by Yu-kai Chou
Humanity Hero (Game Technique #27)
If you can incorporate a world mission into your offerings, you can gain even more buy-in during the Onboarding process. One company that does an incredible job of instilling a sense of Humanity Hero is TOM’s Shoes, which sends one pair of shoes to a child in a third-world country whenever you place an order with them49. The idea that you can help underprivileged kids every time you make a purchase is extremely motivating. Additionally, when customers wear the shoes, they let others know that they are helping the world, which is a form of Trophy Shelf (Game Technique #64) within Core Drive 5: Social Influence & Relatedness.
FreeRice is another example that utilizes the Humanity Hero technique. FreeRice.com is a website that donates 10 grains of rice for every correct answer to the educational questions posted on their site. The funding comes from the ads and the number of page views they generate from those answering the questions. To date, FreeRice has donated 6100 metric TONS of rice, consisting of 93 billion grains of rice and enough to feed 10 million people.50
Often, if you can tie your system to a cause that many people care about, you can build an entire business on the goodwill of others.
Elitism (Game Technique #26)
Allowing your users or customers to form a prideful group based on ethnicity, beliefs, or common interests also makes them feel like they are part of a larger cause. Elitism instills group pride, which means each member tries to secure the pride of the group by taking specific actions. The group also attempts to frustrate its rivals, which can lead both groups upping their actions to beat the competition.
This is why University Rivalries are so engaging. When I was attending UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles), it was very difficult to not feel the strong rivalry against USC (University of Southern California). Starting from orientation as a Freshman (Onboarding), there is no lack of content and jokes that sets the scene of the USC rivalry. During sports seasons, this rivalry reaches its pinnacle, with both sides aggressively, sometimes violently, insulting each other. There are even T-Shirts printed with the text, “My 2 favorite teams are UCLA, and whoever is playing USC.”
Both sides believe that this rivalry is bigger than themselves, and with this newly instilled sense of Elitism, they engage in many irrational activities because they “should” as a proud representative of that school.
Even though rivalries are engaging or even fun for students, who actually benefit the most from these rivalries? More often than not, it is the universities themselves. By creating an outside enemy that students “should hate with a passion,” it creates more “school spirit” where students bond together and commit Desired Actions in frenzies. Tickets to games against USC sell out quickly, with everyone gearing up with UCLA merchandise and war paint. More importantly, students feel a stronger tie towards their Alma Mater, which means that later on in their careers, they are more prone to donate to their schools since that’s what successful alumni “should” do.
Similar in effect to the concept of “孝,” I too implicitly feel that I “should” donate to my Alma Mater. Not because of any personal gains, but for a purpose beyond my own selfish and family matters. In one of my speeches, an attendee asked me, “I would like to figure out how to add more alumni participation for our university. Academically, we rank really well, but for some reason, our alumni don’t feel proud coming here and just see us as a stepping stone. They rarely participate or donate!” My response to him was, “Sounds like you need to add more school spirit to students while they are still attending. I’m guessing you don’t have competitive athletic teams or big school rivalries?” “No, we don’t! How did you know?”
Even a colleague of mine, Jerry Fuqua, chose to attend UCLA many years ago over having a full scholarship into Harvard and other Ivy League schools because he loved UCLA’s basketball team. Another friend of mine who aced all his Calculus exams as a Freshman in High School also chose to attend the University of Kansas over other more prestigious school because he grew up being a fan of the KU Jayhawks. If you ever wondered if it was worth an educational institution’s budget to support an expensive athletic team, now you at least see the justification.
Another great example of Elitism is demonstrated by the microlending platform Kiva.org, which allows developed countries to pseudo-donate their money to help third world country villagers start their small businesses and help sustain their families. To create a sense of Elitism, Kiva.org created groups and published statistics that allowed Christians and Atheists to compare their giving against each other, to see who contributes more money in helping third world countries.51
The Christians believed that, since the Bible tells them to love God and love one another beyond all things, they should demonstrate generosity to the world and help those in need. As a result they increased their contributions. The Atheists, on the other hand, wanted to prove that one does not need to believe in a god to simply be kind to fellow human beings, so they also increased their contributions. Again, both sides contributed more than they would have otherwise, simply because they felt they were doing it for a greater purpose than themselves - protecting their group’s reputation. (Disclaimer: I am myself a person of Christian faith).
Beginner’s Luck (Game Technique #23)
Beginner’s Luck focuses on the Calling part in Epic Meaning & Calling. Calling makes people think they are uniquely destined to do something. With Beginner’s Luck, people feel like they are one of the few chosen to take action—which makes them much more likely to take it. If a gamer, upon the first day of playing a game, randomly earns one of the most powerful swords in the game, one that even veteran players couldn’t easily obtain, chances are he isn’t going to quit on day one. He’ll likely be using that powerful sword to kill monsters fanatically until the next hook in the game shows up.
