

Ask HN: Learning game psychology - pedalpete

I'm trying to get a better understanding of game psychology in building apps. Stuff like HN, StackOverflow, or even FourSquare where people get deeply involved in the community to get points, badges, etc.<p>Can anybody point to a good resource for learning about this field?<p>My google searches haven't turned up much, and what I do get is not very deep.
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neiljohnson
I thought this was pretty cool <http://noteandpoint.com/documents/pdf/jap.pdf>

Not just focussed on games, more what games can teach us about motivation in
general.

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Zakuzaa
Thank you so much. Half an hour well spent.

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fakelvis
Behavioural game design is a/the topic you should be checking out.

I linked to a couple of good articles in a post here:
[http://www.lonegunman.co.uk/2010/03/19/behavioural-game-
desi...](http://www.lonegunman.co.uk/2010/03/19/behavioural-game-design-and-
the-manipulation-of-fun/)

Design with Intent's "Learning from game design: 11 gambits for influencing
user behaviour" post is worthwhile:
[http://architectures.danlockton.co.uk/2010/03/22/learning-
fr...](http://architectures.danlockton.co.uk/2010/03/22/learning-from-game-
design-11-gambits-for-influencing-user-behaviour/)

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rameshnid
You should also read Charlie Mungers - "Poor Charlies Almanack". Charlies
essays discuss incentive design and biases in human psychology.

<http://www.poorcharliesalmanack.com/>

The first step in creating a system which exploits biases is to understand all
the biases humans are subjected to.

I also recommend tversky and kahneman's works for understanding incentive
structures.

Its a fascinating field, hope you have fun!

