Why You Should Not Integrate Game Mechanics Into Your Service | Hacker News Reader

Why You Should Not Integrate Game Mechanics Into Your Service

gauravonomics.com

15 pointsryanelkins10 comments

As a game designer I get a little frustrated when people use the phrase "game mechanics" to very specifically mean giving our points, badges and achievements that are publicly displayed to a group of social connections online. Using this definition neither chess nor Super Mario have any "game mechanics".

I guess it is too late but I wish we had some other phrase for them. "social status notifications?"

Chess has pawn promotions; Super Mario has coins, points, and extra lives. Both have "winning." All of these are displayed to your friends in the room.

I agree, but it's the term thats taken hold recently. When we started we had no idea what to call it. In reality, it's not even game mechanics - more like meta game mechanics. Game mechanics are generally more like "action points" or "tile laying". The other term I've seen used is "funware". In a year or so it might be called something else - it's still a very young category.

But Twitter doesn't have points, badges or achievements, so using that definition, Twitter doesn't have any "social status notifications."

The thing is, nobody is claiming that those are the entirety of the category "game mechanics" (just like you're not claiming that's everything that could ever be termed a "social status notification"). They're simply a set of game mechanics that happen to be easily and commonly introduced into websites.

I associate game mechanics with sites that are supposed to be more "fun". For example, I can totally groove with seeing Newgrounds using "experience points" in order to encourage participation, but if I see "Achievement Unlocked!" at the bottom of the timesheet app I use I risk punching the monitor.

Have you seen Ribbon Hero from Microsoft Labs? It actually does add points and achievements to Office. It's actually pretty cool. Their focus is on making learning how to use Office more fun. They run you through "challenges" that ask you to format things a certain way, or other things that you do through the ribbon. I think it's a pretty neat way to teach people and encourage exploration in what can sometimes be a rather daunting tool.

Too funny. Memorialized your comment to my posterous.

http://bhc3.posterous.com/should-a-timesheet-app-have-game-m...

Every enterprise or consulting company I've worked for has had significant issues with getting everyone to fill in their timesheets.

I'm not sure there is anything on earth that could actually make doing rote paperwork fun; but some game mechanics might actually improve the situation.

I'd rather grind timesheets than just fill them out.

There are some good points here - and this is coming from a founder of game mechanics platform (iactionable.com). Like any piece of a design, you can't just throw it in blindly, you have to approach it with a well thought out plan and goals. Some sites are a better fit for game mechanics than others. Even when it's a good fit if the system is designed poorly it can do more harm than good. It will be fun to see the ideas behind game mechanics mature over the next year or two.

One possibility is to give your service so that other applications, via your API, can provide game mechanics they believe would be relevant. Then Darwinian selections of which game mechanics work out. Ie. Focus on what your service and its core benefit(s)/reward are about and outsource to your ecosystem the game mechanics layers.

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