Gamification Deep Dive: Why It Works and How to Apply It

What is gamification?

To me, gamification is using the same rewards that make video games addictive and applying them to other activities.

How and why gamification “works”

What makes games “fun”? The reason why we think video games are “fun” is because many of the activities we do in-game line up with our evolutionary survival instincts. For example:

  • Killing monsters: hunting prey for food or killing a predator
  • Fetch quests: resource gathering
  • Party and guild system: tribal mechanics (tribes help us survive, most valuable tribe members are given the most resources)
  • Map exploration: discovering new resources; the ancient need to explore the unknown

Interestingly, the part of our brain that controls our instincts can’t tell that the activities in the game are NOT real. So when we hunt monsters and gather items in-game, our brain interprets those activities as hunting and resource gathering, which are necessary for survival.

Why “Survival” = “Fun” (Dopamine Reward System)

Dopamine is a chemical in our brain that is responsible for feelings of “pleasure”, “motivation”, and “reinforcement.” Dopamine’s job is to make sure we do activities that are required for survival by attaching those feelings to that action. For example:

  • Brain detects “hunger”: dopamine is released to motivate you to find or cook food

Without dopamine, you will NOT have the chemical motivation to do anything, even if you are hungry or thirsty.

Dopamine and our brain’s reward system are why video games are addictive.

Again, our subconscious brain can’t really tell that in-game items are not real resources we need to survive. Whenever we do actions in the game that our brain interprets as survival activities, dopamine continues to be released. This is why we can “grind” for hours by clicking hundreds of monsters. Our brain thinks we are performing a survival activity, so it releases dopamine. Even if we are literally just clicking pixels.

We can observe the same phenomenon when watching horror movies – even though they aren’t real, our actual flight-or-fight response gets triggered. We get a boost in adrenaline, endorphins, and dopamine to motivate us to do what it takes to survive (including paying close attention to the movie or “source of danger”).

THE PROBLEM is that most video game companies are purely motivated by profit. That’s not inherently bad, but it means that they utilize the dopamine system for the sole purpose of keeping players in-game and motivating them to spend money.

Game rewards are virtual representations of “Meta rewards”

Game rewards are simply a representation of “meta rewards”:

  • Experience points (game reward): stronger character, increased survival (meta reward)
  • Items and equipment (game reward): resources (meta reward)
  • Joining a guild or party (game rewards and perks): having a tribe (meta reward; humans are wired to seek tribes because they increase survival rate)

A studied look at what gamers want:

According to this study by Nick Yee, MMORPG players are motivated by the following:

#1 Achievement

  • Advancement: Progress, Power, Accumulation, Status
  • Mechanics: Numbers, Optimization, Templating, Analysis
  • Competition: Challenging Others, Provocation, Domination

#2 Social

  • Socializing: Casual Chat, Helping Others, Making Friends
  • Relationship: Personal, Self-Disclosure, Find and Give Support
  • Teamwork: Collaboration, Groups, Group Achievements

#3 Immersion

  • Discovery: Exploration, Lore, Finding Hidden Things
  • Role-Playing: Story Line, Character History, Roles, Fantasy
  • Customization: Appearances, Accessories, Style, Color Schemes
  • Escapism: Relax, Escape from Real Life, Avoid Real-Life Problems Using the Environment

Most of the above are either directly related to survival needs (“meta reward”) or reinforce the environment where those survival needs can be met (a.k.a. they make the the world more believable). What we choose to include in our “virtual office” will come down to what makes the most sense considering technological limitations.

What Habitica does

The point of Habitica is to use the brain’s reward system to motivate players to improve in real life.

Habitica is a gamified to-do list. You gain experience points and gold when you complete tasks. You can use the gold to purchase cosmetic items, background, and equipment with stats, pet items, and quests. You can level up indefinitely, join a guild, and join a party.

It uses the following triggers:

  • EXP: character or “self” becomes stronger; more likely to survive, earns a good standing from the tribe
  • Party system: having a tribe
  • Boss fights: survival, earning resources, demonstrating strength
  • Character customization: self-expression and identity, which is tied to social signaling and managing other people’s perceptions of us (also important for survival)

Why Habitica could do a lot better

The reason why I think it’s not as big as it SHOULD be is because there’s not enough content to demonstrate the benefits of the in-game rewards.

