Gamification - Talk from Build 0.5
Andrzej Kozlowski is Founder and Creative Director at Pro3Games, the company behind Delta Strike. He is a gamer and a game designer. You can follow him at @CapKozmaty
Gamification is a big topic currently. Andrzej Kozlowski gives us a different perspective by looking at it from a gamer’s perspective under the full title “Achievement Unlocked! - Gamification Explained From A Gamer’s Point Of View”. Gamification has been around for a long time, he points out, in the form of loyalty programs and airline miles, for example. Online and mobile worlds just offer a better medium for instant feedback.
All rules in a game are set from above. And all rules are boundaries that players will seek to exploit and break. Rules need to be transparent, clear and fixed, but all rules are there to be exploited. This is the nature of gaming, Andrzej argues. Games are about competition, and by winning competitions you win bragging rights and status.
Andrzej also paraphrases James P. Carse in underlining the freedom that is a requirement in games, and by extension, gamification. “It is an invariable principle of play, that whoever plays, plays freely. Whoever is forced to play, cannot play.” While gamification is seeing something of a hype at the moment and its principles are being applied to many products, this is a worthwhile reminder.
Watch the video for many more valuable insights on games and gamification.
You can watch more talks from our Build events at Passion Meets Momentum.
