1. The platform must target a specific group.

First off there are a few concepts you need to know from neuroscience to get you started. The first is the reticular activating system (RAS). The RAS is one of the compound structures in the brain responsible for attention and orientation. The RAS is associated with most commonly the concept of selective attention, which means we as humans naturally orient to information that we are invested in.

An example of the RAS would be in a big crowd of people, let’s say walking down the high street where you can’t hear much of anything, but you suddenly look towards someone who has just shouted your name in a conversation. As our names are one of the many “buzz words” which are programmed directly into us from a very early age, we naturally focus on someone when someone mentions us.

Our key strategy when working with clients is to identify relevant and meaningful content that captures the audience, but the trick is that all our content when building influence platforms needs to be relevant, usable and meaningful.

2. The platform must assist users to interact with content in multiple ways, using modes of engagement.

The second theory related to neuroscience is the idea of motivating people to interact with your content in multiple ways. The concept of “multimodal learning” explains that people are more likely to learn and retain information if multiple sensory stimulation takes place.

We are more likely to engage and recall things that appeal to multiple senses, through modalities such as written (visual) and aural (auditory) at the same time. The content appeals more to the user if it’s offering multiple ways by which it can be consumed.

For example in our game Choices and Voices, we had multiple versions for different parts of the UK. Each version would have different voice acting accents, environments and story language to convey a sense of relevance to the user.

Prevent Project – Choices and Voices, Game Series

C&V – West Midlands

C&V – Southwest

C&V – Primary

3. Bring content in front of the audience.

We now turn to human psychology where we can identify a few concepts that are useful in terms of content authoring. We must remember that people tend to respond more strongly to meaningful stories within narratives. By which they go far as engaging with your content if it is logically presented, sequential and easy to understand. Also you may wish to include emotional components which will grab your audience’s attention. Use stories to communicate content, which makes it more personal to your audience.

For example within a community, be that in a game or on a social network create stories around your content, communicate to others through other users. Facebook is a primary example of this with their “User stories”, where advertising can be communicated through the user’s friends. Remember people can recall narratives better then a series of facts or statements.

Sites like Amazon have changed how we purchase goods and what we expect from an online shopping experience. Most notably Amazon’s recommendation engine that looks at what products the user browses and recommends others based on the products they are looking at and buying. However, there is a problem. The interaction is mostly between the system and the user.
What if there were a way to engage the user’s social graph in order get them to buy more?

It’s important to remember that we infer a higher value on information given to us by a friend or another trusted user rather than a system, even though we rely on Google to help us navigate the Internet.

Monetization methods are still a one to one affair, instead of a one to many.

• You see the product either from advertising or from searching.
• You make your purchase decision.
• You make the transaction.

Sometimes you may feel that advertising is misleading or in many cases just annoying. The most difficult step of the three-stage process is making the decision to purchase the goods.

We all like shopping, but separating with our hard-earned cash is a huge decision which frequently results in not purchasing due to risk factors and also down to issues such as price, availability, peer reviews and delivery times.

In the next section we are going to share two monetization mechanics in detail, which will show how you can leverage social mechanisms to help overcome the decision factors and motivate better user purchasing behaviours.

The Power of Gifting

It evokes the ancient anthropological need for reciprocity. It feels good to give and receive, and being able to gift a purchase is important. However, this only touches the first level of the gifting economy – it can go much deeper.

Encouraging a simple purchase decision would be as simple as adding in a trigger, a small piece of information placed in our regular daily routines in order to remind and motivate us to take action.

Here is a small example of a trigger:

Product A

• Buy for £100 – Trigger
• Gift for £90

Now what makes this unique is the ‘Buy for £100′ triggers a psychological component called Anchoring & Adjustment, which basically means that we rely too heavily (or anchor) on one trait or piece of information to make a decision.

There is a much higher chance most users will purchase the gift option, simply because it’s cheaper, nonetheless, what is important to note is that the intention of the seller is not to sell at the Buy price, but in fact to sell at the Gift price. The buy price is just there to gently nudge the user to go for the cheaper option.

Collaborative Buying

Sites like Groupon and Living Social know that group buying is powerful, but despite that, they miss out key components that complete the group buying experience.

The key success factor isn’t getting X amount of people to buy the product, which is a very simplistic way of explaining the current group buying model. It’s more important to generate a conversation around the product. We aren’t talking about community building, but simple friend-to-friend communication.

A buying mechanic we have used throughout our monetization processes is to introduce a product purchase requirement making the product only available, if its purchase requirement has been reached.

A simple example would be:

• Product B requires 3 people to purchase it in order to be delivered.
• Friend A wants to purchase Product B
• Friend A sends the link or request to their friends.
• Friend A writes, “I really want to get this, I think you should too”
• Friend B and C purchase.

Now looking in more detail – why did Friends B & C purchase the product? Essentially, this is initially down to a social imperative (the need to help a friend out), but that’s just the first part. What motivates the two friends to help is Friend A exerted a small amount of peer pressure, in which it wasn’t seen as a negative effect.

To motivate the user to ask for help with applying light pressure brings the introductory of an appointment dynamic, which can rapidly increase the chance of positive purchase behaviours. Appointment dynamics are seen most common in “limited offer” deals where it makes the user think “I must buy it now, otherwise I’ll never see it again”.

Interested in more?