There are not enough quests, items don’t really matter, and skill builds are also kind of useless. In other words, progression is not believable. Even if you are a level 250 mage, a level 100 warrior will still do more damage.

Habitica only “barely works” because it’s currently the only long-running and successful “gamification productivity MMORPG” thing and players are willing to extend mental effort to gain its marginal benefits.

Brainstorming gamification in CCW

Based on the above information, we can say that successful gamification requires 2 things:

  1. Game rewards that translate to meta rewards
  2. In-game reinforcements that those rewards actually matter (the user needs to see or feel their character’s progress; for example, clothes you can only buy from the shop, equipment that lets you fight stronger monsters, special decor for the office, etc.)

We can add game rewards one by one to see which ones are feasible and sustainable, and those that we are sure where we can pull off that realistic sense of progression. Some initial suggestions:

  • Pomodoro-based EXP: Users gain EXP every time they do a pomodoro. The longer the pomodoro, the higher the EXP. Enough exp lets you level up (we will not add stats for now)
  • Monster hunting: Every office has a basement or secret dungeon with monsters. You can go there to kill monsters for in-game currency. Successful kill should only be dependent on character level for now I think, not items. The implementation can be text-based with no animations, similar to Habitica.
  • In-game currency: Buy office decor, character items, pets, vehicles, etc. Make them very very expensive lol. Maybe new users can only access “basic” clothes and office items – they can buy new ones in the shop. We can encourage digital artists to contribute deployable assets that they can include in their portfolio.

Another Idea: Pomodoros as accomplishing quests

  • User can take on a quest (boss fight or fetch quest) individually or as a party
  • To complete the quest, X amount of pomodoros or pomodoro minutes need to be completed (you should be able to see the progress of the quest somewhere)
  • To prevent abuse, pomodoro minutes max out at 50 (you can’t start a pomodoro and go to sleep)
  • Quests grant EXP and gold (so experience and currency systems only have one source)

This is similar to how Habitica approaches quests:

  1. Purchase or earn a quest (either you or a party member can launch it)
  2. Whenever you mark a task “complete” or do a habit, the quest progresses (if boss fight, you do damage; if fetch quest, you gain items)
  3. Step 2 continues until the boss is dead or all items are collected. Each party member contributes to the damage given AND damage taken (if you miss a daily habit, your entire party gets damaged)

Alternatively, we can just do leaderboards and attendance quests (we can check if we feel rewarded enough by those, negating the need for the complicated mechanics discussed above).

Make the world believable by adding lore

I think we can establish some “office mmorpg” lore to create a believable universe that increases the overall effectiveness of game rewards + meta rewards. That could simply be a one-page story or summary on the website and a few in-game NPCs with dialogue. For example:

Option 1:
“Oh no, it’s reverse-isekai! In 2024, the collective stress levels of office workers opened portals to a different dimension, allowing various monsters to invade our world! Fortunately, they can only stay near the area where the portals were opened… That’s why they’re all stuck in our corporate buildings and coworking offices!

Join forces with your coworkers and vanquish the monsters! Earn EXP while completing pomodoros and level up so you can fight stronger monsters. Whenever you kill a monster, the Council of XYZ will pay you gold that you can use to dress up your character and decorate your office.”

OR

Option 2:
We can simply do “meta-lore” that adds a storytelling component to the real-life journey of CCW. “We are a group of explorers braving the frontier of the metaverse” – a story told by a mysterious NPC. It’s like the first NPC you talk to in tutorial island to understand the “history” of the universe. This might help create a tighter funnel for onboarding as well.

Considerations

  • Gamification is only one “angle” or “benefit” of our virtual office. It’s also good for body doubling (ADHD and general productivity)
  • It might be possible for CCW’s other concepts, ideas, or visions to get overwhelmed by gamification, so it might be best to try one thing at a time
  • To build on the above point, CCW’s “angles” are: (1) Productivity RPG for individuals, (2) Remote Team Work Tool for Corporations and Organizations, (3) Simply a virtual coworking space, (4) A space for innovation and brainstorming for explorers – perhaps we need a way to make sure they don’t “step on each other.” For example, having a “dungeon” in the office can be optional.