Some Great Reading on Game Mechanics and Gamification

There have been a slew of great articles that have come out over the last few days on the application of game mechanics and user engagement.

• On a Hunt for What Makes Gamers Keep Gaming | New York Times
• Call of Duty Black Ops Multiplayer Blows Away Other Games on Engagement | Games Beat
• GDC China: Zynga's Tian On The Craft Of Social Games | Gamasutra
• The Game/Tech Industry's Tea Party | Huffington Post

Read my summaries and take aways after the jump.

NY Times | On a Hunt for What Makes Gamers Keep Gaming
(http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/07/science/07tierney.html)
By JOHN TIERNEY | December 6, 2010

This article discusses how video and online games provide instantaneous feedback and continual encouragement to users, both from the computer and from other players, and explains how this can extend to real world actions.

The article heavily features game designers and researchers Jane McGonigal and Nicole Lazzaro.


Games Beat | Call of Duty Black Ops Multiplayer Blows Away Other Games on Engagement
(http://venturebeat.com/2010/12/07/measuring-the-enormous-engagement-of-multiplayer-call-of-duty-black-ops/)
By Dean Takahashi | December 7, 2010

This article is interesting because it goes into two things:

• The game mechanics of how COD is engaging users
• The plethora of data that’s being captured and displayed to user in the online multi-player environment

Gamasutra | GDC China: Zynga's Tian On The Craft Of Social Games
(http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/31854/)
by Christian Nutt | December 5, 2010

Zynga Beijing general manager Andy Tian delivered a confident Chinese-language speech to a packed hall at GDC China 2010 in Shanghai on Sunday, outlining the core tenets of the company's development philosophies.

Take aways:

• "The biggest part of game development is after launch. In May 2009, the features of FarmVille were really elementary, but the total number of features has grown 10 times by today. Every week we will push to update our content."
• Zynga is not in the business of developing cool features, we're developing relevant features 
• Features need to drive performance of key metrics:  user acquisition, retention and revenue
• Therefore, metrics and split testing are critical
• Zynga's Three Pillars
1. Play:  Games are a set of actions which have clear rewards for the users
2. Invest:  the more time and social capital users invest in a game the more like they are to invest real money in the game
3. Express:  How can users express themselves in a game and show that self-expression to their friends

Huffington Post | The Game/Tech Industry's Tea Party
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gabe-zichermann/the-tech-industrys-tea-pa_b_792833.html)
By Gabe Zichermann | December 7, 2010

Why the game industry bluebloods fear gamification and how gamification should be more than just taking “the thing that is least essential to games (badging) and representing it as the core of the experience".

This is "Game-based Marketing" author Zichermann's unabashed defense of gamification against game industry traditionalists.