October 2010

Gamification 101:
An Introduction to the Use of Game Dynamics
to Influence Behavior
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
Section I: Gamification Defined
- A brief overview of the terms, concepts, and history
Section II: The Business Value of Gamification
- How and why it works; examples of its use
Section III: The Building Blocks of Gamification
- The elements involved in creating a successful experience
Section IV: Summary and Next Steps
- Where to go from here?
Section V: About Bunchball and Nitro
- A brief look at the company and its offerings
Acknowledgements

© 2010 Bunchball, Inc. All Rights Reserved

white paper
Gamification 101: An Introduction to the Use of Game Dynamics to Influence Behavior

Gamification 101: An Introduction to the Use of

Game Dynamics to Influence Behavior
ga∙mi∙fi∙ca∙tion [gay-muh-fi-kay-shuhn] I. GAMIFICATION DEFINED
integrating game dynamics into your site, Definition of Terms

service, community, content or campaign, We’ll expand each of the following definitions in greater detail through-
in order to drive participation. out the whitepaper. As an introduction, let’s give a brief overview of a
few key terms that are central to this paper.

Gamification
INTRODUCTION
At its root, gamification applies the mechanics of gaming to non-
Why Should You Care?
game activities to change people’s behavior. When used in a business
Gamification — applying the mechanics of gaming to nongame activi- context, gamification is the process of integrating game dynamics (and
ties to change people’s behavior — is an important and powerful new game mechanics) into a website, business service, online community,
strategy for influencing and motivating groups of people. The business content portal, or marketing campaign in order to drive participation
community is just starting to realize the power it has to improve cus- and engagement.
tomer engagement, build loyalty, and incent employees and partners
Participation and Engagement
to perform at high levels. And the concept has the potential to solve a
variety of problems outside the business world as well, in areas such as: The overall goal of gamification is to engage people to participate — to
share and interact in some activity or community by offering a compel-
• Health & Wellness: healthcare cost containment, obesity programs,
ling, dynamic, and sustained gamification experience, and which can be
smoking cessation…
used to accomplish a variety of business goals.
• Education & Training: e-learning, corporate and vocational training,
online testing… Game Mechanics & Game Dynamics
• Public Policy & Government: education reform, climate change, These two terms are closely related and sometimes used interchange-
welfare reform… ably. For our purposes, game mechanics are the various actions,
But beware of the hype! As with many new and promising technologies, behaviors, and control mechanisms that are used to “gamify” an activity
there are already a lot of pundits who have jumped on the gamification — the aspects that, taken together, create a compelling, engaging user
bandwagon and hyperbole is flying. Simply Googling the word “gamifi- experience. The compelling, motivational nature of this experience is, in
cation” brings up articles and videos with titles like “Gaming Can Make turn, the result of desires and motivations we call game dynamics.
A Better World,” “The Gamification of Life,” and “The Gamification of Game mechanics include: Game dynamics include:
Everything.”
• Points • Reward
Understanding how and why gamification works, in what contexts it is • Levels • Status
most effective, and what the limits are of this approach will be highly • Challenges • Achievement
useful in sorting out the useful bits. This report will help provide a basic • Virtual goods and spaces • Self-expression
foundation and definition for the concept of gamification. We plan to • Leaderboards • Competition
extend and build upon this foundation as we try to help move gamifica- • Gifts and charity • Altruism
tion from an art to a science. Please let us know what you think of this
whitepaper by sending us an email at [email protected].

© 2010 Bunchball, Inc. All Rights Reserved 2

white paper
Gamification 101: An Introduction to the Use of Game Dynamics to Influence Behavior

Games Are Everywhere Starbucks,” to earn special trophies or badges. The points aren’t worth
anything, and the badges don’t get you anything — they’re just using
Humans have been playing games in various forms since the days
fun to get people to visit Starbucks.
of the caveman, and competition is deeply ingrained in the human
psyche. Fast forward to the modern era with the significant free time
that people have today, and gaming has become a hugely popular
and tremendously profitable industry, on the order of $60 billion per
year. Given this wide acceptance of gaming and the emergence of the
internet, people have become more open to game mechanics in other
parts of their lives. As a result, “gamification” is becoming a power-
ful tool through which organizations teach, persuade, and motivate
people. Many different activities that people do today incorporate game
mechanics – things that you might not think of as games at all. Let’s
examine a few.

