Gamification playbook

Winning with Gamification
Tips from the Expert’s Playbook

www.bunchball.com
355 Santana Row, Suite 2020, San Jose, CA 95128
408.985.2034 sales@bunchball.com

Winning with Gamification
Tips from the Expert’s Playbook
You’ve optimized for search engines But blindly adding game mechanics This guide collects many of the tips
and analytics- but are you influencing to your site may not give you the and tactics that our gamification
and optimizing how your users engage results you’re looking for. To truly experts have pulled together over the
with your site? “Gamification”- the engage users and create long-term years, providing you with a set of best
process of adding game dynamics to loyalty, the gamification solution you practices to guide you as you develop
sites and services - is an important and deploy needs to make sense for your your own gamification strategy.
powerful new strategy for influencing business. Bunchball has been delivering
and motivating groups of people. gamification solutions for over four years,
Using a gamification platform, you can and we’ve learned a great deal about
optimize for users in the same way you’ve what makes gamification successful.
optimized the other elements of your site
or community- and directly influence how
those users behave. If you are just learning about gamification, and are
looking for an introduction to the fundamentals
of gamification, our free whitepaper Gamification
101: An Introduction to the Use of Game
Dynamics to Influence Behavior is available at:
www.bunchball.com.

1. Getting Started
Is Gamification the same as Why Does Gamification Work? your users. For example, no amount of
designing a game? Gamification works to satisfy some of gamification is going to enhance a news
Gamification should never be confused the most fundamental human desires: site with outdated news.
with game design. You are not creating recognition and reward, status,
a deep, immersive experience like achievement, competition & collaboration, Do I need a Community?
Call of Duty or Halo. Instead, you self-expression, and altruism. People Gamification usually requires a supporting
are “gamifying,” or integrating game are hungry for these things both in their Community. The fundamental human
mechanics into your site, service, content, everyday world and online. Gamification desires we mentioned, such as status and
online community or campaign with the taps directly into this. self-expression, are bolstered when others
goal of increasing participation. Since bear witness to it. It is also important to
you are enticing a user to go deeper, Can Gamification replace good have other people with whom to compete
designing a Gamification system requires content? and compare accomplishments. Of
you start with simple rules, attainable No, your website needs to stand on course, there are some exceptions like
goals and near term wins. its own and be compelling for visitors. banking websites, where people want to
Game mechanics should enhance the maintain privacy. But as a general rule,
site by adding an element of community, humans want to interact and compete
competition, and fun that engages with others.

© 2011 Bunchball, Inc. All Rights Reserved

2. Mapping Your Goals with Your
User's Interests is Essential
Understand your business goals revenue, like purchases, page views or to be “fan x.” What does it mean to a music
After you have taken into account ad impressions. Or they may indirectly fan? A sports fanatic? A news junkie?
human nature, quality content and affect business value, like inviting
community, it is time to think friends, sharing content, or registering. Mind the gap!
about how gamification can Mind the gap! When creating your
align with and impact your Understand your users gamification solution, make sure you
business goals. Specifically, Everything you are creating ties back into design something that fits in the middle
you should focus on the understanding your user; who they are, between the user experience and your
activities on your site that what they do, why and how they do it. business goals.
drive business value. These Understand the drivers that get them to take
might be directly connected to a specific action, and profile what it means

3. What do you want your users to do?
Actions Relative Value Prioritize the actions you want your strategy you’ve put in place is working.
users to take It’s always a good idea to run in silent
The best way to approach this is with a mode before the program launches,
Register 10x standard ranking system. Once you have so you can begin to establish baseline
identified the Actions for your program, metrics to measure against.
Connect 9x you will want to rank them in order of value.
Start with the least valuable action and Why run in silent mode?
Watch Video 8x give it a factor of ‘1.’ Working from there, For baselining purposes, you may want to
assign relative values to everything else. track user actions completely behind the
Share 8x For example, commenting on a blog post scenes before you launch your program.
is relative value of ‘1’ while registering is Once you have established baseline
10x more valuable. Included is a sample metrics to compare against, you can begin
Watch Slideshow 5x
ranking system. awarding points and badges, reflecting
these achievements on leaderboards
Complete Profile 4x How do I determine success and newsfeeds, and measuring the uplift
metrics? that gamification provides. In addition to
Upload Video 3x Make sure you have all measurement creating a set of baseline metrics to use in
infrastructure in place on day one. measuring the success of your Gamification
Comment 1x This way, you can track user behaviors program, all this initial groundwork will help
and be assured that the gamification you decide the best tactics.


