What can we learn from games? 10 game mechanics that will make your web community more successful.

Slide 1: What can we learn from game design? 10 game mechanics that will make your web community more successful. Barcamp Berlin, november 3rd, 2007 mail@holger-dieterich.de

Slide 2: Who am I? ‣ Holger Dieterich ‣ E-business graduand, University of the Arts Berlin ‣ Junior product manager, moviepilot.de

Slide 3: Agenda ‣ What are games, game mechanics? ‣ 10 game mechanics applied to web communities ‣ Conclusion

Slide 4: Games are.. ‣ fun and entertaining ‣ inducing flow, engaging ‣ social ‣ repetitive

Slide 5: Example: Rules for „3-to-15“ 1. Two players alternate turns. 2. On your turn, pick a number from 1 to 9. 3. Yo may not pick a number that has already been picked by either player. If you have a set of exactly 3 numbers that sum to 15, you win.

Slide 6: 2 9 4 7 5 3 6 1 8

Slide 7: Rules for Tic-Tac-Toe 1. Play occurs on a 3 by 3 grid of 9 empty squares. 2. Two players alternate marking empty squares, the first player marking Xs and the second player marking Os. 3. If one player places three of the same marks in a row, that player wins. 4. If the spaces are all filled and there is no winner, the game ends in a draw.

Slide 8: 2 9 4 7 5 3 6 1 8

Slide 9: Game mechanics are.. ‣ abstract patterns of games. ‣ a set of interconnected feedback loops. ‣ a set of rules intended to produce an enjoyable game.

Slide 10: Games are.. ‣ fun and entertaining ‣ inducing flow, engaging ‣ social ‣ repetitive

Slide 11: ..and web communities? ‣ A virtual place for people to meet. They exchange information, spend time „there“ and come back. ‣ They are very similar to games already!

Slide 12: So let‘s get inspiration from games!

Slide 13: Game mechanics applied to web communities

Slide 14: Game mechanics applied to web communities 1. collecting stuff

Slide 17: Game mechanics applied to web communities 1. collecting stuff 2. Feedback and game status

Slide 20: Game mechanics applied to web communities 1. collecting stuff 2. Feedback and game status 3. Obsctacles and Resources

Slide 23: Game mechanics applied to web communities 1. collecting stuff 2. Feedback and game status 3. Obsctacles and Resources 4. dynamic difficulty adjustment

Slide 24: Max Payne

Slide 25: Max Payne

Slide 26: Game mechanics applied to web communities 1. collecting stuff 2. Feedback and game status 3. Obsctacles and Resources 4. dynamic difficulty adjustment 5. customization

Slide 29: Game mechanics applied to web communities 1. collecting stuff 2. Feedback and game status 3. Obsctacles and Resources 4. dynamic difficulty adjustment 5. customization 6. competition

Slide 32: Game mechanics applied to web communities 1. collecting stuff 2. Feedback and game status 3. Obsctacles and Resources 4. dynamic difficulty adjustment 5. customization 6. competition 7. quick games and games in games

Slide 35: Game mechanics applied to web communities 1. collecting stuff 2. Feedback and game status 3. Obsctacles and Resources 4. dynamic difficulty adjustment 5. customization 6. competition 7. quick games and games in games 8. randomness and luck

Slide 38: Game mechanics applied to web communities 1. collecting stuff 2. Feedback and game status 3. Obsctacles and Resources 4. dynamic difficulty adjustment 5. customization 6. social interaction and competition 7. quick games and games in games 8. randomness and luck 9. rewards

Slide 41: Game mechanics applied to web communities 1. collecting stuff 2. Feedback and game status 3. Obsctacles and Resources 4. dynamic difficulty adjustment 5. customization 6. social interaction and competition 7. quick games and games in games 8. randomness and luck 9. rewards 10.spectators

Slide 44: Game mechanics applied to web communities 1. collecting stuff 2. Feedback and game status 3. Obsctacles and Resources 4. dynamic difficulty adjustment 5. customization 6. social interaction and competition 7. quick games and games in games 8. randomness and luck 9. rewards 10.spectators

Slide 45: Conclusion ‣ Web communities can learn from game design because they share common goals like engaging and entertaing the users. ‣ Game mechanics can give a starting point for transforming elements of good games to web communities. ‣ But there will not be a 1:1 conversion from one to the other.

Slide 46: References Bartle, Richard. 2003. Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, Spades: Players who Suit MUDs. [Buchverf.] Jessica Mulligan und Bridgette Patrovsky. ‣ Developing Online Games: An Insider's Guide. Indianapolis, Indiana : New Riders Publishing, 2003. Björk, Staffan and Holopainen, Jussi. 2005. Patterns in Game Design. Boston, Massachusetts : Charles River Media, 2005. ‣ Gottlieb, Harry. 1997. The jack principles of the interactive conversation interface - the short version. [Online] 1997. http://www.jellyvision.com/ ‣ ici/jp/jackprinciplesshort.pdf. Huizinga, Johan. 1956. Homo Ludens. Vom Ursprung der Kultur im Spiel. s.l. : Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, 1956. ‣ Kim, Amy Jo. [Online] http://www.fullcirc.com/community/ajkim.htm. ‣ —. 2001. Community Building. Strategien für den Aufbau erfolgreicher Web-Communities. s.l. : Galileo Press, 2001. ‣ —. 2006. Putting the fun in functional. Applying game mechanics to functional software. Shufflebrain.com. [Online] 2006. http:// ‣ shufflebrain.com/GDC2006.htm. Klimmt, Christoph. 2006. Computerspielen als Handlung. s.l. : Halem Verlag, 2006. ‣ Leitner, Helmut. 2003. Online-Community, \"Hands On\"! [Buchverf.] Christian Eigner, et al. Online Communities, Weblogs und die soziale ‣ Rückeroberung des Netzes. Graz : Verlag Nausner & Nausner, 2003. Ling, K., Beenen, G., Ludford, P., Wang, X., Chang, K., Li, X., Cosley, D., Frankowski, D., Terveen, L., Rashid, A. M., Resnick, P., and Kraut, R. ‣ 2005. Using Social Psychology to Motivate Contributions to Online Communities. [Online] 2005. Malone, Thomas W. 1980. What makes things fun to learn? heuristics for designing instructional computer games. [Online] 1980. http:// ‣ portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=802839. Rheingold, Howard. 1994. Der Alltag in meiner virtuellen Gemeinschaft. [Buchverf.] Manfred Faßler und Wulf R. Halbach. Cyberspace: ‣ Gemeinschaften, virtuelle Kolonien, Öffentlichkeiten. München : Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 1994. —. 1994. Virtuelle Gemeinschaft: Soziale Beziehungen im Zeitalter des Computers. Bonn; Paris; Reading, Mass. : Addison-Wesley, 1994. ‣ 3-89319-671-4. Salem, Katie and Zimmerman, Eric. 2004. Rules of play: game design fundamentals. s.l. : The MIT Press, 2004. ‣ Schlütz, Daniela. 2002. Bildschirmspiele und ihre Faszination. München : Verlag Reinhard Fischer, 2002. ‣ Schneider, Daniela. 2003. Online-Community - neues Medium und/oder neue Sozialform? [Buchverf.] Christian Eigner, et al. Online ‣ Communities, Weblogs und die soziale Rückeroberung des Netzes. Graz : Verlag Nausner & Nausner, 2003.

Slide 47: Creative Commons photos from flickr users

Slide 48: www.holger-dieterich.de www.moviepilot.de