Framework

This page contains an quick overview of my gamification design framework.

1. Point of entry (PoE)
2. User profile
3. Collaboration artifact
4. Game mechanics and collaborative interactions
5. Communication and coordination
6. Rewards
7. Player experience

Point of entry (PoE)

Point of entry is how the player ‘enters’ the game as well as the ‘location’ of the gamified solution and/or game mechanics. It is also a combination of technology, platform and network that all influence how a player will be able to interact with the gamified solution itself as well as the other players.

User profile

The player profile is anchored in a real person, and requires authenticated data when created. Once created the player can personalize the profile by filling out the different parts of it. As the player progresses more options will be available for configuration as well as more data from the application will be used to present the player for other players.

Collaboration artifact

The focus of this framework is to motivate and enable players to collaborate. For such collaboration to work the players will have to enter into collaborative ownership of a game artifact. This collaboration artifact will contain all of the data and track the progress and development of the player’s collaborative efforts and track how the players interact with it. As an artifact grows/evolves in the game it is how the players are able to achieve, master and interact with the game and also how they receive their intrinsic and extrinsic rewards.

Game mechanics and collaborative interactions

The core mechanics of the game are the creation, development and/or interaction with collaborative artifacts. After having created an artifact the player will have access to game mechanics for interacting with the artifact and to collaborate with other players to enhance or develop the artifact. As a player you can also initiate interest in other players artifacts and be given access to interacting with these.

Communication and coordination

Tools for communicating and coordinating collaborative efforts are critical parts of the framework. In addition to designing the tools themselves they also need to be integrated to enhance and assist players to interact and collaborate. Good tools for communication and coordination will help create and develop collaboration artifacts as well as build a solid social platform for the players.

Rewards

For basic gamification the use of rewards is a common game mechanic, but when introducing large scale collaborative play they way rewards are used will change when they are no longer given to a single player in direct relation with that players choice or performance in the game. It is important to design rewards that can belong to (owned by) a group of collaborating players and that has an extended life cycle to reflect the time and effort the players invest in their collaborative artifacts.

Player experience

A collaborative game experience has a different appeal to its players than other types of games. If we consider player types as traits all players have more or less of, we are more likely to find certain traits connected with certain game interactions. Deciding on which player types and /or traits the solution will work with creates a solid foundation for building a player experience that will be able to motivate a broad audience. Secondly the players will have different experiences based on where they are in their player journey, and ensuring quality player experiences exists for each stage of this journey is important.

There are three important visual models that are a part of the framework;

1. Point of entry: showing both the where the gamified solution exists in relation to other parts of the system/service as well as how the hardware and network architecture looks are good ways to look at a system.
2. The basic framework; point of entry, user profile, collaborative artifacts, game mechanics and collaborative interactions including communication and coordination.
3. A three dimensional ‘check-list’ covering player types, player journey and the three parts that make up collaboration; cooperation, co-creation and coordination.

These three models will be a map of how to create a collaborative gamification application.