4. Making your Point(s)
Should I assign users Points for How many point systems should Experience Points
their actions? I use? Earned by participation, Experience
Points are a great way of rewarding This depends on what your specific Points are constantly increasing and the
a user for doing something business goals are. There are different point total is never deducted. Experience
that is of value to you (i.e., kinds of point systems used for different Points are not spendable.
purchase, download, share). business purposes, including:
Of course, points can also be Premium Points
a way for users to reward each Basic Points Only available via a cash transaction,
other. Ultimately, they should Basic Points are earned by participation Premium Points are usually spendable on
work as a way to give users and are usually spendable on virtual or “premium” virtual or physical goods.
some form of spending power. physical goods.

How do I name my Points?
The most important consideration is to
pick a name that makes it clear whether
the points are spendable or not (for
example: credits vs. points, bucks vs.
tokens). Also, if you are using multiple
currencies systems, the naming system
should reflect which one is more valuable
(i.e. silver tokens vs. gold tokens). How do I create a point scale system? How many points should I give for
A “point scale” represents the specific point each action?
amounts you reward to users for completing Keep in mind the absolute number
specific actions. When you are thinking does not matter. What matters is the
about your point scale system, large relative value of the action to you. Refer
numbers are always good. They are more to the system referenced earlier when
likely to communicate a sense of worth and prioritizing actions as a way to scale
weight with players. However, when the everything appropriately.
numbers get too big (i.e. lira, yen), they start
to lose meaning for players. The increments
should be intuitive instead of randomly
selected, so think in denominations of tens,
hundreds or thousands.


4. Making your Point(s) (cont.)

Should users start out with How can users spend their points? What are Current Points vs.
any points? The common executions are virtual Lifetime Points?
Always consider starting users out with goods, digital goods (i.e. music Current Points usually refers to an
an initial point bank so they are able to downloads) and physical goods. Points immediate, spendable balance. Lifetime
immediately experience spending power. can also be used to unlock access to Points is how many points the user has
If you have historical data, you can give special content, often times with a time- earned in their lifetime. The Lifetime
them credit for participation before the limited twist. Points number never decreases and is
‘game’ began. an indicator of status and seniority in a
Can users buy points and how community. This is also often used as a
Should points ever reset? should I sell them? basis for Levels.
Some programs may be finite, such as If you are considering selling points, make
ones tied into a marketing campaign or sure you are offering users something
TV season. In this instance, a reset will desirable to buy with them. Also, if points
help promote an urgency to spend. If are being sold in different packages, offer
your points have a dollar value attached, discounts for the bigger package.
and you need users to spend them, this
is another instance where a deadline for
point spend should be considered.

5. Levels Keep Users Coming Back
for More
Why use Levels? How do people Level Up? How many points should I use
The concept of levels is easy to grasp One way users can level up is through between Levels?
for users as they are also used in their lifetime points. Once they reach a When spacing the levels out, consider
the “offline” world. Karate belts, set number of points, they progress on to making the first few in fast, easy
job titles, and Frequent Flyer the next designated level. Alternatively, progression. This is a great way to get
programs are just some of you can select internal criteria or a task users engaged quickly. After that, the
the examples. They are a specific to your business objectives as level should be spaced out further and
shorthand indicator of status a milestone to progress to the next level. become harder to achieve. When plotted
in a community and show that Another option is a hybrid approach, on a graph, your level structure should
you should be afforded respect mixing points and tasks to allow the users resemble a hockey stick.
for your accomplishments. to progress.
What should I name my Levels?
Try to select labels that distinguish the
prestige between each level. While
using numbers is the easiest, clever,
intuitive names tied into the theme of your
program can be very effective.

What else can I do with Levels?
One suggestion for keeping users
engaged is offering unlockable content
and abilities once they reach a certain
level. Another idea is making users work
to maintain their position within that level.
Similar to a Frequent Flyer Program, this
will require users to participate in order to
maintain their status and encourage them
to come back and engage with your site
or service.


6. Make Badges Make Sense
Why use badges or trophies? How hard should it be to earn
Badges should tie directly into your badges and trophies?
business goals and to what users care Similar to levels, badges should start off
about and are proud of. As a game being easily obtainable. As the game
mechanic, they deepen engagement with progresses, they should get progressively
users. They also encourage exploration of harder to earn. Some badges can
your site, even mastery. They provide that be “aspirational,” requiring certain
sense of achievement we have already prerequisites such as achieving a certain
discussed as being a core human value. level or owning another badge or virtual
Like other core game mechanics, Badges good.
can also be used to encourage users to
take a specific action. What should badges and trophies
look like?
When designing a badge or trophy,
make sure it is visually appealing and
eye-catching. The badge should also be
relevant to the audience and the theme
of the program. For example, the badges
earned on casual gaming site POGO
would never have the same look and feel
as those earned on Q&A programmer site
Stack Overflow.