Frequent Flyer Programs

120 million people around the world are accruing points, leveling up,
and earning rewards in the Frequent Flyer Programs (FFPs) offered Nike+ and the iPod
by nearly every major airline. FFPs are actually complex games, with
The world’s largest manufacturer of athletic footwear and apparel
customers earning miles (points) for every segment flown, moving
worldwide has “gamified” exercise with the launch of Nike+ in 2008.
from Bronze to Silver and Gold status (leveling up), and even complet-
Over 1.8 million runners are currently using Nike+ to capture data such
ing challenges like “Fly 3 segments in the next 90 days for 2500 bonus
as distance, pace, and calories burned using a GPS sensor connected
miles.” And they’ll go out of their way to stick with the vendor where
to their iPod. The Nike software loaded on the iPod will then ”reward“
they have the most points and status — even when disappointed with
users if they reach a milestone — for example, runners hear Tour de
the actual service.
France cycling champ Lance Armstrong congratulating them if they
beat their five-mile distance record. After workouts, runners go online
to upload their data, track their statistics, set goals, join challenges, play
with an online “alter ego,” and connect with fellow runners in the Nike
community and other social networks. Nike+ has allowed the company
to build a huge and active fan base — for instance, over 800,000 run-
ners logged on and signed up when Nike sponsored a 10K race simulta-
neously across 25 cities.

Starbucks and Foursquare

The world’s biggest coffee chain is rewarding users with virtual points
and virtual badges for visiting their retail stores. Starbucks, in con-
junction with a startup called Foursquare, enables their customers to
“check-in” at their retail locations on their mobile phones. And when
they do, they earn points and can complete quests, like ”visit 5 different

© 2010 Bunchball, Inc. All Rights Reserved 3

white paper
Gamification 101: An Introduction to the Use of Game Dynamics to Influence Behavior

Participation and the IKEA Effect II. THE BUSINESS VALUE OF GAMIFICATION
Participation Drives Business Value
“Research conducted with my col-
leagues Daniel Mochon, of Yale Univer- Participation builds lasting relationships and impacts fundamental business objectives.
When people participate, it means that they’re engaged with you, that you’re building
sity, and Dan Ariely, of Duke University,
lasting relationships with them, and that you’re impacting your fundamental business
shows that labor enhances affection objectives. If you can get people to participate, your business wins. But what kind of
for its results. When people construct participation? Gamification can drive virtually any kind of participation, including:
products themselves, from bookshelves • Watching videos • Reading articles
to Build-a-Bears, they come to overval- • Listening to audio • Filling out registration data
• Viewing photos • Voting on content
ue their (often poorly made) creations. • Opting in to email communication
• Writing comments
We call this phenomenon the IKEA • Creating content
• Participating in discussions
• Answering questions
effect, in honor of the wildly successful • Posting to forums
• Making a purchase
Swedish manufacturer whose products • Taking quizzes
• Taking a poll
• Visiting repeatedly
typically arrive with some assembly • Searching for information
• Sharing personal info • Visiting affiliated sites
required.” • Recommending affiliated sites
• Rating products

- Michael I. Norton, “The IKEA Effect:

When Labor Leads to Love,” Harvard Tracking Statistics Drives Participation
Business Review – Breakthrough Business At its core, gamification is all about statistics. If two people play Monopoly every day
Ideas for 2009,” February 2009. for a week, it’s going to get boring pretty quickly. But if they start capturing and display-
ing statistics — how many times each person won, how many dollars each winner had,
which properties were most profitable — then the experience becomes more interest-
ing.

These statistics create another level to the game and motivate people to play more. In
essence, the statistics become the game. Can you become the #1 ranked Monopoly
player in your group of friends, in the state, in the country? Can you own Boardwalk
and Park Place five games in a row, and thus win a special trophy? Can you earn Mo-
nopoly Points for every dollar you end the game with, and collect those points toward
some ultimate reward?

By capturing statistics, communicating standings, and rewarding accomplishments,

we create a new method to drive participation. Even though individual games (or other
activities) may have lost their initial excitement, each episode becomes an entry into
a larger game, one that creates a desire to make return visits in order to reach these
new goals.

Status Achievement

Reward Competition
Statistics

© 2010 Bunchball, Inc. All Rights Reserved 4

white paper
Gamification 101: An Introduction to the Use of Game Dynamics to Influence Behavior

Who Is Participating?
Gamification is a strategy for influencing and motivating the behavior of people – any
people, whether they are customers, employees, students, fans, constituents, patients,
etc. And while it uses techniques from game design, it is not a new way to reach the
gamer market. The audience for gamification is anyone you want to engage repeatedly
in order to elicit a particular behavior.