The game designer would likely also add in Social Influence & Relatedness (Core Drive 5) by designing in Trophy Shelves (Game Technique #64), which are mechanisms that allow the user to implicitly show off what they are proud of. If the game designer also adds Scarcity & Impatience (Core Drive 6) through Moats (Game Technique #67) by telling the user he can only equip this sword once he defeats all the adversaries at a particularly difficult level, the user now becomes obsessed and tries to figure out all sorts of ways to conquer that level.
Free Lunch (Game Technique #24)
Along the lines of the “Calling” theme, giving freebies (that are normally not free) to selected people in such a way that it binds them to a larger theme can make customers feel special and encourage them to take further action.
For example, Spoleto, a Brazilian restaurant chain with over 200 restaurants throughout Brazil, Spain, and Mexico, gave a literal free lunch to any female who told them she was beautiful, in celebration of International Women’s Day.52 This helped promote a positive message and made women feel special for that day. This will likely bring them back in the future too, as this venue is now associated with a positive memory that makes them feel unique.
Believability is Key
Even though Epic Meaning & Calling is powerful “beyond measure,” it can also backfire and fail in epic proportions. As you use these concepts, keep in mind that you can really turn people off when you’re appearing disingenuous in your efforts to create Epic Meaning and Calling.
For example, if a major gasoline company that was known to “profit from evil” tried to convince people to use their brand by saying, “pumping with us protects the planet.” Customers would not only be unimpressed, they would likely feel insulted. Or if a certain fast food conglomerate that is known for cheap unhealthy foods (that happen to never decompose) runs a marketing campaign that says, “Eating our food protects your health and your family,” people would likely see that as a manipulative slap in the face.
Even in fantasy make-believe settings like Zombies Run, where users are motivated to run more because they are trying to save their village from hypothetical zombies, you want
to make sure the user is prepared to believe in the higher fantasy meaning in that context. Pretending that there are zombies in the room during large corporate board meetings in order to get everyone to stand up more often would likely not fare all that well. (So please don’t tell your Board Directors that you did it because you read my book on Epic Meaning & Calling).
Once you have firmly established believability in your Epic Meaning & Calling, you will have a good chance of applying this Core Drive effectively to bring out the fun and selflessness out of people.
Core Drive 1: The Bigger Picture
Core Drive 1: Epic Meaning & Calling is the prime White Hat Core Drive within the Octalysis Framework, and is often very powerful in the Discovery and Onboarding Phases of a player’s journey. It underlines the purpose behind the activity and strengthens all the other seven Core Drives when it is introduced correctly. In later chapters, we will also explore how some companies utilize Epic Meaning & Calling (among other White Hat Gamification Core Drives) to inspire their employees to work with more passion and stay in the organization, even when other companies offer them greater monetary incentives.
Core Drive 1: Epic Meaning & Calling’s weakness lies in the difficulty of implementing believability, as well as the lack of urgency within the motivation. While people constantly aspire to become part of something bigger and would feel great if they actually took the actions, they will often procrastinate and delay those very actions. Thus, to create desirable behavior, the gamification designer needs the help of the other Core Drives within Octalysis.
To get the most out of the book, Choose only ONE of the below options to do right now:
Easy: Think of an example where Core Drive 1: Epic Meaning & Calling motivated you or others to take certain actions. Does it make people act more selflessly?
Medium: Identify a project you are working on. Think about whether there are ways to install Core Drive 1: Epic Meaning & Calling into the experience. Can you tie the experience into a bigger theme?
Share what you come up with on Twitter or your preferred social network with the hashtag #OctalysisBook and see what ideas other people have.
New Section Unlocked! - Get Inspired
Now that you are becoming familiar with the Octalysis Framework, check out my TEDx talk on how eight different world-changing products utilize each of the 8 Core Drives to make the world a better place. The TEDx talk can be accessed at http://yukaichou.com/tedx, or you can simply go on Google and search “Gamification Tedx.”
Chapter 6: The Second Core Drive - Development & Accomplishment
Development & Accomplishment is the Second Core Drive of the Gamification Framework Octalysis. This is the Core Drive where people are driven by a sense of growth and a need to accomplish a targeted goal. It is what focuses us on a career path, generates our enthusiasm and commitment to learning a new skill, and ultimately motivates us by showing us how far we’ve come and how much we’ve grown.
Many people have memories of their kindergarten teachers giving them gold stars to emphasize good behavior. Even though these stickers don’t become real prizes, children are often extremely intent on obtaining more stars and will focus on determining how best to gain them. That’s a very straightforward demonstration on the effects of Development & Accomplishment and how easy it is to add them into an experience.
This is also the most common implementation of gamification we see in the market, as most of the PBLs – points, badges, and leaderboards – appeal heavily to this drive.
