If you’ve ever tried to learn or use gamification – whether in business, training or your life – you can probably relate to my experience with it˳
When I first looked into gamification (the art and science of adding game mechanics into learning or business applications) I was disappointed˳
Well, that’s putting it mildly˳
I couldn’t believe the state of information out there˳
I was eager to use the power of games to really supercharge some of my courses˳ Here I was, hungry to learn everything the world had to teach˳
Most guides I found said the same dull, obvious and incomplete junk over and over:
“Hey, maybe you could… you know, add XP to the course˳ So learners level up as they go through it˳”
Ohh, that’s the idea? I figured that one out for myself˳
“Maybe have badges˳ That way, learners can… have badges˳”
Sure…
And… that’s where their advice would run dry˳ Or they might talk about leaderboards (but not how to do them well) or boss battles (challenging assignments, only they’re about dragons or something)˳
Some experts found some success with gamification, talking about high percentage boosts to key metrics˳ They’d prove it by showing screenshots of their saccharine, boring-looking ‘quest’ games that supposedly trick folks into doing their taxes or whatever˳
But, of course, no depth as to how˳
There are plenty of TED Talks you can watch˳
To save you time, they’re mostly the same: 75% of the talk is why gamification is important˳ The rest talks about a game they implemented at their school or workplace without going into the nitty-gritty of how they designed it˳
I learned much, much more about gamification from learning videogame design than from gamification resources˳
My thought at the time was there’s a gap in the market here˳ My instincts told me, as they often do, to crack the gamification code and write a useful, practical guide to it˳
Well, luckily I was wrong˳ There wasn’t a gap – I just hadn’t found the best system out there˳
And, as far as I can tell, the only system that teaches it to any depth˳
Gamification training that doesn’t waste your time
Most gamification resources focus on the mechanics – like XP, collectables or battles – while skimping on the design˳
When you sit down to design something yourself, you realise how limiting that it˳
The mechanics don’t matter˳ You have your objective – say, to convey an idea or motivate some behaviour˳ Proper design focuses on that, not on adding cool swords to your game˳
Most gamification resource allude to design…
But only one I’ve found puts it front and centre, where it belongs:
Yu-kai Chou’s Octalysis framework˳
It begins with eight core drives humans have˳ Games are fun, even addictive, because they satisfy at least some of these˳ Boring work is tedious because it doesn’t˳
This is what makes games enjoyable and gamification effective˳ It also explains why most gamification (which focuses on mechanics before design) fails˳
No one likes to swing a sword around for no reason, but everyone likes to save the kingdom˳
Yu-kai’s work describes dozens (maybe even hundreds) of game mechanics˳ That puts him ahead of most gamification experts (who focus on a small few)˳
Even most game design resources I’ve read peter out after a dozen or so˳
The Octalysis framework goes further than this˳
Rather than describing these mechanics in a vacuum, he links them to the core drives˳ Yu-kai explains how and when each mechanic satisfies certain core drives˳ If your experience feels flat or fails to keep learners around, you’ll have a handy list of mechanics to solve those exact problems˳
This is why you include these elements – to solve a specific problem, not just because they’re cool˳
This alone blows most gamification resources out of the water˳
But Octalysis goes even deeper…
Learn gamification with your gut
You can learn how to gamify things intellectually˳
That is, you can learn the techniques, master the theory behind them and start using them˳
It’s a common way of doing things˳
But it’s hardly the best˳
You learn best when you have tangible experiences with something˳ So the best way to learn gamification is to, funnily enough, experience gamification˳
That gives you a gut instinct for what works, what doesn’t and what has potential˳
The cool thing is, you can learn Octalysis in a gamified way˳
Yu-kai’s Octalysis Prime program has hundreds of videos about gamification, ranging from the basic ideas through to advanced design techniques˳
It also has tons of other resources, such as interviews with leading game designers, examples of how to gamify your own life, lessons in behavioural economics and overviews of business principles˳
Surrounding that are large challenges, experience points, in-game currency, collectables, social forums and daily prods˳
You can easily ignore all that if it gets distracting˳
But it’d be foolish to, since each of these is a game mechanic in action˳
You get to experience, in your gut, everything you learn even before you learn it˳ It makes for a sublime way to learn, letting you not only remember things better but imagine what you can do with all of them˳
Your gameful destiny awaits, Noble Hero
Why have I spent nearly a thousand words talking about how great Octalysis is?
To spread the knowledge˳ There’s a lot of crud out there˳ This, right here, is the good stuff˳ The gold˳
I’m grateful to the person who introduced me to Yu-kai’s work, so this is me paying it forward˳
Source by https://ezinearticles˳com/?The-Best-(and-Probably-Only)-Gamification-Training-Out-There&id=10299523
