. The Encyclopedia that Pwned Me
    3. Newton’s Legacy is Beyond a Fruit
    4. Mjolnir is Not Just a Tool
    5. Your Parents are Bigger Than You!
    6. Game Techniques within Epic Meaning & Calling
    7. Core Drive 1: The Bigger Picture
  7. Chapter 6: The Second Core Drive - Development & Accomplishment
    1. Development & Accomplishment in Games
    2. The First Gamification Site that I was Addicted to
    3. “I overpaid for my product. Take that, suckas!”
    4. Never make Users Feel Dumb
    5. Star of Bethlehem - Guiding Users Forward
    6. Limitations of eBay’s Design
    7. Wait, that’s not new!
    8. Game Techniques within Development & Accomplishment
    9. Core Drive 2: The Bigger Picture
  8. Chapter 7: The Third Core Drive - Empowerment of Creativity & Feedback
    1. The Computer Game that Became a National Sport
    2. Gamification Fatigue?
    3. Tic-Tac-Draw
    4. The General’s Carrot in Education
    5. Folding into the Crowd
    6. The Elysian Stairs to Health
    7. Empowerment and Creativity in the Corporate Space
    8. Draw a Gun for Bad Endgame Design
    9. Game Techniques within Empowerment of Creativity & Feedback
    10. Core Drive 3: The Bigger Picture
  9. Chapter 8: The Fourth Core Drive - Ownership & Possession
    1. Wait, it’s mine? Hold on, I do care then!
    2. Stamps of Sanity
    3. How Stoned Can You Be
    4. The First Virtual Pet Game
    5. The Endowment Effect
    6. Identity, Consistency, and Commitments
    7. Game Techniques within Ownership & Possession
    8. Core Drive 4: The Bigger Picture
  10. Chapter 9: The Fifth Core Drive - Social Influence & Relatedness
    1. The Mentor that Stole My Life
    2. We’re all Pinocchios at Heart
    3. The Average Person is Above Average
    4. Social Influence vs. Epic Meaning within a Team
    5. Corporate Competition as an Oxymoron
    6. Game Techniques within Social Influence & Relatedness
    7. Core Drive 5: The Bigger Picture
  11. Chapter 10: The Sixth Core Drive: Scarcity & Impatience
    1. The Lure of being Exclusively Pointless
    2. The Value of Rare Pixels
    3. The Leftovers aren’t all that’s Left Over
    4. Persuasively Inconvenient
    5. Curves are better than Cups in Economics
    6. “This guy’s not expensive enough.”
    7. “I Don’t Feel Good When My Pocket Is Too Full After A Purchase”
    8. Game Techniques within Scarcity & Impatience
    9. Great! So now what?
    10. Core Drive 6: The Bigger Picture
  12. Chapter 11: The Seventh Core Drive - Unpredictability & Curiosity
    1. And, Now it’s Fun
    2. The Core Drive in a Skinner Box
    3. Sweepstakes and Raffles
    4. A Lucky Day with Lucky Diem
    5. Suspense and Mystery in a Blender
    6. Faking your Way to Virality
    7. Google’s Curious Second Button
    8. Woot! Creates Midnight Cinderella’s
    9. Game Techniques within Unpredictability & Curiosity
    10. Core Drive 7: The Bigger Picture
  13. Chapter 12: The Eighth Core Drive - Loss & Avoidance
    1. Cropping your Losses
    2. Affection Held Hostage
    3. “Why don’t you take all my money?” in Poker
    4. The Good Chasing the Bad
    5. Zombies Make you Skinnier
    6. Flipping other Core Drives Off
    7. Ultimate Loss vs Executable Loss
    8. A Caveat: Avoiding the Avoidance
    9. Game Techniques in Loss and Avoidance
    10. Core Drive 8: The Big Picture
  14. Chapter 13: Left Brain vs Right Brain Core Drives
    1. Using Octalysis in the Real World
    2. Left Brain vs. Right Brain Core Drives
    3. Extrinsic vs Intrinsic Motivation
    4. Slight Semantic Differences with the Self-Determination Theory
    5. Motivation Traps in Gamification Campaigns
    6. The Problem with Educational Systems
    7. Pay to Not Play
    8. How Market Settings Reverse Social Settings
    9. The Advantages of Extrinsic Motivation Design
    10. How to Make an Experience More Intrinsic
    11. Left Brain vs Right Brain Core Drives: the Bigger Picture
  15. Chapter 14: The Mysteries of White Hat and Black Hat Gamification
    1. Origins of the Theory
    2. The Nature of White Hat vs Black Hat Core Drives
    3. Zynga and Black Hat Gamification
    4. Black Hat with a Clear Conscious
    5. Gamification, Manipulation, and Ethics
    6. When to Use White Hat Gamification Design
    7. Careful Transitioning between White Hat and Black Hat
    8. No Buyer’s Remorse from TOMS
    9. What about Core Drives 4 and 5?
  16. Chapter 15: Understanding Other Gamification and Behavioral Frameworks with Octalysis
    1. Scientific Research and Game Studies
    2. Octalysis View of Self-Determination Theory
    3. Richard Bartle’s Four Player Types
    4. Nicole Lazzaro’s 4 Keys To Fun
    5. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s Flow Theory
    6. Fogg Behavior Model
    7. Jane McGonigal’s Theories
    8. The World is Your Playground
  17. Chapter 16: Level I Octalysis in Action
    1. Octalysis Review of Facebook
    2. The Score is a Smoke Screen
    3. Octalysis of the Speed Camera Lottery
    4. Octalysis of the Waze Navigation App
    5. The Endgame Phase of Waze
    6. The Next Step: Identify Potential Improvements for Waze
  18. Chapter 17: Designing a project from scratch with Octalysis
    1. Redesigning Yukaichou.com
    2. The Octalysis Strategy Dashboard
    3. Level I Octalysis Ideation Process
    4. Core Drive 1: Epic Meaning & Calling
    5. Repeating the Octalysis Process
    6. Summary of Level 1 Octalysis in Action
  19. Chapter 18: The Journey Goes On
  20. Wall of Gratitude
    1. Those who directly contributed to the book
    2. Those who impacted who I am today
  21. Notes

Product information

  • Title: Actionable Gamification
  • Author(s): Yu-kai Chou
  • Release date: December 2019
  • Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
  • ISBN: 9781839211706