Trophy 2.0: Achievement Systems and the Social Web

Pins, badges, stamps, points, and feats: achievement systems are an increasingly important design pattern for the social web. This talk will trace the history of achievements from their roots in videogames through the present day, including a survey of how today’s most visited sites are leveraging them in new and interesting ways. From there, we’ll dive into the psychology of what makes achievement systems so addictive, as well as some theory behind best practices for building them into your own application.

Transcript

1. Trophy 2.0 Mattt Thompson (@mattt) Hacker, Gowalla Refresh Austin, August 2010 Achievement Systems and the Social Web
2. Achievement Achievement Unlocked! 80% of Success
6. Motivation
7. Addictive
8. Social
11. On the Web
17. “A game is a particular way of looking at something, anything.” - Clark C. Abt, Serious Games
18. Ontology
19. Tutorial Trying out features, Learning skills
20. World Traveler Play a complete game on 2Fort, Dustbowl, Granary, Gravel Pit, Hydro, and Well (CP).
22. Completion Completing part of the game
24. Collection “Gotta catch ‘em all!”
25. Cache Checker Find every radar cache in chapter 
 Under the Radar.
26. Virtuosity Playing masterfully
27. Unbreakable Finish a campaign without being healed by a first aid kit.
28. Special Play Style Being creative, making your own rules
29. First Do No Harm Play a full round without killing any enemies, and score the highest on a team of 6 or more players.
30. Guardin’ Gnome Rescue Gnome Chompski from the Carnival.
32. Dedication Putting in long hours, Being a longtime user
34. Social Interacting with others
35. With Friends Like These… Play in a game with 7 or more players from your friends list.
36. • Tutorial • Completion • Collection • Virtuosity • Special Play Style • Dedication • Social
37. Best Practices
38. . . .
39. Emergence
40. First-order System Input → Output
41. Second-order System 1. Input 2. ??? 3. Profit!
44. User Behavior Is Emergent Complex behaviors arise from simple interactions
45. Cybernetics
46. Is temperature above 72°? Room Sensor Activator Negative Feedback System yes Comparator
47. Is temperature below 72°? Room Sensor Activator Positive Feedback System yes Comparator
48. Negative Feedback System Stabilizes system towards equilibrium
49. Positive Feedback System Culminates system towards entropy
50. Psychology
51. The research shows that in most cases, extrinsic motivators are ineffective and actually decrease intrinsic motivation on interesting tasks. - Chris Hecker, “Achievements Considered Harmful?”
52. Well... Shit
53. For interesting tasks: 1. Tangible, expected, contingent rewards reduce free-choice intrinsic motivation 2. Verbal, unexpected, informational feedback, increases free-choice and self-reported intrinsic motivation.
54. • Don’t make a big fuss about them. • Use unexpected rewards. • Use absolute, not relative measures. • Use endogenous rewards. • Make them informational, not controlling.
55. Thank You
56. Jesse Schell’s DICE 2010 Talk google://jesse schell dice 2010 Chris Hecker: “Achievements Considered Harmful?” http://chrishecker.com/Achievements_Considered_Harmful Yahoo! Social Design Pattern Library http://developer.yahoo.com/ypatterns/social/ “What Can Left 4 Dead Teach Us About the Social Web?” http://mattt.me/ “Achievement Unlocked! Human Morality When Life Becomes A Videogame”