To find out more on how to monetize your digital content contact us, or alternatively you can register register your interest in our new Adding Monetization toolkit, which will be available soon.

The biggest obstacle to gamification is the ability of the meta games to appeal to those who do not normally play meta games or associate themselves with video games. This has to be achieved by creating meta games which offer plenty of rewards and the opportunity of gaining social status. The prospect of competition as well as achievement are also important incentives in alluring non gamers via gamification. Finally the meta games must also be relatively simple and easily understandable and they must, most crucially, encourage consumers to come back as this is what creates success out of a gamification strategy and product.

For the best examples of gamification in today’s economy, one should look first at social networking websites like Facebook, auction sites like eBay, and other innovative online service providers like the DevHub Website Builder site, as well as games like Farmville, Tencent and MeTyoon. Using these sites and games as a blueprint to success in gamification efforts, getting the benefits of game design and customer loyalty could be a snap for any company with a creative approach.

Facebook

Facebook is one of the leading models for successful gamification. As a social networking site its presentation is one centered around a world of online applications and services. Facebook is able to ‘synch up’ a user and their list of online friends so they can interact in various virtual game spaces. Facebook’s various applications facilitate pay per click marketing, direct marketing (from ads on the sidebars), and word-of-mouth marketing (from business owners who create their own Facebook page or Facebook game to interact with existing users). Evidently, there are limitless opportunities for companies intrigued by gamification to look at a Facebook application for guidance and replicate it within their own business structure.

At its inception, Facebook bore great resemblance with MySpace, which has since seen a demise in its popularity in comparison to Facebooks rise over the last few years. This is partly due to the old restriction that kept non-college and University students from becoming Facebook members as well as MySpace being at the forefront of media and customisation options for social networking. The moment that Facebook began letting users create their own applications for Facebook, and implemented an ad-based revenue system for the best applications proved to be decisive, as it became clear that Facebook was the only competitive site with regards to the social media and gamified marketing efforts.

With the various games that are available in application form, people are encouraged to invite their friends in order to earn more points whilst simultaneously allowing advertisers more exposure to key demographics.

FarmVille

Without a doubt the most successful and awe inspiring example of gamification is Farmville. Farmville is a game played online via the use of the social networking site Facebook and has arguably set the standard for all other meta games. Farmville achieves all of the gamification points mentioned in the above paragraph and more. At the peak of its powers, Farmville is able to attract over 30 million users every day, illustrating it is a reliable blueprint for companies that wish to follow in their footsteps. The company that created Farmville, Zynga, which is based in California, is now estimated to be worth nearly $4 billion due to the success of the game and other meta games like it which have also reached vast audiences via Facebook.

The premise of Farmville is very simple. Players must run a virtual farm in which the usual farm activities must be completed such as growing crops and raising animals. However, Zynga have incorporated a number of particularly clever aspects which have enabled Farmville to boom in the extraordinary fashion it has done. One of these aspects is gifting in Farmville. Players are able to provide other Farmville players with gifts such as livestock or a tree. These gifts are free to give and the clever part is that they invite reciprocity from the receiver. This encourages users to invite as many people as possible to join the game so they can all start exchanging gifts and kitting out their farms with more desirable objects. This viral element helps spread the use of Farmville dramatically as people are actively encouraged to invite friends and provide gifts. Other than this method, items in the game can either be purchased through virtual cash or players can actually choose to use real money to then buy virtual cash. The most desirable items are usually only affordable with real money so this encourages players to spend on Farmville.

The other key element to the gamification of Farmville is the way it coaxes players . Meta games need to provide a reason for players to come back in order to promote long term business and Farmville does this by ensuring that if players do not actively return to their virtual farms frequently their crops will begin to die and their farm will fall apart. Therefore money, points and status are lost.

Ebay

One of the first successful gamification accounts comes from eBay, a highly effective method of selling and buying items that may either be specialist pieces or items no longer sold or advertised in a retail environment. The method for bidding on items is a game in itself, as the ‘best’ player will eventually win the prize by outbidding other challengers. In the end, the best player is determined by placing the highest accepted bid. It’s a competitive rush to constantly bet higher amounts of money on a desirable item against a huge number of anonymous opponents.

This competition is key in creating a social aspect that distinguishes eBay from regular classified ads created to sell an assortment of products, with the invention of the auction ‘game’ the unique selling point of the website. Admittedly , people can shop using other non digital media mediums to find the best deals and try to purchase them after negotiations, but eBay proves to be more convenient and efficient for a majority of people, with the eBay experience altogether more entertaining whilst inputting a added element of fun.

DevHub

This case study is one that is relatively low key, yet the DevHub Website Builder is a service that helps those seeking to build their own webpages find the motivation to continue through to the finish. Statistics support that most people rarely finish a website to the satisfaction of their initial specifications. Arguably the difficulty involved with creating elaborate web decorations, or learning how to code difficult flash elements into their site posed too much of a barrier, thus explaining the research evidence .

DevHub manages to make a game of accomplishments related to the completion of webpage creation, (i.e. adding an embedded html code for a video nets the ‘Video Award’) giving users awards for completing certain acts and allowing them to compete against other websites for regular prize giveaways. The methods used by DevHub are exactly the type of formulae a company seeking to ‘gamify’ should emulate for success, as giving people an entertaining incentive towards framing their purchase habits in a specific way is an unstoppable advantage for any company.

