24 Essential Game Mechanics for Marketers

24 Essential Game Mechanics for Marketers

@ftorstensson ftorstensson.com

tisdag 14 januari 14

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











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.

AchievementMechanic #1

Swedish kids swimming badges

24 Essential Game Mechanics for Marketers @ftorstensson ftorstensson.com










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.”

StubbornnessMechanic #2

Don’t do the last run! (As we say in Sweden)











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.

FeedbackMechanic #3

Facebook likes is a simple form social feedback.











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.

EnvyMechanic #4

WTF!!











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.

StatusMechanic #5

Keep up the good work! Very impressive boys!











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.

Team WorkMechanic #6

This mechanic goes deep.











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.

Be LocalMechanic #7

Use with care. It’s easy to spot a fake local.











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.

NewsMechanic #8

Gossip is news too. 24 Essential Game Mechanics for Marketers @ftorstensson ftorstensson.com










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.

SuspenseMechanic #9

The promise of suspense gather the crowds. Cliffhang your story transmedial.











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.

RecognitionMechanic #10

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.











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.

Speed BumpsMechanic #11

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











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.

Free LunchMechanic #12

This is a mechanic that Wrapp often use variations of. Example: Buy one burger and give away one for free to a friend. 24 Essential Game Mechanics for Marketers











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.

CountdownMechanic #13

This 24 Mechanics are a sort of countdown. The suspense is killing me!!











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.

FunMechanic #14

Burst that bubble (wrap)!











Users will be highly motivated if they believe in what they are working to achieve something great, something awe-inspiring, something bigger than themselves.

Epic MeaningMechanic #15

My daughter Ediths basket ball team i powered by epic meaning!











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.

ProgressionMechanic #16

Great work! 16 of 24 mechanics completed!











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”

CustomizeMechanic #17

Avatars are a common custom.











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

PrideMechanic #18

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











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.

Social Leader BoardsMechanic #19

Check in and get one free is a simpler variant on the theme











The concept of feeling a positive sustained connection to an entity leading to a feeling of partial ownership. Often reinforced with a visual representation.

LoyaltyMechanic #20

Fans are the club! Mental ownership.











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.

Social ChallengesMechanic #21

In Angry Birds Go a mission can be for you to beat a Facebook friend in a race or pay 10 diamonds.











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.

LotteryMechanic #22

Gambling have many forms.











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.

Reward SchedulesMechanic #23

On tumblr I get this nice badges for blogging.Check it out. Reward Schedule!



http://xmasgamemechanics.tumblr.com/

http://xmasgamemechanics.tumblr.com/









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.

Gifting Mechanic #24

Almost every culture have different ceremonies where gifts are exchanged.











More gamification?Let’s hook up @ftorstensson ftorstensson.com










Marketing

24 Essential Game Mechanics for Marketers