I went to an interesting event in Holborn last night called "Social Gaming to Gamification - Time to stop playing by yourself". It was all about applying a "game layer" to the way we interact with products and brands. This doesn't just mean having a little flash game on the website, it means tapping into the underlying playful nature that all humans have. One of the speakers, Nicholas Lovell, pointed us towards his 10 rules of gamification which provides an articulate exploration of the concept and the pitfalls of applying it to business. Quoting game researcher Richard Bartle, Lovell categorised different types of game behaviour that all gamers combine in different quantities: killers, achievers, explorers and socialisers. He explained that designers planning to apply game mechanics to their products should be able to empathise with all of these characteristics.
Matt Maxwell from digital agency Blue Barracuda came up with some interesting case studies of brands that have "winning" as part of their core message. He said that Nike have built up a platform of competition with their online fitness community and iPod tie-ins, but explained that the message was already embedded in their products. He described how Persil have updated their "win condition" (a concept devised by Tim Jones of BBH), from simply having a very clean family and home, to having a very active family who get dirty from running around being healthy outdoors, then get clean again thanks to Persil. Some other examples of services that use game mechanics are obviously Foursquare, Gowalla and Hunch. But also think about Ebay (remember how exciting it used to be to win an auction!!) and Google Analytics (tweaking a website, then watching the resultant behaviour of site visitors is a never-ending game).
The event took the format of a panel discussion, chaired by a very provocative Tony Fish, who kept the 2-hour discussion fizzing along and prevented the panellists from launching into personal diatribes. It was a fascinating insight into the use of game mechanics to influence the behaviour of consumers. Gamification has the potential not just to make consumers engage more with brands, but also to incentivise society to pursue healthy lifestyles, education and recycling.
Image by Aled Lewis, creator of awesome...
Edit: Should probably mention the app developer Scvngr after their prominence at this year's SXSW, heralding a new generation of location-based games in which users create their own challenges (thanks Rob)
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