Game Studies: Gamification & the blockchain (Chapter 3: types of gamification: #1 in-game gamification)

Hello from Austria :). Today I am going to talk about in-game gamification. Maybe it sounds a bit weird, but some years ago I discovered that there is a new trend out in the gaming word: Setting up a gamification framework within the game environment. 

So you use the same mechanics as you would use to put gamification in the classic sense, but you  do that within your game. You give the players badges, achievements, points that have nothing to do with their  character lvl with the hope that they use the game more often, share the game results in social media, talk about the achievements with their friends a.s.o. The best way to describe the mechanics is to show you some use cases: 

Pokémon go: 

You all have heard about Pokémon go for sure and the hype at the first month of the game last sumemr. At some point people started to leave the game or not open it every day. So Niantic did an in-game gamification approach. You can collect Pokémons 7 days in a row and/or collect Pokestops 7 days in a row to receive a bonus at the end of the 7 days series. E.g. more high quality balls from the first stop on day 7. Or magic-dust if you collected Pokémons on 7 days in a row. This has nothing to do with the story line (well in Pokémon go you might say that there is no story at all, but players knowing the Pokémon canon and can at least build a story in their head :) ).  This mechanic is just implemented to make the players turn on the app every day for a couple of seconds. That is for use for Niantic as they can say they have "a high number on every day players". Even if this is just to collect the award. But at the end of the day the statistics count for the investors and the media writing about the success of the game. In my opinion they should work more on setting up a trade system and a mobile arena to battle with friends. But that is another story ;). 

MMORPGs like World of Warcraft or Lord of the rings: 

MMORPGs started to give the players achievements and badges to their players profile for certain things they do in the gaming world. Often the players don't even know how to get such an extra achievement. To get it players are collecting 5 different pets, discovering the whole map, winning 10 PvP fights, loading the game on a certain day a.s.o.

All those badges and achievements have nothing to do with the story of the game itself. It is just another mechanic to get the players into the game and hunt for it. 

During the times I was heading the institute for online-addiction research I gave the tip to parents that they can have a look on the online profile of their kid, as all those achievements are put online to be shared in social media and connected with a time stamp ;). 

Online Gambling Machines: 

Not so many years ago the big trend of online gambling started. That enabled igaming producers to build more sophisticated story worlds into a one-armed bandit (slot machine) without having to build a expansive physical slot machine. With the more or less "fun to play" stories more mechanics arrived. To meet the law (at least in my home country) they still had to be based on mathematical formulas and not on skill.

This example here is "the prince for the princess" story. 

If you get "bricks" on the spinning wheel you do not earn money, but you get bricks to build a castle. 

With enough bricks the castle is finished and you can decide between 3 princes that your daughter the princess should marry. 

the bigger you build the castle the bigger is the marriage portion. 

So you can click on one of the three princes and you see the amount of money you get. As a player you are very happy. BUT you should not forget that you lost a lot of money for the bricks. 

For every castle, set of castles, princes from different regions etc. (you have many daughters I guess) you get badges and achievements. 

This example shows a new trend in the gambling sector. The player should be "in the zone" (that equals the "flow" effect we talk about next week) and he or she should have a lot of fun, be entertained, do something worth talking to friends and posting in social media. But at the end giving money to the providers of the platform - dollar by dollar over a long period of time. 

League of Legends - riot  the masters of the igg principle!:

League of Legends is a best practice example in many fields. Besides the in-game purchases and the 3 kinds of "money" they offer. The in-game gamification approach is awesome. After each match you get a rating from the AI how your performance was. Like a grade in school. You get rewards if one of your teammembers was superior or yourself. With that rewards you go for example into the mini-game to collect chests. Those chests contain part of skins or other stuff that is or WAS available to buy as in-game item. However you can also buy with riot poins (that is the money you have to pay cash for beforehand) keys to open such chests. So the igg actually does reward the player with not just giving them a badge, but something the players can use in the game. However it is also connected with their ingame store. Simply brilliant, highly motivating and 100 % transparent and fair. (well somethings the initial grading is not :) ).

Other Examples you should look for: 

There are a lot of examples. Just open your eyes while playing and try to discover the mechanics. Try to learn from them for your own apps and platforms you might be developing. 

As another best practice I like to mention FIFA Soccer - Ultimate Team: Absolutely brilliant. 

And as something that was igg at the very beginning but more on the "mmhh why did they do this side of the spectrum": collecting the red flags at the first part of Assassins Creed. 

I like to end this article with this part: 

Gamification around games - on the platform you bought the game like steam: 

The last part for this article is the gamification around games done by the platform you bought the game online. E.g. steam. You get achievements, badges and trade able objects by playing the game and again (like in to MMORPG) example doing some funny stuff or discovering something special. This shows the progress of the game in a very exciting way and many players have a look on the list of achievements and try to find out what to do to get the others. As often you simply know the name of the next one but not the quest to go for it. 

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Next Posting in this series of the draftpaper about gamification will be about serious games - maybe - and that is for discussion -  as a category of gamification. 

At the e-sports section I will talk about the categories of players. 

And I will start a third draftpaper about "game crime / cybercrime"

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Alex Pfeiffer