MeTycoon

In contrast, MeTycoon, developed by PlayGen, is a captivating and satisfying online experience that encourages young teenagers to proactively explore career opportunities; combining videos of real people doing real jobs within a game world based on skills, activities and money to determine happiness.

Tencent: Pet.qq.com

Another successful example of meta games is Tencent a game played over social networks in China. Users look after pets and pay to buy items for their pets such as medicine and toys. Tencent can manipulate the behavior of the pets and in essence encourage greater spending by the players if needs be.

MyCokeRewards

Another different gamification and meta games example is MyCokeRewards. This type of gamification works on the premise that those who buy Coca-Cola products can earn points which can then be used online to enter various sweepstakes to win prizes.

The use of meta games and gamification is becoming the most popular marketing tool available in the internet and application age and it is not hard to see why these case studies of meta games have proven to be effective and successful.

BigDoor Media is one of several internet-based companies that provide virtual economy models, and intuitive game-based design mechanics to websites or applications. For companies seeking to gamify their digital media or internet-based media, BigDoor provides a valuable service in developing their site into a bustling interactive game. BigDoor can offer your site high score leader boards, entertaining Flash/Java games that can earn users points, and rewards for participation/competition with other site users. All of this gamification is of course in direct support of the ultimate goal (providing the services or goods being sold to the end user). BigDoor Media’s methods can result in dramatically increased revenue and page traffic for companies who utilise their beta software suites and consultation services.

As their homepage states BigDoor media realises “the digital world has a tendency to be a bit boring,” creating a strong demand (by both end users and companies alike) for their gamification strategies. For anyone seeking assistance on taking that first step into gamification and increased profitability, BigDoor is an effective source for further information on the process.

According to their homepage, uBoost is designed to work “across all age groups, curricula, and achievement levels” and provide educational staff innovative options for motivating their students for improved long-term behavior. Students can earn badges, and rank up higher over the course of their education and are pitted against fellow students, so there is inherent competition to remain “better than the rest” spurring children to outperform each other in their schoolwork. uBoost’s educational aide can be implemented by school groups for free (up to 50 student accounts, and 1,000 points awarded per month) which gives the perfect incentive for kids to stay interested in extra-curricular activities rather than participate in irresponsible behavior after school.

With BigDoor Media, uBoost, and an increasingly larger number of companies that are turning towards gamification methods, eventually the gaming revolution will be one mapping the direction and success in commercial business. As the success with the Nintendo Wii console has proven, there is a wide spectrum of potential game loving consumers who simply cannot pass up the entertaining prospect of a joyous experience. As a result, the Nintendo Wii has been sold to traditional non-gamers (the elderly and middle-aged parents who aren’t exposed to playing video games, but recognise the family orientated elements involved with the Wii console; casual gamers who dislike playing games without a social or ‘party game’ aspect attached; and several other demographics that were never before interested in gaming until the Nintendo Wii was released). The lessons that were true with the Wii remain true for today’s marketplace—gamification strategies will work for any potential customer as long as they enjoy having fun!

What Blizzard’s World of Warcraft (WoW) does with great efficency is offer an almost intangible service that can best be described as ‘social competition’. For WoW players, they need to justify the cost of a monthly charge (that could add up to hundreds per year) for the rights to play the same game with their online friends. This justification comes through the unique rewards system that WoW features. Overall, players who ‘level up’ (or become stronger) in the game will be able to access more dangerous game areas, which can earn them the exclusivity of rare items in the gamified world.

These rare items are often capable of vastly improving the strength of your WoW character, making them formidable in defence and impossible to defeat by other players. This comes into play on WoW servers that feature a heavy amount of player-versus-player or PVP competition, as frequently defeating enemies will also open up chances for additional rare leaderboard-based items.

The camaraderie that is associated with WoW is another aspect of the design that is important for gamification strategy in general. The way WoW is set up (when playing the game in a way that avoids PVP conflicts) there is a requirement to attach yourself to a strong ‘Guild’.

Being a part of a Guild that travels through WoW dungeons on a set weekly schedule is one of the most effective ways to justify the monthly fee to play the game. Gamers are able to keep themselves and their armor/item collections optimized to enjoy the game to it’s fullest only by constantly participating with others over a long period of time.

The lessons from WoW and those before it (like the Pespi Challenge and the McDonald’s Monopoly promotion) have been analyzed and largely implemented in websites that feature gamification models. uBoost has a similar rewards system, set up to keep students loyal and socially competitive with other points earners via their auction system (a direct imitation of the eBay and WoW auction house systems).

Facebook understands the lure of social competition and uses the Facebook user’s own friends list to encourage them to have the best score out of their entire online social network. It’s a trend that now translates to mobile phone devices with them have applications with social competition in mind, encouraging users to share applications so that they will have more friends in competitive games (while giving the application creator more profits in sales). With Bunchball and BigDoor establishing themselves as two of the newest emerging companies, they are more than qualified experts in converting many struggling business strategies into profitable models based on gamification tenets. The future of commerce is here and it definitely seems like a fun one!