Use Cases of Gamification

“Companies of all shapes and sizes The following examples illustrate some of the applications in which gamification can be

have begun to use games to revolution- used to create business value.

ize the way they interact with custom-

Building and activating a community of members or fans
ers and employees, becoming more
A common business goal is to pull together and engage a group of people with a com-
competitive and more profitable as a
mon passion or interest, and then to “activate” them to purchase. In particular, many
result.” marketers have been looking to leverage online social networking for this purpose, but
the results have been mixed. Adam Sarner, an analyst with market research firm Gart-
- “Changing the Game”, David Edery,
ner, has projected that over 75 percent of Fortune 1000 companies with Web sites will
Ethan Mollick
have undertaken some kind of online social-networking initiative for marketing
or customer relations purposes. But 50 percent of those campaigns will be classified
as failures.1 And Forrester analyst Jeremiah Owyang concludes that “…many
brands are wasting their time, money, and resources to reach communities in
social networks without first understanding that the use case is very different than
a microsite campaign.”2

Through gamification, organizations can take back control of the brand experience
by engaging users, encouraging them to join a community, driving active participation,
sharing with friends outside the community, and even recruiting friends to
join the community. Gamification enables you to turn customers into fans, and
fans into evangelists.

1
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10058509-36.html
2
http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2008/07/18/forrester-report-best-and-worst-of-
social-network-marketing-2008/
© 2010 Bunchball, Inc. All Rights Reserved 5
white paper
Gamification 101: An Introduction to the Use of Game Dynamics to Influence Behavior

Example: Global Technology Company

A leading computer manufacturer recently launched a campaign on

Facebook to build up a community of college students focused around
“tech stuff,” with the goal of promotion their educational computing site
and sell more student laptops. To drive the growth of this Facebook site,
they created a gamified Facebook application that offered students a
chance to win a $5,000 scholarship and a free PC for a friend. In order
to win, students had to earn points and awards for doing things like
registering for the contest, inviting a friend to join, creating a team, and
registering on the company’s educational computing site, and posting
contest messages and awards on their wall on Facebook. The result? Six
weeks after the launch of the gamified Facebook application, they had
increased program participation 10X. Other success metrics from the
campaign:

• 1 in 6 participants wrote and submitted an essay Example: Global Consumer Product

(one of their missions) A European consumer and industrial products company made a
• Almost 1 in 5 made the student laptop their profile picture on decision to shift the marketing strategy for one of their top Personal
Facebook for a day (one of their missions) Care products to a “high engagement, online ecosystem” model. The
• 1 in 4 recruited their friends to help them (one of their missions) program that came out of this strategy was a social networking applica-
• 1 in 3 checked out the student laptop reviews (one of their missions) tion connecting participants across the web and social media. The goal
• 1 in 3 promoted the Facebook application (one of their missions) for participants is to earn rewards by completing challenges, such as
• 1 in 3 posted their award and new level viewing a series of web pages or playing Flash mini-games on partner
• 1 in 3 visited the educational computing site sites. The social game has been explicitly designed to encourage long-
term engagement of participants, with repeat users earning frequent
Building your brand rewards.

In the long run, the goal of marketing is to maximize the lifetime The company created an initial core user base via co-branding with a
value of the customer base by increasing the average selling price top-tier North American professional sports league, and then grew the
and frequency of purchase. The traditional way that marketers look user base using viral game mechanics that motivate participants to
at this process is the “purchase funnel,” a model which describes the invite friends from their social networks. Other game mechanics focus
theoretical customer journey from the moment of first contact with on activating fans, friends, and all others with brand purchases and tri-
your brand (awareness) through product consideration, to the ultimate als via promotional integration. A microsite serves as the participants’
goal of a purchase. Using gamification, marketers can help increase dashboard, providing a central location to customize their avatar, view
brand awareness, affinity, and purchase intent by driving their audience their progress, accept challenges and engage in social activities. In addi-
to spend more time on a website or related social media property and tion, the experience requires repeat visits to the microsite, strengthen-
come back more often. The more users interact with a site, the more ing the participant’s association with the brand.
valuable and loyal they become and the less incentive they have to click
away to another source.

