The best (and probably the only) gamification training out there

If you’ve ever tried to learn or use gamification, whether in business, training, or in your life, you can probably relate to my experience.

When I first researched gamification (the art and science of adding game mechanics to business or learning applications), I was disappointed.

Well, that’s putting it mildly.

I couldn’t believe the state of the information out there.

I was looking forward to using the power of games to really boost some of my courses. Here I was, hungry to learn everything the world had to teach.

Most of the guides I found said the same boring, obvious, incomplete crap over and over again:

“Hey, maybe you could…you know, add XP to the course. So students level up as they go.”

Oh, what’s the idea? I figured that out for myself.

“Maybe have badges. That way, students can… have badges.”

Insurance…

And… that’s where your advice would dry up. Or they can talk about leaderboards (but not how to do it right) or boss battles (challenging assignments, just that it involves dragons or something).

Some experts found some success with gamification, speaking of high percentage increases in key metrics. They would demonstrate this by showing screenshots of their boring and sugary ‘quest’ games that supposedly trick people into doing their taxes or whatever.

But of course there is no depth as to how.

There are many TED talks that you can watch.

To save you time, they’re mostly the same: 75% of the talk is why gamification matters. The rest talk about a game they implemented at their school or workplace without getting into the nitty-gritty of how they designed it.

I learned much, much more about gamification from learning game design than from gamification resources.

At the time I thought there was a gap in the market here. My instincts told me, as often happens, to crack the gamification code and write a useful and practical guide.

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 in depth.

Gamification training that does not waste your time

Most gamification resources focus on mechanics, such as XP, collectibles, or battles, while skimping on design.

When you sit down to design something yourself, you realize how limiting that is.

The mechanics don’t matter. You have your objective, for example, to convey an idea or motivate some behavior. Proper design focuses on that, not adding cool swords to your game.

Most of the gamification resources allude to design…

But only one I’ve found puts it front and center, where it belongs:

Yu-kai Chou’s Octalysis frame.

It starts with eight main units that humans have. The games are fun, even addictive, because they satisfy at least some of them. Boring work is tedious because you don’t.

This is what makes games fun and gamification effective. It also explains why most gamification (which focuses on mechanics rather than design) fails.

No one likes to swing a sword for no reason, but everyone likes to save the kingdom.

Yu-kai’s work describes dozens (perhaps even hundreds) of game mechanics. That puts him ahead of most gamification experts (who focus on a few).

Even most game design resources I’ve read peter out after a dozen or so.

The Octalysis framework goes further.

Rather than describe these mechanics in a vacuum, he links them to core drives. Yu-kai explains how and when each mechanic satisfies certain basic urges. If his experience feels flat or fails to keep students close, he’ll have a handy list of mechanisms to solve those exact problems.

That’s why you include these items: 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 instinct

You can learn 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 not the best.

You learn best when you have tangible experiences with something. So the best way to learn gamification is, interestingly enough, to experience gamification.

That gives you a gut instinct of what works, what doesn’t, and what has potential.

The good thing is that you can learn Octalysis in a gamified way.

Yu-kai’s Octalysis Prime program has hundreds of videos on gamification, ranging from basic ideas to advanced design techniques.

It also has tons of other resources, like interviews with top game designers, examples of how to gamify your own life, behavioral economics lessons, and summaries of business principles.

The surroundings are great challenges, experience points, in-game currency, collectibles, social forums, and daily goods.

You can easily ignore all of that if it distracts you.

But it would be silly, 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’s a sublime way to learn, allowing you to not only remember things better, but also imagine what you can do with all of them.

Your playful destiny awaits you, Noble Hero.

Why have I spent almost a thousand words talking about how great Octalysis is?

To spread knowledge. There’s a lot of crap out there. This, right here, is the good stuff. Gold.

I am grateful to the person who introduced me to Yu-kai’s work, so this is my reward.

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