Talks to Watch

Meaningful Play: Getting Gamification Right

118K views · Feb 19, 2011 · 49:57 · 3 HN recommenders · 3 mentions · discussed 2012–2014

A Google Tech Talk by Sebastian Deterding on gamification. It looks at what points and badges get wrong and what lessons game design offers for non-game applications.

Why Hacker News points people here: HN commenters recommend it as a thoughtful take on doing gamification and game design well.

“getting it right can make really powerful games”HN comment, 2014

What Hacker News said 3

RecommendsespeedApr 2012

“what Sebastian Deterding is saying about gamification ( )”

Gamification talk connected to creativity and motivation themes.

Full comment

There is so much truth packed into that 36 mins -- so many juxtapositions -- it would take several hours to reference them all. For starters, see Rich Hickey's talk on "Hammock-Driven Development" for more on the "background mind" ( link ), and then see how what Dan Pink is saying about motivation ( link ) and what Sebastian Deterding is saying about gamification ( this video ) all connect into what Cleese is saying about creativity.

in “John Cleese on how to be creative” · view on HN
RecommendsgizzlonJul 2012

“Saw a presentation a while ago that hooked me”

A presentation that hooked the commenter.

Full comment

The concept is very interesting.. But this is a bad introduction =( Saw a presentation a while ago that hooked me, can't watch it now, but think it was this one: this video link

in “Gamification: The Art of Attracting and Keeping Users” · view on HN
RecommendsultimapeNov 2014

“getting it right can make really powerful games”

Talk on getting gamification right in game design

Full comment

I'd argue that all 'games' are about manipulating attention - its just a question of what means they use to do so. Game design is really a sort of meta-game about designing systems that effect the behavior of players. Consider: Game Mechanics and Mechanism Design ( link ) I'm fully with you on the notion that we shouldn't be manipulating players life like farmville. Johnathan blow put on a great talk about games and the human condition where he covers this aspect quite scathingly: link To completely ignore this aspect is to develop a game with no real-stickyness factor. Money aside, don't you want a game that people enjoy playing? The entire point of an MMO is to have a large reoccurring user-base. There is an art to it, and getting it right can make really powerful games: this video For board games like chess, much of the appeal for the average player is that you get to sit down with a friend and compete, and in doing so the 'intellectual nature' of the game ends up pulling them in for the long term. Perhaps the answer to the meta-game of stickiness is to create a community around the game in a similar vein to the one from the ants ai challenge's forums. Were I to work on this project, I'd make a strong push toward git-like integration ala the work done behind KhanAcademy's live editor like discussed in this talk: link . - being able to share code behaviors with your team-mates (you are going to implement a guilds system, no?) and encourage discussions about behaviors at

in “Screeps – the world's first MMO sandbox strategy game for programmers” · view on HN