Putting the Fun in Functional: Applying Game Mechanics to Functional Software

Google Tech Talks
January 29, 2009

ABSTRACT

In this session, we'll review the psychology and system thinking behind game design, and learn how to use game mechanics to create an experience that's fun, compelling, and addictive on the Web and mobile. We'll conclude by showcasing some cutting-edge services that incorporate these ideas and show us what future of social and applications will look like.

"It's one of my absolute favorite discussions on user engagement & how to think about app / web design & user engagement by using strategy from game mechanics." - Dave McClure (http://500hats.typepad.com/500blogs/2008/03/putting-the-fun.html)

A lot of our services here at Google can benefit from simple ways to make them more engaging by applying lessons from game mechanics.

Amy Jo Kim's company Shufflebrain builds smart games for social networks, starting with Facebook.

(For an example of how Facebook is using Game design to drive user engagement, see: http://www.insidefacebook.com/2008/12/07/facebook-using-game-design-to-drive-...)

Speaker: Amy Jo Kim
Amy Jo Kim, CEO of Shufflebrain, is an internationally known expert in online community architecture. She has helped design social games and social architecture for such companies as Electronic Arts, Digital Chocolate, Viacom, eBay and Yahoo! Her book Community Building on the Web was published in 2000, and has been translated into 6 languages.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• google
• techtalks
• techtalk
• engedu
• talk
• talks
• googletechtalks
• education

[drporridge]

This was very useful for my game mechnics assignment, thanks a bunch :)

+1 to social points lol

[PuerinTheHunter]

If the skills are high and challenge low - boring game.

If the challenge is high and skills are low - anxiety.

When both are low and progressively higher - good flow of game.

Social Media is player-created content, in a social infrastructure which has tools for sharing.

[zoeth42]

Bah, I watched 20+ minutes of this before realizing that "functional" didn't mean "functional programming". Please don't use words that have a rather strong meaning in the field already :(

[BlondBomber106]

Fantastic presentation! Good solid information which was first presented and then put into relation to concrete situations, making it all stick in my mind. Awesome!

[Coolworldleaderguy]

"Games that are designed not to screw up your life and get you addicted, and thats good for your lifestyle."

YES! Thank you Amy Jo Kim and ShuffleBrain. I personally am interested in this pursuit myself. I know the importance of this from first hand experience.(myself)

[DreamCastrsDuel]

@monokrome "then people wouldn't sit on it all day hoping to get a sell and posting new items that they've acquired just to sell on EBay."

Right, what POSSIBLE motive could ppl have for buying and selling goods and services if it weren't for game mechanics?

[unocname]

@monokrome The things you listed are just things you CAN do in minecraft, nothing says that you should or need to do them. Like you said, the are arbitrary, so technically that makes sense, but by your definition everything in the world has an objective. ex. the objective to a water bottle is to see how small of a ball you can crush it into. No one told me to but I think it's fun so I made it my objective. I'm pretty sure that's not what was meant by game objectives.

[DreamCastrsDuel]

We've all taken lit crit 101, we're all familiar with deconstructionism, but sorry, not everything is a game. Ebay.com is not a game. Nobody has ever said, "let's play ebay." She needs to make the distinction between game and TOY, in much the same way the creator of Line Rider did.

[Cruzzzzz1988]

@unocname

thats why its a f*ckked up game

[unocname]

minecraft has no objective nigga