Game Psychology & Gamification

We have been developing software for many years and asked ourselves the question what is the key to success for software products. We think that key to success is gamification, be it video games or softare in general.  Gamification is the strategic attempt to enhance systems, services, organizations, and activities by creating similar experiences to those experienced when playing games in order to motivate and engage users.

Gamification can be applied to applications as well as to games.

The british writer, professor and game researcher Richard Bartle found out that there exist 2 attitudes (acting, interacting) users show versus the content (players, world) of a given software environment.

 

Applied to a matrix Bartle derived 4 types of users (players) called "The bartle  player types"

Bartle-Types-simple

Fighters: Interfere with the functioning of the game world or the play experience of other players

Achievers: Accumulate status tokens by beating the rules-based challenges of the game world

Explorers: Discover the systems governing the operation of the game world

Socialisers: Form relationships with other players by telling stories within the game world.

 

We allege that any application (and not only a game!) that appeals to all player types will be a success.

Each of the 4 group types can further be subdivided into 2 subtypes.
This gives us a total of 8 actors in an environment:

1 Competitor
2 Killers
3 Collector
4 Experts
5 Rockstar
6 Coach
7 Navigator
8 Detective

Bartle-Types-clear

Are you going to develop a new game or starting a new software project ?
Do you want to find out more about game psychology and how it can improve your software?
Do you need consulting with game design?

Feel free to contact us.

 

Imprint

ZENTRONIC GmbH
Grünegasse 7 TOP 51
A-8020 GRAZ
FN 400501 y
ATU 68109003

Contact

Stephan Zimmermann
s.zimmermann@zentronic.at
+436767906668