24 Essential Game Mechanics for Marketers

24 Essential
Game Mechanics for
Marketers
@ftorstensson

tisdag 14 januari 14

ftorstensson.com

We humans are players by
default.
Don’t hate the game, love
the mechanics.
@ftorstensson


ftorstensson.com

Mechanic #1

Achievement
It feels good to have accomplished
something. An accomplishment are
often viewed as rewards in and of
themselves but it will work even better
if you visualise the progress with a
badge, level and points.
Swedish kids swimming badges
24 Essential Game Mechanics for Marketers
@ftorstensson ftorstensson.com


Mechanic #2

Stubbornness
If you hook them, players have the
tendency to keep doing what they have
been doing. It’s hard to quit.
Like this; “I wouldn’t spend 10 hours
on something unless it was useful.
Therefore this must be useful, so I can
keep doing it.”
Don’t do the last run! (As we say in Sweden)


Mechanic #3

Feedback
One of the most important mechanic
for engagement is feedback. Feedback
is a way to visualize progress. There’s
two kinds of feedback; social - from
other users, and system - from the
“game” - often statistics. The social
kind is the most engaging.
Facebook likes is a simple form social feedback.


Mechanic #4

Envy

The desire to have what others have. In
order for this to be effective seeing
what other people have must be
employed.
And for it to work in our favor; a clear
way to obtain it.
WTF!!


Mechanic #5

Status
Users are often motivated by trying to
reach a higher level or status. It’s
important to build your community in a
way that you recognized and endorse
member mastery both from with in the
system and socially.
Keep up the good work! Very impressive boys!


Mechanic #6

Team Work
We are social creatures and are built to
work together to solve riddles,
problems and all sorts of different
challenges. Immensely viral and very
fun.
This mechanic goes deep.


Mechanic #7

Be Local
Be local never be boring. Local isn’t just
good for the environment. We care
close. The closer the better. We do and
care more for both our local physical
community and our passion
communities.
Use with care. It’s easy to spot a fake local.


Mechanic #8

News

News are feedback from the world
around us. To get good information is
vital for our survival. That’s why “to
know what’s going on” it’s such a
powerful mechanic. News is fast, it’s
now!
No body cares about yesterdays news.



Gossip is news too.

Mechanic #9

Suspense
Suspense keeps people going. The trick
with information is to release it the
minimum possible snippets to gain the
appropriate level of understanding at
each point during a interaction
narrative.
The promise of suspense gather the crowds.
Cliffhang your story transmedial.


Mechanic #10

Recognition
Recognition is a form of system
feedback that are given to user from the
community when they done something
good. Should be a bit unexpected, not
directly connected to a specific
achievement.
Use big data to recognize your valuable
players and help them build their
status.


The 10 of dec 2000 was a great day for gamification.
The Swedish scientist Arvid Carlsson was awarded
the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his
work on dopamine.

Mechanic #11

Speed Bumps
Speed bumps can be a powerful game
mechanic to induce a behavioral shift.
Disincentives doesn’t need to be a bad
experience for the user.

Example: losing health points, amazon’s checkout
line removing all links to tunnel the buyer to
purchase, speeding traps.


Mechanic #12

Free Lunch
A mechanic in which a player feels that
they are getting something for free due
to someone else having done work. It’s
critical that work is perceived to have
been done (just not by the player in
question) to avoid breaching trust in
the scenario. The player must feel that
they’ve “lucked” into something.



This is a mechanic that Wrapp often use variations
of. Example: Buy one burger and give away one for
free to a friend.

Mechanic #13

Countdown
A mechanic that builds suspense
(stress) that creates an activity graph
that causes increased initial activity
increasing frenetically until time runs
out, which is a forced extinction.
This 24 Mechanics are a sort of countdown. The
suspense is killing me!!


Mechanic #14

Fun

Fun Once, Fun Always. There are
action that (to some) are enjoyable to
repeat all the time. Generally this very
simple actions. There is often also a
limitation to the total level of
enjoyment of the action.
Burst that bubble (wrap)!


Mechanic #15

Epic Meaning
Users will be highly motivated if they
believe in what they are working to
achieve something great, something
awe-inspiring, something bigger than
themselves.
My daughter Ediths basket ball team i powered by
epic meaning!


Mechanic #16

Progression
Progression is a fundamental feedback/
collection mechanic in which success is
granularly displayed as you are
completing itemized tasks. You get a
dopamine kick every time the bar
moves and you feel an urge
to complete the task.



Great work! 16 of 24 mechanics completed!

Mechanic #17

Customize
Ownership is a powerful mechanic for
longtime engagement. A good way too
make you feel like an owner in
the virtual world is to allow the users to
customize their “own space”
Avatars are a common custom.



Mechanic #18

Pride

Pride is the feeling joy of an
accomplishment and ownership of
that accomplishment. Is has to do with
your status in your tribe.

And also the status of your tribe in connection to
others. Pride basic human feeling.


Mechanic #19

Social Leader Boards
A good way to make a competition
engaging and relevant for more people
than the ones in the top is to rank of all
individuals in a micro-set. Often great
for distributed game dynamics where
you want many micro-competitions or
desire to induce loyalty.
Check in and get one free is a simpler variant
on the theme


Mechanic #20

Loyalty
The concept of feeling a positive
sustained connection to an entity
leading to a feeling of partial
ownership. Often reinforced with a
visual representation.
Fans are the club! Mental ownership.


Mechanic #21

Social Challenges
Add an extra dimension of engagement
by designing social challenges inside
your experience. That allows users to
play with friends. This can also be a
powerful incentive to get users to pay to
get around it.
In Angry Birds Go a mission can be for you to beat a
Facebook friend in a race or pay 10 diamonds.


Mechanic #22

Lottery
A game dynamic in which the winner is
determined solely by chance. This
creates a high level of anticipation.
Lottery is restricted by law in many
countries. But can, used in the right
way, be a good experience boost to wide
range of communities.
Gambling have many forms.


Mechanic #23

Reward Schedules
Reward Schedules is the timeframe and
delivery mechanisms through which
rewards (points, prizes, level ups) are
delivered. Three main parts exist in a
reward schedule; contingency,
response and reinforcer.
On tumblr I get this nice badges for blogging.
Check it out. Reward Schedule!


Mechanic #24

Gifting
Gifts and presents are a powerful
mechanics to trig a certain behavior.
Works for both virtual and real life
gifts. When we get a present we feel
that we owe them can’t resist to pay it
back in some way.
Almost every culture have different ceremonies
where gifts are exchanged.


More gamiﬁcation?
Let’s hook up


24 Essential Game Mechanics for Marketers

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