
Ask HN: What are the best resources for learning about gamification? - jeffmjack
Could be a book, series, article, podcast, blog.. anything :)
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fitzwatermellow
I can recommend the Gamification MOOC run by Prof. Kevin Werbach at Wharton:

[https://www.coursera.org/learn/gamification](https://www.coursera.org/learn/gamification)

You're in luck, next session starts August 15 ;)

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danblick
Sorry if this is too impractical, but you might look at gamification as an
application of general principles of human psychology and decision making.
Some interesting books in this area are "The Power of Habit" by Charles Duhigg
(which deals with motivation and habit formation), "Nudge" by Richard Thaler,
or "Thinking Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahneman.

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fazkan
thats a great persepctive, can you elaborate a bit, I have read "the power of
habit", but the summary of thinking fast and slow. Are you pointing to the
clue, action and reward steps. I know you were just commenting, but I am a
nerd for this type of stuff and would be interested in your original
thought....

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danblick
Thinking Fast and Slow is generally about research in the "heuristics and
biases" school. When we make decisions, we don't always think completely
rationally, but rely on approximations and rules of thumb that simplify the
task we have to perform. Our decisions can be influenced by context that tells
us which approximations we should use. (I guess I'm thinking of priming &
anchoring effects. If you ask, "is the average redwood taller than 8000 feet?
How tall is the average redwood?" You will get larger estimates than if you
first ask "is the average redwood taller than 50 feet?")

I think gamification is sort of a way to change your users frame of mind while
they engage with your product. Kahneman doesn't really talk about games, but
he does talk about ways of influencing behavior by affecting a person's state
of mind.

I listed "The Power of Habit" first because I have a feeling that games have
more to do with rewards and cravings than they do with judgement and decision
making (more the topic of Thinking Fast and Slow). But both books relate to
how we can steer decision making.

* Aside: I googled "priming anchoring" and got a result about UI design also mentioning _loss aversion_ , another topic from Kahneman's book. [http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2011/03/how-anchoring-o...](http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2011/03/how-anchoring-ordering-framing-and-loss-aversion-affect-decision-making.php)

Fun fact: your users will hate losing badges even more than they like earning
them. :)

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deathtrader666
Badgeville's Wiki is pretty good -
[https://badgeville.com/wiki/](https://badgeville.com/wiki/)

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danm07
Awesome.

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fhrh
Short and practical book: Hooked how build habit forming product

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tmaly
I second this book, there is also an audio version.

I have emailed the author a few times, he has been very helpful.

