

Ask HN: What kind of game mechanics would you use?  - frafdez

If you were considering adding game mechanics to your site or blog, what features would you most want to see? If someone offered a third party solution, what would motivate you to add it to your site?
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glimcat
Why before what.

It's usually inappropriate. For a blog, the feature I want to see is
interesting or useful information presented clearly and efficiently. Adding
other stuff usually just elevates the noise floor for no benefit. Ditto for
unfocused writing.

The initial "why" is often "I want them to come back to my site" (often
contributing to other goals like conversion). You don't need some ridiculous
badge system for this. The best and first callback for a blog is good,
relevant content and the promise of more.

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vitovito
I would strongly discourage this sort of thinking.

First, there are third-party "game mechanics" solutions; I think YC even
funded one. Second, reposting my own comments:

"Game mechanics" is the new "Web 2.0" as far as misapplied buzzwords go, but
"gamification" still comes out of "video games" and "psychology," both of
which have been around longer than the web, and the web likes slapping a new
term on something and thinking it invented it.

To truly take advantage of game mechanics properly, you really need to know a
lot about both video games and psychology. Like anything else, you may have to
design with gamification in mind from the get-go, and you'll probably get it
wrong the first few times out, which means you'll need to practice (or have
betas).

Instead of completely retooling your software or process or "healthcare
issue," perhaps instead you can add a meta-game on top: Office Hero was a game
added atop Microsoft Word by Lost Garden writer danc:
<http://www.officelabs.com/ribbonhero> &&
[http://www.lostgarden.com/2010/01/ribbon-hero-turns-
learning...](http://www.lostgarden.com/2010/01/ribbon-hero-turns-learning-
office-into.html)

You'll never be able to "let's just add badges!" just like you can't "let's
use gradients and glossy buttons!" to move the needle.

There's even the notion that video games and traditional UI interaction design
are incompatible: IxD is about making things easy, but video games are about
intentionally challenging the user. If your users aren't expecting a game,
they may end up incredibly frustrated instead.

I did a workshop on adding game mechanics to an existing product (a
calendar/dayplanner) and the results varied wildly. One group (Ray and Nicole)
integrated social game mechanics into the application really well. Another
group (Cecy and Brody) treated each mechanic as a feature, and by the end of
the discussion I felt like it was "missing something." You can read the write-
up of the workshop here: <http://vi.to/workshop/20100426/>

My notes include a lot of references, as well as images of the handouts and my
own distillation of these principles: <http://vi.to/gmnotes>

~~~
frafdez
Thanks for the links.

I try to stay away from the term "gamification" because of the stigma
associated with it and you're right, it's the new buzz word. But as an avid
gamer, I think the achievement/rewards portion of a game can be used across
other mediums, like websites, to incentivize visitors and foster discovery of
content. I agree that just slapping a badge on a site is a massive FAIL, but
providing achievements that drive others to discover interesting content on
your site or acknowledge their participation may have some merit.

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f8seer
Please elaborate on game mechanics. A point system ? Enemies on a blog site??

~~~
frafdez
Like point systems, achievements, leader boards, etc.