7. Getting the Rewards Right
What defines rewards? After X Times - After you watch 10 videos, the Community. Excited users are likely
you get a trophy. to share information with each other and
After X Times in Y Hours - Watch 24 socialize, getting participants more
videos in 24 hours, and receive the deeply involved in the community
“Vidiot Badge.” elements of your gamification solution.

Score Higher than X - Score 90 or more How do I prevent users from
A reward can be anything that on the quiz, and receive 100 points. gaming the system?
motivates your users: Points, Badges, Time Limited - Scarcity drives completion. The more excited users are about
Trophies, Virtual Items, Unlockable The clock is ticking! Now or never… rewards, the more incentive they will have
Content, Digital Goods, Physical to try and game the system. You can
Goods, Coupons, etc. prevent this upfront by designing a
Surprise and delight with rewards system that takes fraud into account and
When do I reward a user? Don’t be afraid to create an “information
puts some controls in place like time-
This is based on your business objectives gap” with a few special “Easter Egg”
based limits (hourly, daily, etc.). Also,
and creative planning. Here are some rewards that don’t explain the actions
consider the natural frequency for the
reward examples: required to earn them. These “surprise
Actions you put in place. Extend that by
and delight” rewards are powerful
X% for certain extreme cases and then
motivators because they tap into our
Every Time - Every time you watch a communicate these reward limits in your
natural tendency toward curiosity and
video, you earn 10 points. rules. Most importantly, enforce these
hope. Surprise rewards also help nurture
rules on your site.


8. But Wait - There’s More…
Should I use real-time feedback? Why use Groups & Teams? Leaderboards are certainly not a “one-
Real-time feedback is a great way to size-fits all” game mechanic. There are
instantly recognize and respond to several types to consider, based on the
your users’ accomplishments. These design of your site:
notifications can be used to suggest the
next action and draw users down the Site-based - Comprises the entire site
participation chain. Real-time feedback and all members. Keep in mind, this can
also helps reinforce the path of the intimidate “newbies” who may be worried
program and reminds them of things to about their chances of competing with
work towards. top performers.
Friend-based - A leaderboard that is
Should I use Newsfeeds? When you get users to compete and comprised of just the users’ friends and
collaborate as part of something social circle.
bigger, it increases the stakes, adds
another level of accountability and is a Time-based - A time-limited board that
dynamic motivator. In a best-practice focuses on a set time period such us one
implementation, a user’s individual day, one week, etc.
achievement should be rolled up Me-based - The most inclusive form,
under the group or team’s success and this focuses on just the user and
highlighted in inter and intra Group approximately 5 or so users above and
leaderboards and newsfeeds. below them.
Newsfeeds are a great way to promote the
content being consumed by particpants, Why use Leaderboards?
the activity on the site, and the most Leaderboards give users the feeling of
active users. As a best practice, consider “fame” and “status.” They also give users
making your newsfeeds clickable and in a the chance to compete and compare with
high-traffic, high-profile area. other members or players. If this is a core
focus of your community or program, they
can be very powerful motivators to get
visitors to take the actions you want them to.


9. o Virtual Goods Make Sense
D
For Your Site?

be aspirational, high-cost items that are vehicle to do so. Users also feel obligated
highly-desirable and encourage ongoing to return the favor and complete the loop.
participation on the site. Throughout the process of gifting, users
will be exploring your site further and
Don’t forget gifting! increasing page views as they look for this
feature, discover new areas, and engage
in the community

Can I make money selling Virtual
Goods?
Realistically, you are not likely to make
a substantial amount of revenue with
virtual goods. Virtual Worlds and online
games typically see the most revenue
from virtual goods. The purchase of items
Why use Virtual Goods? for an avatar or the sending of virtual gifts
A key consideration to your gamification is often the core of these sites, where
strategy is whether or not virtual goods fit meeting people, equipping your avatar,
with your objectives. Virtual goods are great and dressing up your virtual self helps
for point “burn” – something for users to put drive the “game.”
their points towards. When adding virtual
goods to your program, be prepared to go Should I have a secondary market
100% with your commitment. You will need for virtual goods ?
to manage inventory, merchandise goods If your site is having phenomenal success
and keep your virtual stock moving. with the virtual goods portion of your
program, you may consider a secondary
How should I price my Virtual When thinking about virtual goods, don’t market where users can resell their
Goods? forget about gifting. Gifting allows users to virtual goods to each other. One of the
When pricing virtual goods, make sure send virtual gifts to each other. This is an key benefits is a secondary market often
you are matching the scale of how you incredibly powerful mechanic as it drives drives the value of the primary.
are rewarding points. If you have limited reciprocal interaction as a way to signal
edition and special items, these should friendship or “interest.” People also value
come with a higher value. There should also being altruistic, and virtual gifting is a


10. obile, Social Geo
M
What about Mobile? What about social media?

