1.
A g a m e d e s ig n e r ’ s
v ie w o f
g a m if ic a t io n
G a m if ic a t io n s u m M it
19th June 2012
d r Richard A. B a r t l e
University of essex, uk

2.
introduction
• imagine you’re a n o v e l i s t who has
developed a way to write better
f ic t io n
• Now Suppose j o u r n a l i s t s have
adopted it for writing better f a c t u a l
stories
• you might be moderately
s u r p r i s e d to learn that it w o r k s
• This is my situation with
g a m if ic a t io n
• I developed a method for designing

3.
Player types
• So This is why i’m here today:
• it’s a way to p a r t i t i o n mmo players

4.
Where else?
• And here’s a
picture of a
g o th
– Taken from
gothsuptrees.net

5.
New partition #1
• This is another, equally v a l i d
partition:
• It’s c o m p l e t e and reasonably

6.
New partition #2
• Here’s yet a n o t h e r way of doing it:
• A l s o complete and correct

7.
utility
• New partition #1 tells you n o t h i n g
you didn’t already k n o w
• it’s n o t u s e f u l for game design
– Unless your game has p h y s i c a l
implications involving w o m b s and
age
• New partition #2 has more
i n t e r e s t i n g things to say
• You c o u l d vaguely use it in games
– M inecraft/artists, mass effect/connoiseurs,
angry birds/customers, the sims/designers

8.
New partition #3
• These graphs are e a s y to come up
with:
• you were deciding which one you are,

9.
works
• That one actually w o r k s for
mmorpgs
– Solo play versus group play
– Sandbox versus theme park
• It C o u l d be used in gamification, too
• Also, there are p l e n t y of existing
psychometric profiling systems
– Minnesota multiphasic personality
inventory
– Five factor model
• it’s n o t h a r d to take one, give it

10.
New partition #4
• This is a slice of m y e r s - b r i G g s
• Thinking/feeling,
extraversion/introversion

11.
15th september 1967
• From my primary
school
mathematics book

12.
Player types
• Given all these p o s S i b i l i t i e s , why
did gamification go with m M o player
types?
• The answer seems to be that they strike
ac hord
• Other typologies look at
p e r s o n a l i t y , or a c t i v i t y , or
w o r ld v ie w
– All of which are perfectly reasonable
• Player type theory is the only one
aimed at what different people find f u n

13.
alternatives
• The alternatives a r e n ’ t fun-centric
• F o r m a l approaches tend to be too
b r o a d - b r u s h to jive with
gamification’s requirements
– Reiss d e s i r e profile: 16 intrinsic
motivators, including eating, romance,
v e n g e a n c e , ...
• I n f o r m a l approaches rely heavily
on stereotypes and folk wisdom
– “women like <whatever>”, “young people
dislike <whatever>”, “<whatever> attracts
students”

14.
utility
• Player types give gamification a way to
marry up r e w a r d s with a c t i v i t y
• If you o n l y give “points” for an activity,
you o n l y reward achievers
– If you want to reward e x p l o r e r s , give
them more i n f o r m a t i o n , not
p o in t s
• It’s o b v i o u s There must be much
b e t T e r partitions you can use
• A g a m e d e s i g n e r would
actually be l o O k i n g for these – for

15.
A confession
• i d i d n ’ t formulate player type theory
to say “t h e s e are the d i f F e r e n t
things mmo players find fun”
• I d i d it to say “mmo players f i n d
different things fun”
• P r i o r to this, designers only created
mmos that they, p e r s o n a l L y
found fun
• t o d a y , they create mmos that
p e o p l e find fun
• Game designers treat p e o p l e as

16.
gamification
• I see the s a m e thing with
gamification
• In my school, g o l d stars were best,
then s i l v e r , then stars in b l o c k
colour
• yet Some kids didn’t w a n t gold or
silver
• T h e y wanted the s a m e block
colour as their f r i e n d s
• E x t r i n s i c rewards meant for
achievers c o u l d have been used to

17.
contribution
• Player type theory’s m a i n contribution
to gamification i s n ’ t that the latter
now accounts for achievers, explorers,
s o c i a l i s e r s and killers
• It’s the mere fact that it now accounts
for different users a t a l l

18.
conclusion
• Game designers find gamification
w e ir d
– We would be a p P a L l e d if our games
were so bad we had to b r i b e people to
play them
• However, we d o have much in
c oMmon
• The first question game designers ask
is: W h o do you want to p l a y this
game?
• For those h e r e , it’s: Who do you want