Development & Accomplishment in Games
Almost all games show you some type of progress towards the Win-States. A Win-State is often a scenario where the user has overcome some sort of challenge - that’s the “win” in the Win-State. Games break down user challenges into stages to help the user feel like there is always progress.
Our brains have a natural desire to achieve goals and to experience growth in order to feel that real progress in life is being made. We need Win-States. Games can sustain long forty-hour or even four-thousand-hour player journeys because they use distinctive stages and boss-fights to recognize user accomplishment along the way.
To display that sense of accomplishment, some games show you points, others use levels, badges, stages, progress bars, better looking gear, victory animations… the list goes on. However, just because you see your progress through these elements does not necessarily mean you feel accomplished.
The key to Core Drive 2: Development & Accomplishment is to make sure users are proud of overcoming the challenges that are set out for them. Jane McGonigal, renowned game designer and Ph.D. in Performance Studies, defines games as “unnecessary obstacles that we volunteer to tackle.” 53 (This is originally defined by the philosopher Bernard Suits).
McGonigal points out that challenges and limitations are what make a game fun. For example, if golf was just a game without any limitations, every player would just pick up the ball and put it into the hole to win. Everyone would score high, and every individual who has outgrown the “putting a round peg through a round hole” game will probably feel bored.
By adding unnecessary obstacles, such as requiring the use of a strange stick, certain distances, and landscape hazards, golf becomes fun because the player actually feels accomplished once such challenges are overcome. Gamification aims to integrate that feeling of Development & Accomplishment into everyday experiences within your product or service.
The First Gamification Site that I was Addicted to
One of the most popular blog posts on my website is a list of the “Top 10 eCommerce Gamification Examples that will Revolutionize Shopping.” At the top of this list is eBay (full disclosure – I worked with eBay on a couple projects in 2013)54.
eBay.com is an online auction site that was founded in 1995, fairly early in the World Wide Web era. It became one of the largest Dot Com boom successes, and as of today it is one of the leading tech companies in Silicon Valley. It is also one of the earliest eCommerce companies that built gamification into its core DNA. If you plan to create a simple, generic eCommerce site, it’s not necessarily intuitive to include a competitive bidding system or a scored buyer-seller feedback interface. Nor is it obvious to provide a “path to level up” through achievement symbols such as Yellow, Purple, and Golden Stars, as well as creating a Power Seller status system.
eBay was the platform that triggered the founding of my first business. Without eBay, it is very likely that I would not have become an entrepreneur, and as a result you would not have this book to read.
When I was about to enter UCLA as a Freshman, there was a local barbecue event where second year students shared their experience and tips with us “newbs.” At that event, there was a drawing for two football tickets to the first game of the season. I was conveniently selected to be the student to draw a single name out of a box to win these two tickets. Call it Divine Will, fate, coincidence, or what have you; I drew my own name out of the box.
When I announced it was my own name, everyone was astonished, and the event organizer joked with a wink, “Congratulations! Just make sure you don’t sell it on eBay! We’ll check!”
At the time, I thought “What’s eBay? I’ve heard about it before.” I did some research about eBay, and shortly after I sold my two tickets through the platform (I hope the barbecue organizers don’t read my book).
That one transaction was surprisingly thrilling and fun for me. When I received my first bid from an anonymous stranger on the Internet, I almost jumped for joy (cultural joke: but I did not get stuck). Shortly after, I became obsessively glued to the screen after another bidder joined in on the “war.”
During the few days of the listing, it was the only thing on my mind. I continuously checked my listing, trying to see if people would outbid the last bidder. Of course, it was life-endingly depressing when no one had put in a new bid after my fourth three-minute check! By the way, this is what I now call a “Torture Break” (Game Technique #66), where a use
r must wait an interval of time regardless of their actions, a game technique to be explored under Core Drive 6: Scarcity & Impatience.
When I finally sold the two tickets for a few hundred dollars, I was ecstatic. I felt that I had just accomplished something great (for a person just graduating high school). I made my first money as a seller! I started to find other things to sell on eBay. During this time, I noticed that the final price of an eBay auction is usually determined by what part of the day the listing ends. This is because most people like to wait for the last few minutes to put their bids in and steal the deal.
In that frenzy, people quickly outbid each other before the time runs out. This effect is a combination of a Countdown Timer (Game Technique #65) and a Last Mile Drive (Game Technique #53), where users feel that they are so close to the goal that they rush to complete it. For the record, these mostly employ Black Hat techniques.
Observing this effect, I began a small business buying and selling TI-83 Calculators, which was often a high school and college math class requirement. I would start to buy all the TI-83s I could find that ended their listings at 2AM, when no one was bidding against me, typically for $40. I would then resell them with auctions ending late in the afternoon when everyone was bidding against each other, typically for $60. As opposed to the boring mathematical theories from economics class and the social intermingling within college parties, this was the game that I needed to master.