Essentially gamification is a study of the human psyche. In its essence, those, who intend for gamification to translate worldwide, aim to understand the relationship between the game mechanic and individual preferences of the gamer. To elaborate, each of us have different traits and motivations, so while some of us may be driven by achieving objectives, in contrast a healthy percentage are purely motivated by the socializing element. In an ideal world, marketing campaigns would be catered towards to all varied groups. As Sigmund Freud noted, subconscious desires are frequently suppressed and rarely ever given a voice in a rational-thinking, socially-acceptable individual. In most cases, these desires translate into game-based traits such as the overpowering need for winning’, recognition, receiving rewards for accomplishments, and other game-relatable fundamentals. Whilst gamer interaction has previously been a niche , these subconscious desires are relative to human attributes. Or listening to a co-worker express satisfaction at ‘their team,’ in regards to a professional sports team, advancing in the playoffs. It’s a given that everybody wants to ‘win’.

Nobody wants to be labeled with a losing reputation and to go to a sports pragramme with a negative branding makes efforts for gamification harder to find success if there is too much of an emphasis on winning or losing.

What a lot of advertisers do is research the McDonald’s Monopoly Sweepstakes model. With this recurring restaurant-based gamification effort, people have fun trying to win rather than get any significant progress done as far as collecting required winning game pieces. The thrill of victory is almost as powerful a motivation tool as actually winning a reward, but certainly if there were ‘failure’ pieces (instead of the random draw pieces that all may potentially add together as a win with repeated purchases) it could be less popular.

Many successful gamification efforts focus on the customer interaction. The most effective strategy with any advertising campaign involves a customer having a large participatory role with marketing.

Having customers come up to the Pepsi Challenge booth themselves to try the ‘game’ out for themselves was a revolutionary tactic that has gone on to inspire today’s modern gamification efforts. The Pepsi Legacy Book PDF has more information on the Pepsi Challenge, and other successful marketing strategies employed by Pepsi.

These playful experiences, more commonly known as meta games, are used by gamers on the internet as well as on mobile phone devices. The meta games are designed to appeal to those who would not normally associate themselves with gaming formats and thus the greatest challenge is to make meta games universal within differing demographic groups. As already mentioned, the principles that lie at the heart of the gamification concept are concerned with selling a product and brand to its maximum potential and reaching a broad customer base.

Determining the success of a new product can prove problematic as there are a number of factors which could affect the performance of a brand or product. Consumers are faced with more choices than ever and this makes it harder to predict success. There are a number of strategies in place which can help short term interest in a product, such as creative advertising, but short term interest is not the priority for a new product. This is where gamification and meta games can help play a significant role in encouraging long term interest.

An underlying problem with predicting whether a product will succeed or fail, is largely down to an understanding of consumer reaction and behavior. By attempting to alter and understand consumer reaction and behavior, a product can begin to reap the benefits of long term interest whilst simultaneously reaching a whole new audience. The basic principles of gamification and meta games go a long way to help change consumer reaction and therefore encourage long-term interest with the success of a product. By incorporating both meta games and gamification, products can reach and have an effect on wide audiences. This is because meta games are, by nature, very engaging and if a game is related to a product it can help the product earn greater value in terms of its consumers. Once this is achieved through gamification it is likely a product will have a distinct advantage over its competitors.

Essentially the principles of gamification are based around the ability to help create and sustain a long-term relationship between the consumer in a product to help ensure the success of that product. This is achieved through the use of visually stimulating and engaging meta games which are designed to resonate and entice people outside of the traditional gaming sectors. Generating an acceptance of meta games beyond the usual gaming sectors is the pivotal factor in creating a successful gamification strategy. Once in place, the gamification process will help consumers associate with a product and develop a greater sense of loyalty towards it because of factors such as familiarity. Increased participation through the use of engaging and simple meta games can help boost a business or product in the future.

When we consider the evolution of technology and the accelerated trends of consumer habits, gamification has become a unique form of marketing which could only be applied in today’s world. In the past, the behavior of consumers changed through the use of advertising on television and on the radio. As effective as that strategy was, and still is in some cases, it does not have quite the same power over consumers as it used to, due to the saturation of advertising across multiple formats and the vast array of choices available to consumers. Gamification helps respond to this problem directly by attempting to appeal to all members of society through engaging meta games over the internet.

By physically engaging with meta games, consumers are actively getting involved and thus focusing their attention on the product and meta games in question. This form of gamification marketing can help directly affect consumer behavior in the same way advertising on television does. It helps draw attention towards a product or brand and therefore creates a lasting effect on the consumer and encourages long term interest. The principles of gamification are simple but strikingly effective as they aim to change consumer behavior and promote interest.

The Concept of Gamification

Gamification is a simple but highly effective idea that has begun to firmly establish itself in 2010 with the success of meta games such as Farmville. The basic concept behind gamification is the introduction of straightforward and engaging meta games into applications or websites which in turn help promote a product or brand. The key behind the concept is to make the meta games accessible and attractive to those unfamiliar to the traditional gaming demographic. Once this is achieved, all manner of consumers will actively engage in the meta games and product and therefore will create long term business interest. It is the active participation in gamification which helps promote business like no other form of marketing.

Like many other types of marketing, gamification seeks to work by altering and changing the behavior of the consumer. Television adverts have been doing this for decades now, but through the use of meta games and actual participation, the ability to change consumer behavior has allowed for unlimited opportunities. Through a number of clever concepts, gamification works by enticing consumers to behave in a certain way with regard to the product or brand the meta games are related to. By engaging consumers repeatedly, and thus on a long term basis, it helps increase product loyalty which in turn helps elevate the success of a product or brand.

