

Apply game mechanics to your app (video) - macmac
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihUt-163gZI

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macmac
Is anybody aware of some effective examples of applying game mechanics to
apps? (besides those mentioned in the video)

The best example I know is stackoverflow.com, which uses votes, badges,
reputation etc.

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jfarmer
To me "game mechanics" are just another way of saying "behavioral economics."

Game mechanics are about exploiting irrational but predictable psychological
levers in the human mind. To that end, there are lots of apps that use game
mechanics, some more obvious than others:

Foursquare/Gowalla are obvious. You get random rewards and points for doing
various real-life activities like traveling and eating out.

Opower. See, e.g., this article
[http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2009/10/californi...](http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2009/10/california-
embraces-psychology-of-influence-to-reduce-energy-use.html)

Mechanical Turk. Why would an American do work for $0.50/hour? It's not
rational, and I think it's the game-like nature of mturk.

Many websites use the quest/reward mechanic to guide users through the
registration process and the first few key steps of the application, e.g.,
LinkedIn's "your profile is 75%" complete mechanic.

~~~
macmac
I agree that behavioral economics greatly informs "game mechanics" but I don't
think the levers it relies on are all irrational. My utility (pride, sense of
accomplishment etc.) from answering questions on stackoverflow.com might far
exceed the utility from the maximum monetary gain I could achieve from an
alternative use of my time, thus making me spending time on answering
stackoverflow.com questions perfectly rational.

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rajatrocks
Amy Jo is brilliant.

Weight Watchers uses game mechanics:
[http://www.wired.com/gaming/virtualworlds/commentary/games/2...](http://www.wired.com/gaming/virtualworlds/commentary/games/2008/08/gamesfrontiers_0811)

Mint was experimenting with it: [http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/04/28/mint-
turns-personal-fin...](http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/04/28/mint-turns-
personal-finance-into-a-game-its-not-as-bad-as-it-sounds/)

They're building achievements into the new Honda Insight:
[http://www.popsci.com/cars/article/2009-02/eco-drivers-
ed-20...](http://www.popsci.com/cars/article/2009-02/eco-drivers-
ed-2010-honda-insight?page=1)

Yahoo calls them Reputation Design Patterns:
[http://developer.yahoo.com/ypatterns/social/people/reputatio...](http://developer.yahoo.com/ypatterns/social/people/reputation/)

They work. My company provides game mechanics as a service that can be
integrated into any site or application:
<http://www.bunchball.com/products/nitroworks.shtml>

Some of our customer sites that are using game mechanics successfully:
<http://www.warnerbros.com/loyalty> \- WB loyalty program
<http://www.espin.com> \- social network for teens
<http://www.dundermifflininfinity.com> \- NBC's social network for fans of The
Office <http://www.characterarcade.com/> \- USA Network's casual gaming site.

You can see a video of me talking (very fast, for 23 minutes) about how this
stuff works here: [http://xmedialab.tv/auckland-%E2%80%9Ccommercialising-
ideas%...](http://xmedialab.tv/auckland-%E2%80%9Ccommercialising-
ideas%E2%80%9D/2009/08/) \- click on "Rajat Paharia presentation"

I tweet examples whenever I come across them here:
<http://twitter.com/bunchball>