Social Media is a great way for users to Facebook or Twitter. Earning a badge for
broadcast their achievements to their sharing with a large number of friends is
social circle, while potentially expanding one way to encourage users to spread
your Community. You can also tie rewards the word. Increasing that reward for users
directly into social missions, such as whose friends come back to the site and
rewarding users for sharing content on register promotes relevant social sharing.

What about geo-location? also reward participants for user-generated
Gamification tools content such as posting their own tips,
and platforms are recommendations, ratings and reviews for
now available that the places they visit.
Mobile is great addition to your program allow you to design
when you can tie together the entire and develop your own You can also create a mobile check-in
experience cross-platform. social applications rewards system using QR Codes, a two-
to incent and reward dimensional matrix barcode that can be
activity at specified scanned by smartphones. Scanning the
geographic locations. You can now have QR code can take the user to a URL, add
users “check in” at stores, restaurants, points to their account, or send a discount
events, and other locations, and give them coupon to their phone for use at the site.
points or badges for doing so. You can


Pulling it all together
How complicated is it to gamify? What if they don’t want to “play?” which types of game mechanics drives
The complexity of your program depends People who don’t want to participate, which valuable actions, and drive a
on factors including your content, your won’t. Designing a system that appeals to gamification strategy that maximizes
audience, your business goals, and what a variety of personality types within your your ROI. If you’ve standardize on one
gamification tactics you want to use. demographic will help ensure adoption. consistent user ID for online activity and
offline purchase, you can capture a rich
How do I get people to register? If everybody uses it, will users get set of behavioral data, and create a 360
Registration is one of the most common tired of gamification? degree consumer profile.
business goals. There are a couple It’s a similar story to the evolution of social
of Gamification tactics you can use media. For example, some New York What can I expect to get out of
to encourage visitors to register. For Times site visitors may choose to use using gamification?
example, track and reward unregistered their Facebook and Twitter social features If your program is well-executed, expect
users. Then, notify them of their rewards, to engage in discussions, comment and an increase in key metrics like time on
and let them know that unless they share. Other site visitors may read articles site, page views and return visits. Based
register or sign in they will lose them. of interest and leave. The same basic on your vertical, this can also mean
Since we’re all inherently loss averse, concept applies for gamification. metrics like subscriptions, customer
users are likely to join to continue earning. acquisition or products sold. You are
How important is it to analyze data? also creating a customer base that is
How do I get people to come back Extremely! You should always be willing to engage with your content and
more frequently? tracking and monitoring the important brand, something your competition
Once they have taken the leap and User Actions that are closely tied to may not yet have. And when done
registered, you want to make sure they your business goals. Use that to identify right, Gamification provides real-world,
come back and come back often. The user patterns, and make adjustments to actionable insights; data you can use
appointment dynamic is a technique to optimize your program. to continue to optimize your program.
encourage repeat visits; requiring them One of the key things to keep in mind
to come back at certain times in order What else can I do with the data? is Gamification is an emerging market
to receive rewards. Use features like Once a user has chosen to register and and you have the ability to use it as a
newsfeeds and real-time feedback to participate, you can identify metrics such true differentiator for your site, service,
remind users of new features or the next as number of actions completed, points content, community or campaign.
badge or level. And if there is a team earned, type and sequence of missions
or group involved, remind them of their completed, how users spend points, and
ongoing obligation to do their part to what they buy. With this information in
contribute to the success of their team. hand, you can do things like segment
and profile your audience, understand

For up-to-the minute gamification news, views and
insights visit our blog: www.gamification.com


About the Nitro
Gamification Platform About Bunchball
The Nitro gamification platform is a highly scalable and Bunchball is the leading provider of online gamification
reliable Cloud-based service for gamifying websites, social solutions, used to drive high value participation, engagement,
communities, and mobile applications – it has served loyalty and revenue for some of the world’s leading brands
over 80 million unique users and 4 billion transactions to and media. Customers including Warner Bros, NBC/Universal,
date. Nitro’s flexible architecture enables our customer’s Bravo, Comcast, USA Network, ESPN, and Hasbro use
engineering teams to get up and running quickly, while our Bunchball’s Nitro gamification platform to create compelling,
powerful administration tools empower the site production meaningful and enjoyable experiences for consumers,
and marketing teams with real-time control over online employees, and partners. Based in Silicon Valley and
user behavior. The platform delivers the industry’s most founded in February 2005, Bunchball’s investors include
comprehensive set of game mechanics. Granite Ventures and Adobe Systems Incorporated. For more
information, visit Bunchball online at www.bunchball.com.

www.bunchball.com
All of the images used in this document, including but not exclusive 355 Santana Row, Suite 2020, San Jose, CA 95128
to screen shots and gamification program components, belong to the
respective site owners and may not be copied or reproduced.
408.985.2034 sales@bunchball.com


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