The concept of gamification is to tap into the basic desires and needs of all consumers, impulses which tend to revolve around competition or the idea of status and achievement and in some cases even a form of self-expression. These desires and needs is something which is embodied in us all and is what makes gamification such a effective tool amongst the masses. As mentioned, the key to successful meta games is the ability to create gameplay that will appeal to those who do not typically play computer games on a regular basis. As a result the meta games require an ease and simplicity behind its basis, whilst still fulfilling its duty of entertainment, encouraging active participation and continued use over a long period of time. Meta games also have the distinct ability to provide for those basic needs of competition and status amongst friends and colleagues making gamification extremely resourceful as a marketing tool.

Perhaps the best way to circulate consumers usage meta games in order to focus attention on a particular product is through the use of statistics. Statistics are the ideal way to measure and quantify competition and status and the other basic desires already mentioned above. Without statistics, meta games can become instantly bland preventing any point in playing it. However with statistics there is always a score to beat and competition can be accurately weighed up between friends and colleagues. Gamification becomes hugely alluring to people because all manner of statistics can be recorded, enabling people to compete for achievements and status, thus drawing them to play repetitively until they have achieved their objectives. Meta games and gamification allow consumers to compete on a vast scale and receive the reputation that comes with that. For example, they could score enough points to be ranked first in the State or first in the US depending on the game being played.

Not only do these gamification aspects encourage consumers to play on numerous occasions, extra participation can be promoted through the use of purchasing an object within the game, taking a quiz or even answering questions. Ultimately through all these gamification means, products and brands can be marketed in a way unlike any other and the concept is totally original and can potentially reap huge profits. The video game industry is booming and at the moment it is estimated that in the US alone over 3 billion hours are dedicated to gaming. The gamification audience is already out there and by successfully implementing this concept, a product could easily expand globally. Farmville is a superb example of meta games and gamification reaching out to vast audiences including huge numbers of non gamers.

A Design Guide to Gamification

Before designing a successful gamification strategy there are a number of things that need to be understood, including  the principles and the concept of gamification, in addition to the use of meta games. Of course case studies should be analyzed and assessed in order to gain an idea of what works in meta games and where to improve on existing ideas. However once these areas have been explored, there is still one key aspect which drives the whole process of gamification and determines its success when used for a product or brand. This is positioning yourself in the perspective of the consumer and understanding what motivates their behavior which will ultimately be the force that determines whether a gamification strategy is successful or not.

In order for a gamification strategy to alter and control consumer behavior, a number of factors must be considered and addressed during the design process. The main goal when designing meta games is engagement and continual involvement because this leads to long-term business success and consumer loyalty. Meta games that are engaging will keep consumers content and fuel their appetite to repeat the experience which is ultimately the aim achievement for any product or brand. Engagement also plays a significant role in helping alter consumer behavior as consumers will be exposed to the gamification and meta games over long periods of time. Considering behavioral change over time is also an important factor when designing a gamification strategy which is aiming to be engrossing.

There are a wide variety of factors that can help to make meta games captivating and effectively determine the success of the gamification process. When designing a strategy, these factors must be analyzed thoroughly, in order to devise meta games that meet the particular criteria. One of these factors is the entertainment value of meta games. If a product or brand is deemed to be mundane then incorporating an entertaining gamification process can help reverse that opinion bringing fun and positive connotations towards it. If meta games lack entertainment value then the likelihood is that frequent gamers are unlikely to play and of course non gamers will inevitable pass upon the opportunity as well. One of the most important things to consider when designing the gamification process is the ability to appeal to the non gaming demographic. If meta games can appeal to this section of non gamers, then they can open up an enormous consumer base for the product, but in order to appeal meta games have to be entertaining.

Another element that must be considered for meta games is competition. Competition is a basic human desire that can be tapped into through the use of games and the hierarchy of unlocking rewards, depending on your progress. When competition is present within meta games, it helps draw consumers back because they will be drawn by the competition. This is particularly true if the competition can be held between friends, family and colleagues. Competition can be easily incorporated into gamification design because it relies on the simple process of collecting and presenting statistics. When the statistics of different players are presented next to one another they can be compared and ranked and thus competition is initiated.

A visually arresting experience is also a crucial factor when designing meta games as this is the most effective method of capturing the users imagination in addition to being a technique which will not only succeed in heightening gamer sensibility but also draw consumers towards future products whether they are gamers or non gamers.

When designing a gamification strategy, the main goals are long-term engagement through the use of rewards, competitions and entertainment. With long term engagement a product can then aim to control consumer behavior and become successful.

The Main Themes Of Gamification

Gamification has emerged as an extremely powerful marketing tool enabled to attract long term consumer interest and encourage participation in a product. Through the use of meta games, gamification allows products and brands to appeal, reach and pave exposure to vast audiences. However, the success of meta games is reliant on the application of a appropriate gamification strategy that will help create publicity. A successful gamification strategy depends on a number of factors that must be present within meta games. When creating a strategy, it is vital to recognize that the success of gamification and meta games lies in its ability to encourage prolonged participation from consumers. Consumers who consistently play meta games over lengthy periods of time are the key to a successful gamification strategy and this extended engagement can be promoted through a series of central themes.

