Using game mechanics to influence user’s behavior

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Taking a more playful approach to your fanbase can help drive increased engagement and traffic for your fan page. One technique is the use of game mechanics. The goal of game mechanics is to keep customers coming back and doing what you want them to do through incentives and rewards.

Game mechanics can be implemented in a couple of different ways:

Achievements are virtual or physical representation of having accomplished something. They can be easy, difficult, surprising and funny. Achievements can be accomplished alone or as a group and generally are considered “locked” until you have met the series of tasks that are required to “unlock” the achievement. Like blocks for sweepstakes or instant win apps are examples of this game mechanic (i.e. you can unlock this deal if five of your friends click to buy it).
Personality Types:* Achievers, Explorers, and Killers

Appointments are game dynamics in which, at a predetermined time/place, a user must login or participate in game for positive effect. An example of this can be demonstrated in Zynga’s Farmville game, as Farmville crops will go bad if you don’t harvest them at a certain time. By creating an appointment for the harvest players are incentivized to come back and take action at a time determined by the game. Sweepstakes and Coupon Apps can incorporate this game dynamic.
Personality Types: Achievers, Explorers and Socializers.

Behavioral Momentum is the tendency of players to keep doing what they have been doing. For example, a Face Off application continuously asks users to pick one of two options based on personal preference. All Saints Row demonstrates this well with their King of Saints app on the promotions section of their website.
Personality Types: Achievers, Explorers, Socializers and Killers

Blissfull Productivity is the idea that it’s more fun and rewarding for users to play more difficult games than relaxing easy ones. Brands can use Video or Photo Contest apps that require users to work for their award. Users have to market to their networks for their votes, making the campaign highly viral.
Personality Types: Achievers, Explorers, Socializers and Killers

Bonuses are rewarded after having completed a series of challenges such as trivia coupons. With Trivia Coupons users answer a series of questions to unlock coupons. If you answer 20 out of 20 correctly you will receive 50% off. If you answer 10 out 20 you will receive 5% off and so on.
Personality Types: Achievers, Explorers, Socializers and Killers

Cascading Information is the theory that information should be released in the minimum possible snippets to gain the appropriate level of understanding at each point during a game narrative. As seen in American Idol’s Banter campaign, cascading information encourages the audience to explore in order to gain understanding.
Personality Types: Achievers, Explorers, Socializers and Killers

Combos are often used in games to reward skill through doing a combination of actions. You can give people bonuses for completing a combination of actions or achievements. Las Vegas Scavenger Hunt Sweepstakes App incorporates this game mechanic. Users are given certain questions and in order to find the responses, they would have to visit sponsor pages to find clues.
Personality Types: Achievers, Explorers, Socializers and Killers

Community Collaboration allows users to work together toward a goal. This is a highly engaging game mechanic for brands. HostelBookers fundraising Poll is a great example. In this app, users from 6 different countries participated to help nominate their favorite charity to receive $20K in donations. Another example is using blanks in wall posts. Breast cancer awareness campaign utilized this very well.
Example: Fill in the blank: College football is __________ or Fill in the blank: Revenge on an ex is ____________.
Personality Types: Achievers, Explorers and Socializers.

Countdown. Players are given a limited amount of time to complete a task. TV.com’s season premiers drag and drop game is a great example of this. Users were asked to organize images of different shows in order of appearance. Adding a countdown to all Trivia games is highly recommended as it creates a sense of urgency for the user, but can also make it more fun. TV.com’s Season Finales and Season Premieres Trivia are great, fun examples for this game mechanic.
Personality Types: Achievers, Explorers and Killers.

Discovery, also called exploration lets players discover new things. This drives up page views. Face Offs and also all Content Apps can create this experience. Think of a holiday or special occasion countdown landing app. Each day in the calendar has an award inside it. Users have to return to the page to view deal of the day until the occasion.
Personality Types: Explorers and Achievers.

Epic Meaning is the concept of motivating players by introducing inspiring and meaningful goals. Campaigns to raise awareness or fundraise for nonprofits can incorporate this game dynamic very well. AOL Military Badges Campaign donated money to troops based on the number of shares the military unit specific badges received.
Personality Types: Achievers, Explorers, Socializers and Killers

Free Lunch is a dynamic in which a player feels they are getting something for someone else’s work. HBO’s profile layout app was a great example of this. Users were able to tag their friends in True blood and Game of Thrones albums and redesign the appearance of their friend’s profiles. Gifts are also another great example that use this dynamic. Social gifting can include coupons or rewards that receivers can collect without any effort. Game of Thrones Profile Layout app is a great example of this game mechanic.
Personality Types: Achievers, Explorers, Socializers and Killers

Infinite Gameplay is applicable to casual games that can refresh their content or games where a positive static state is a reward of its own. A great example of this is a never ending Face Off app. Refresh your content every two weeks and you can create the infinite gameplay effect.
Personality Types: Achievers and Killers.

Levels are a system by which players are rewarded an increasing value for accumulation of points. Features unlock as players progress to a higher level. Leveling is one of the highest components of motivation for gamers. There are typically three types of leveling ramps: Flat, Exponential and Wave Function. Like blocks use this idea at its core. Users have to like your page to download a song, coupon or enter a sweepstakes. You can also create a multi-level sweepstakes app and add activities in between. Here is an example of a user flow: First Level: Like the page. Second Level: take trivia. Third Level: enter first sweepstakes for a smaller award. Fourth level: Share with friends /Take another trivia/take a quiz after watching a video. 5th level: Enter the second trivia for a grand prize. In this example you can use sponsored stories as well. Users will have to do some research on your dot com pages or the sponsor pages in order to find the correct codes. In your sweepstakes you can include a field for a secret code.
Personality Types: Achievers, Explorers and Killers

Loss Aversion is a game mechanic that influences user behavior not by reward, but by not instituting punishment. In FarmVille, your crops wither if you don’t remember to harvest them at the appropriate time. For this reason, most players will choose to receive alerts when their crops are ready to harvest. Applications can use leader boards to encourage this game mechanic. Users lose their status if they don’t complete certain activities. You may also create conditional sweepstakes. For example, ask users to comment on your Facebook fan page at least once a week to stay in the competition. This requires some manual and community management work, but the reward is high.
Personality Types: Achievers and Explorers.

Lottery is a game dynamic in which the winner is determined solely by chance. Sweepstakes and Instant win Lotteries like On Camera Audiences’ weekly lottery leverage this mechanic.
Personality Types: Achievers, Explorers, Socializers and Killers

For more gamification ideas check out Webtrends Social App Gallery or contact Talieh Rohani, @talieh

*Personality Types refers to “Player Type” that is considered in the gamification process and game design. Bartle Test of Gamer Psychology is often used to classify Player Personality Types into four categories: Achievers, Explorers, Socializers and Killers.