8 Reasons Why We Are Naturally Motivated By Gamification

It's a new month and a new theme for all you aspiring course creators, designers, startups, entrepreneurs, and educators... this month's theme is GAMIFICATION, and I'm stoked! It's also the month of my birthday, so, this really can't get much better ;).

I could probably write an entire year's worth of posts about gamification, but I will try to control myself and come back to it another month or two in the future because I love, love, love it so much... but for now... I will try not to overwhelm you by giving some bite-size, actionable steps on how you can bring more gamification into your professional life all this month.

This week's article is going to introduce some science behind the success of games in our culture as human beings and WHY we are so naturally attracted to or even addicted to them! By the way, if you haven't already subscribed to this newsletter, pause now and take that action because you won't want to miss out on future posts !

Before we get into the psychology of gamification, let's talk about all the places where you've experienced gamification and try to define it so that we are all on the same starting ground for this month.

To gamify something goes well beyond your traditional board games, card games, and RPG (Role Playing Games). If you've ever tried to earn points for something...that was an element of gamification. If you've ever tried to compete with something or someone... that was gamification. If you've ever gone to trivia night, used Duolingo to learn a new language, earn a badge, or get on a leaderboard... ALL gamification!

When you gamify something, or when someone says "gamification", think of it as taking something that normally isn't a game and adding elements to it to make it feel like a game.

Now I'd like you to think back to the last time you've experienced playing a game, or experienced one of the previously mentioned elements of gamification (awarded points, badges, or competition). I'd like you to answer two questions.

Were you engaged?

Were you motivated?

Chances are, you answered YES to both of those questions, and that is KEY to understand because when people are engaged and motivated... the opportunities are endless.

You can apply gamification to marketing to gain new and loyal customers. You can apply gamification to excite your new employees in training. Classroom management becomes so much easier when you implement games. Even the health and wellness of millions of people have improved just with the implementation of points and competition, which is all thanks to gamification!

Suddenly everyday, boring tasks that you need our employees to do... can turn into something they want to do. Suddenly, trying to get your child to memorize basic math facts can become enjoyable. Suddenly, your health starts to improve because you're motivated to exercise.

"Gamification is the craft of deriving all the fun and engaging elements found in games and applying them to real-world or productive activities". -Yu-kai Chou.

All right, so now that you've got a glimpse into what gamification is and the possibilities of motivating and engaging people, let's talk about WHY people get engaged with games so that you truly understand the psychology and be strategic with your implementation of gamification.

Yu-kai Chou is, to put it simply, a gamification expert, and the matrix I'm sharing with you this week is his brainchild, Octalysis. The name may sound like a supervillain in a Spider-Man comic book (or a transformer, you be the judge;), but it's actually even better... it is a framework of 8 core drives for human motivation that explains why games drive human behavior with "human-focused design".

These 8 Core Drives for human motivation are summarized from Yu-Kai Chou's website below.

1. Epic Meaning and Calling: when a person believes they were chosen to do something or is driven by the idea of doing something greater than themself.
2. Development and Accomplishment: the internal drive to make progress, upskill, and/or overcome challenges.
3. Empowerment of Creativity and Feedback: the natural satisfaction of engaging with the creative process, but also showcasing, getting feedback, and feeling validated.
4. Ownership and Possession: when you feel motivated because you own something and you want to try to improve it or gain more of it.
5. Social Influence and Relatedness: this one is difficult to identify because it is so encompassing within our lives, but it is anything that relates to social elements that drive behavior. Yu-Kai gives examples like mentorship, acceptance, friendship, competition, and envy.
6. Scarcity and Impatience: the drive of wanting something because there is little left, or you simply can't have it in the moment (the grass is always greener on the other side, right?).
7. Unpredictability and Curiosity: motivation to know, what you don't know yet. Movies and books wouldn't be entertaining or engaging if you already knew what was going to happen, right? The same idea for games, we are curious creatures.
8. Loss and Avoidance: these two actions in this drive complement each other because it addresses the motivation to act because you want to avoid losing something or you want to avoid something bad happening.

I feel like this framework that illustrates these 8 core drives are extremely fascinating and is SO helpful in thinking about ways to make your learning experience more engaging. If you understand the psychology behind what makes games so engaging, then you can take one or two of these drives and apply it to your programs.

In the past, I have utilized gamification in all different kinds of ways, including both technology and in-person (more to come this month on this!). I've also had my students create their own board games connected to the content they are learning and I've also created my own board game for the UN Global Goals!

I think one of my favorite things to do is think about ways to make learning more engaging, and gamification is a guaranteed win!

But you don't need to have an entire game around what you're doing in order for it to be considered "gamified" and I hope this article clarified that for you. Taking small elements of your learning experience and modifying it to include one or a few of these 8 core drives will increase your learner engagement, and when learners are engaged... more learning can happen and the more successful your program will be!

If you want to dive more into all the great resources from Yu-Kai Chou, the founder of the Octalysis Framework, and his book that breaks down these 8 Core Drives in Gamification, check out his super helpful website here!

https://yukaichou.com/

I'd love to know, how have you incorporated gamification into your programs? Comment below and share this article if you found it helpful!

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