There are a plethora of main themes that when placed together into an appropriate gamification strategy can help lead to success. Meta games should cater for all these themes, in order to draw consumers back and create extensive business opportunities. When working together, particular themes help drive participation and engagement for consumers, to unprecedented levels making it even more significant when implementing them into meta games. One of the most important themes to consider for the gamification process is the encouragement of consumer action whilst using the meta games. Users should be provided with a number of incentives to actively participate and perform actions whilst playing meta games. This could be achieved through the encouragement of filling out questionnaires participating in quizzes, users could even be persuaded to purchase items, rate something or even watch a linked video. All these aspects require user interaction and if these actions are provided with incentive and rewards then the gamification strategy will promote continual activity.

Similarly, the use of rewards in gamification and meta games is also an important theme. For example, once users have achieved certain goals, rewards will become a product of the gaming experience, keeping users enthralled and eagerly anticipating the next time they use meta games to earn all possible rewards. These rewards can be trophies, or prizes constructed to highlight a players attributes and thus their status within the meta games. Also linked to the theme of rewards is the theme of points and point scoring in meta games. Collecting points works on a number of differing levels. Firstly, people have to work for points and the more points a person gains, the more credibility they will have. A gamification strategy should entail points in order to achieve rewards and so the two feed each other and encourage prolonged use of the meta games by consumers. When used in gamification, points are particularly effective for a number of reasons. Points can count towards status indicators, they can be used to buy virtual items within meta games and as already mentioned they can build up rewards. In gamification, points help actively encourage consumers to engage in meta games over long periods of time as they have many reasons to come back and earn more points.

Competitions work on a similar basis except with competitions, those who win can be rewarded with a prize at the end. Once again this incentive works to draw people in to play for the foreseeable future and improve on their performance so they can win future competitions.

A final theme to consider with gamification and meta games is the option of individuality. Though the use of customizable avatars, users can express their individuality whilst playing the game.

Once these themes come together in a coherent and easy format, a gamification strategy is likely to be successful.

There’s a lot of variety out there in the realm of social network design. Some sites keep a very professional approach (like LinkedIn) while others have a more organic, free-form look (like MySpace). Most sites fall somewhere in between, mixing professionalism with personalization (like Facebook). But what’s the best way to design a social network? What are the elements that make a social network more user-friendly and more attractive to users? Read on to find out.

1. Engage Quickly

Engagement is crucial for the success of any website. You need to make sure that visitors are immediately drawn into your site, either through great content, a compelling call to action, or some other means.

What’s It For?

Users need to know what your site is all about within seconds of reaching your home page. Most people don’t have time (or inclination) to try to figure out what a website is for if it’s not immediately apparent to them. A simple tag line, the use of graphics, your site’s title, or any number of other elements on your home page can serve to provide new visitors with some indication of what your site’s purpose is.

Facebook does an excellent job of quickly informing new visitors of their purpose right on their home page.

Give Visitors Something To Do

Your home page should present visitors, both new and returning, with something to do. Logging in or signing up is the most obvious thing for visitors to do, but think about other options. Give them the opportunity to explore what the site is all about before they sign up. Let them search for people they already know on the site. Give them a chance to see why they should sign up before forcing them to. It builds a sense of trust between your site and its users right from the start.

Xing presents users with multiple actions right on their home page, including signing up, taking a tour, or exploring content.

Promote Interesting Content From Friends

Show your users what their friends are doing. From the moment someone logs in, they should be able to see what their friends have been doing, posting, and otherwise promoting. Most sites approach this with a news feed or similar listing of all the activities your friends are up to.

Library Thing shows books recently added by friends.

Make It Easy To Find Friends

There’s nothing sadder than a social network account with few or no friends. Make it easy for your users to find friends, both new and old. Letting users search by email, school, company, name, and other identifying factors makes it more likely they’ll engage with a lot of other users, improving everyone’s user experience. The more friends a user has, the more active their profile and news feeds will be, meaning they’re more likely to come back often.

Facebook’s “Invite Friends” page uses a format similar to sending an email.

2. Let Users Express Themselves

Self-expression is one of the hallmarks of social media. Some sites approach this by giving users almost full control over the way their profile page looks (MySpace). Others restrict the design options but let users add content to suit their own preferences (Facebook). The degree to which your social network allows users to cusotmize and personalize their profiles is up to you; just make sure there’s some functionality in that area.

Profile Pages Should Promote Personal Expression

Whether you allow full control over user profiles or only limited access to changing their appearances, users should at least have some ability to make their profile reflect their personality. This can be done through changing color schemes and backgrounds or adding content.

DeviantART allows artists to customize their profiles by adding different kinds of content modules.

Promoting Individuality In Applications

Letting users show their individuality within applications is also a good idea in social networking design. You can do this by allowing users to comment on their activities within applications (as Facebook does) or in other ways. Some applications can be used directly to express a user’s personality. Applications like this include the various gifting, flair, and survey applications. One of the best examples of an application that lets users express who they are is the Living Social application (which is kind of a social network within itself), which allows users to create “top 5? lists about almost anything.

3. Be Dynamic

Dynamic content is the lifeblood of Web 2.0 sites. Social networks are no different. Content should change constantly, with the newest, most popular, and most valuable information continually pushed to the forefront for users.

Have Regularly-Changing Content

Because of the nature of social networking sites, there’s new content constantly available from users. Take advantage of this by including content, both on the home page and on individual users’ profiles or main pages, comprised of these updates. Updated content keeps users coming back, as there’s more to see each time they visit.

Experience Project includes featured content on their home page.

Update Content in Real-Time

Utilizing a real-time news feed for your users is a huge convenience. At this point, very few sites are doing this. Facebook has the closest thing to a real-time news feed I’ve seen. It shows you when there are updates, but still requires a click to actually view them (and is often buggy when displaying them). The ideal would be an ajax or similar news feed that updated every minute or so without requiring any user input.

Living Social has a real-time news feed of activity happening across their network.

4. Allow Friends To Be Grouped

As friend numbers grow, the ability to group them becomes more important. When you only have thirty or forty friends, it’s often not a big deal to just lump them all together. But when your friend numbers grow to 100, 200, 500 or higher, being able to group them together almost becomes a necessity. After all, you might want to keep your work friends, college friends, casual acquaintances, close friends, and family all in separate groups, both to filter whose updates you see and how much others see of your updates and other information.

Let Users Define Groups

User-defined groups make the most sense when it comes to organizing friends. Some users may only want to organize their friends into a couple of different groups (such as business and personal or family and friends). Others might want to set up dozens of groups for their friends. In either case, make sure users can add their friends to more than one group at a time.

Create Automatic Groups

Automatically grouping friends makes sense, too. Grouping friends by which applications they’re using seems to be the most popular of this kind. Other options might include friends who are also members of the same groups or who share common friends.

The Brooklyn Art Project social network groups their members by the type of art they work with.

5. Use OpenSocial

OpenSocial, Google’s application platform for social networks, opens up a range of possibilities for your social networking site. The primary function of OpenSocial is to allow developers to create applications that can be used across a wide range of social networks. But OpenSocial has other benefits, too, like letting your users take their profile information across the range of sites using OpenSocial.

Provide More Applications To Users

Applications have become one of the most important and most-used features of social networks. Everything from productivity apps to games to gifting apps to apps for expressing yourself are available through OpenSocial. And developers are adding new applications on a daily basis. Because Google runs it, you also don’t need to worry about the program closing down anytime soon.

Ning is only one of a host of social networks that supports the OpenSocial API.

Let Users Take Their Profiles Anywhere

Allowing your users to take their profile information to other sites implementing OpenSocial is another big advantage. This, of course, means they can also bring their profile information over to your network, which can increase the number of new registrations you get.

6. Make It Easy To Communicate

The entire point of a social network is to foster communication. If you make it difficult for users to converse with each other, your site most definitely will not last for very long. Make sure when you’re planning and developing your site that you keep communication at the forefront of every decision you make. If it does anything to hinder your users from talking to each other, drop it.

Provide Multiple Means Of Communication

Most social networks provide multiple means of communication for their users. The basics are private messages, public wall messages or comments, and live chat or instant messaging. While it’s best to include all three of these, at a bare minimum your site should provide some way to send public messages and a way to send private messages.

Facebook’s private messaging system is only one way they foster communication among members.

Foster Conversations

Make it easy for users to have conversations with each other. Whether this is done through threaded messages, commenting, or some other method, you want your users to have effective conversations. Make it easy to pull additional people into the conversation, too, to make your site even more dynamic.

7. Show Only Relevant Information

Social networks are generally teeming with information. Between friend updates, users’ own activities, and notices from groups they’re associated with, there’s a constant stream of data coming at your users. Don’t compound the problem by sending them even more information that they dont’ necessarily need.

What Really Needs To Be Here?

When designing your user interface, ask yourself this question repeatedly. Is it really necessary for a certain bit of information or an option to be included on a given page? If the answer is no, then don’t include it there. Only give your users the minimum necessary information to perform the tasks you want them to perform. Just make sure if there’s additional information some users might want that you make it easy enough for them to find it.

Daily Challenge hides some information until users hover, which leaves their interface decluttered and clean-looking.

Don’t Overwhelm Your Users

The volume of information on a social network can quickly become overwhelming. Don’t contribute to this problem by then offering them a dozen different options for each action they might take on your site. Simplify the information and choices you give them to make their user experience better.

The same principal applies to the volume of information the site itself provides to users. If your site is constantly sending out updates and news announcements, it can quickly overwhelm users. Only send out notifications when absolutely necessary. Set up a blog or news page (with an RSS feed) for posting non-essential information. This way users can see what’s happening on their own terms.

Give Users The Ability To Filter

Allowing users to filter out information from some users or groups is another way to improve a user’s experience. Letting users filter out updates from certain users or applications makes it easier for them to see the information they want to see without getting overloaded.

Facebook allows users to filter their news feed based on content or user-defined groups.

8. Make It Easy To Take Action

Every social network has certain actions they want users to take. Whether it’s to join more groups, invite more friends, click on ads or sponsored links, or post more updates, there’s likely a laundry list of desired activities every site would like to have all of their users perform. The key to getting users to actually take these actions is to make it both easy and appealing to do so.

Emphasize The Desired Response

Make it obvious which response or action you want users to make. This can be as simple as using larger buttons for the preferred response and a small text link for the less desirable one, or using different colors or language for different options. In either case, make the desired response appear to be the more desirable one.

WriterFace makes it very obvious what actions they want users to take.

Make It Easy To Find Things

If you want users to perform certain actions, make it easy for them to find those actions. The most obvious example is in inviting new friends. Make it straightforward and easy for users to find the form to invite their friends who might not be members of your network. Organize available actions in a semantic manner so users can logically find the options they’re looking for.

9. Show Avatar Photos

Virtually every social network out there allows users to upload a profile photo. Display this image near any activity a user performs. This could be next to their updates in a news stream, in lists of friends, or in the general site directories.

People Like Seeing Other People

Social network users like to see other social network users. And seeing your friend’s picture next to a particular application or other element of the site makes it more likely you’ll click on whatever they’re promoting. It builds a sense of trust to see a face you recognize, even if you’ve never actually met that person in real life.

10. Include Ways For Members To Connect

When social networks first started, most people only friended other people they knew in real life. But as social networks have grown, they’ve become a way to meet new people. Empower your users to find each other based on common interests. Provide tools to let people who don’t know each other, and who possibly aren’t even friends on the network, to communicate and get to know each other.

Include User Groups

Many social networks now allow users to create and join groups based on common interests. Sometimes these groups are serious (such as professional groups) while other times they’re just for fun. What they all share in common, though, is that they allow users to find other users who are interested in the same things they are.

Eons showcases user groups right on their home page.

Provide A Member Directory

Member directories are another good way to allow your users to find each other. These are particularly useful for small, niche social networks, as they allow every member to see every other member. In a large social network they quickly become less valuable unless you also include ways for members to filter the directory (such as by age or location). In large social networks it’s also a good idea to let members opt out of being included in the directory (kind of like having an unlisted phone number).

Video Games and the technologies that support them have fundamentally changed the way we play. The players are older, the genres are broader, the games are much more advanced, immersive, and engaging.

There are many companies today who wish to integrate gaming mechanics and game-based learning into everyday applications, fundamentally changing the way work is done. Add to this the inescapable fact that digital interactivity is being used in disciplines such as behavior modification, autism therapy, leadership skill building, and strategic analysis by organizations like us, PlayGen.

What is game based learning ? Screenshot from Choices&Voices

Most learners only remember 5 to 10 percent of what they read; 20 percent of what they hear; 30 percent if they see visuals related to what they hear; 50 percent if they watch someone do something while explaining it; but almost 80 percent if they do the job themselves, even if only as a simulation.

Today’s schools and companies are running in competition with some of the most compelling and engaging content out there, namely console and video games. Its only by staying ahead of the curve that our schools and organisations can captivate the audience by using the power of interactivity and simulations (dare I say games) to enhance and improve the way we learn and work.

Serious games and game based learning forms a new critical component of the equation to make education smarter. Although the field is still young, PlayGen has already shown how game-based learning has the potential to deliver sophisticated business, science and behavioural education to hundreds of thousands of users simultaneously.

Unlike other historical mass-media experiments in education, for example TV or webcasts, games are a highly interactive medium, and providing they are designed properly they share many key attributes with sophisticated pedagogical approaches (the art and science of how we learn).

PlayGen’s serious games differ from other forms of learning by providing rich, rewarding, relevant and multi-faceted environments in which the player can put their theory into practice in a safe, simulated manner and learn from their own decisions. We offer continuous feedback and cooperative team learning in an inquiry-based, authentic environment where players are motivated by rewards and new levels toward achieving their objectives.

So having had a good look around the social game world & having made our 3rd social game this year, here’s some nuggets of information that should help any budding social games designer to develop a better game.

Its all about a great single player game experience with a bit of social attached! Or is it? I would argue that even though the single player aspect is paramount, if that is the starting point the design of the social game will be sadly rather limiting.

Ready, Steady, Fight!

When we were designing iSeed, we looked at opt-in leagues and leader-board tables and felt that whilst useful they just didn’t cut the mustard in getting people to engage with each other, so we extended the competition to one on one, head to head, good old fashioned fighting. Its not a first person shooter, it’s a game about the environment, so there were limits on what we could do – that’s where we decided to design for direct competition. You can pick an adversary and pit your stories and plants against them, a virtual grow-off if you like.

Kerching! Its time to Monetize!

Some people love the word monetize next to social media, some don’t really get it. We think it’s super important but needs careful consideration about target audience and what the project is for.

Whist we developed iSeed we wanted a way to encourage folks to donate to the charity involved, so we hit on the idea of selling money! Yes we reinvented virtual currency, in our case Seeds and Plant Food – if this is sounding like Farmville can I just clarify that we built it before Farmville. Any how, having a market place with virtual goods that can be exchanged with hard cold cash is not new, but needs incorporating into ‘any’ social game. After all if you can’t monetize your social game, how will you sustain it?

Going beyond the application

A lot of the time the social game is designed to suck you in and get you spending. But what if it’s a serious social game? What if you really are trying to influence and change behaviour? Will a web game, all be it on Facebook be the answer? Well probably not, the real change happens after the person has walked away from the screen, in what they do once they’ve played your social game. How do we do that? That’s the real challenge. So back to iSeed and the premise of the game is that you start in the real world, with real world challenges. Bringing it all together through mashups using facebook, twitter and google maps.

Going fully social on the social game

Its yet to happen, but when it does you can bet your bottom dollar it’s going to be massive. The closest thing to it? Probably Kongragate or Second Life – but neither is it. What is it? It’s the next big innovation in social games, being able to play multiple games together under one platform, moving from one game to another seamlessly as though it’s all part of the same universe. Granted Kongragate makes a good job of it, but what’s missing is a common platform, will it be Facebook? I suspect not, but being able to socialise in the game itself rather than in the wrapping website is probably the next big thing in social games.