© 2010 Bunchball, Inc. All Rights Reserved 6

white paper
Gamification 101: An Introduction to the Use of Game Dynamics to Influence Behavior

Driving engagement and loyalty Example: Major Entertainment Company

Loyalty has evolved beyond earning points for purchases to deeper cus- One of the largest entertainment companies in the world wanted a
tomer engagement. Traditional redemption-focused loyalty programs loyalty system that not only rewarded purchases, but also rewarded
created clever points systems and offered gifts or discounts in return participation and engagement with their content, which includes major
for purchases. These marketers assumed that the best consumers will motion pictures. This program gave points for purchasing Blu-ray and
“burn” what they’ve earned, be satisfied with the reward, and come regular DVDs as well as movie tickets. Buyers then redeemed those
back to the brand in the future. Savvy marketers now realize that they points for dollar-value products, like more DVDs. In addition, members
must differentiate themselves from this foundational model, primar- can earn credits for engaging with their content, like watching movie
ily because the rewards given by most loyalty programs offer far less trailers, visiting movie websites, playing games, and contributing con-
competitive advantage in the age of the internet and global commerce. tent. By combining offline purchase data with online engagement and
Using gamification, loyalty programs can significantly increase their participation data, they can now build a detailed profile of each of their
effectiveness by adding more intrinsic motivators to the “earn” (points) customers. The resulting gamification campaign has:
aspect of the loyalty experience.
• Increased consumption of promotional content
Earning points mimics the elements of a game, including competition • Increased user-generated content
and the pursuit of a goal. Fun, compelling and addictive game play gen- • Increased traffic to the individual movie sites
erates exciting emotions that add to the player’s experience, whether • Increased sale of products
the competition is solitary or involves others. An effective loyalty • Developed a 360-degree view of their customers.
program views the entire “earn” experience as a game, one wherein the
“play” is just as fun as the “winning.” Adding leaderboards and tiered-
achievement levels will enhance the gaming aspects because people
often desire the challenge of working for a reward. Essentially, the right
level of challenge arouses and excites the brain. Setting and hitting
milestones result in a repeated sense of accomplishment and boosts
self-worth, leading to the ultimate satisfaction of reaching the goal and
“winning the game.”3

Yearn

Loyalty
Programs

Earn Burn

3
Barry Kirk. “A New Paradigm for Loyalty Marketing,” Maritz White Paper, August 2010 ,
<http://www.maritz.com/~/media/Files/MaritzDotCom/White%20Papers/Loyalty/New-Paradigm-Loyalty-Marketing.ashx>

© 2010 Bunchball, Inc. All Rights Reserved 7

white paper
Gamification 101: An Introduction to the Use of Game Dynamics to Influence Behavior

Motivating behavior
Wherever there are people, there are people to be motivated.

• Sales people and channel partners can be incented to grow revenues

and focus on desired product mixes via competition and challenges.

• Call centers and customer support organizations can be motivated to

deliver superior customer service through a customer feedback
mechanism or other metrics.

• Employees can be motivated to pursue optional training initiatives

that enhance their careers and make them more valuable to the
company.

• Patients and health insurance customers can be incented to adopt and

stick with healthy lifestyle choices that extend their lives and reduce
healthcare costs.

Gamification can be applied across a broad spectrum of situations

where individuals need to be motivated or incented to pursue specific
actions or activities.

Example: HopeLab

HopeLab is an innovative organization whose mission is to drive

positive health behavior in young people. Fighting chronic illnesses
like cancer, obesity, and depression, HopeLab uses games and con-
nected devices to create the most effective motivational methods.
For example, the Zamzee device is worn on a belt or carried in a pocket,
and it monitors physical activity throughout the day. Plugging it into
a computer, this data is converted to points that can be redeemed for
virtual goods and real-world rewards, including the ability to donate to
a cause. Though the product is still under development, a pilot study
showed that kids using the Zamzee device and website were about
30% more active than those who did not.

© 2010 Bunchball, Inc. All Rights Reserved 8

white paper
Gamification 101: An Introduction to the Use of Game Dynamics to Influence Behavior

III. THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF GAMIFICATION experience around existing website functionality or content. Some of
the most common game mechanics include the following:
To repeat our definitions from the beginning:
Points
Gamification drives participation and engagement by integrating game
mechanics or game dynamics into a website, business service, online People love points. They love to earn them and to
community, content portal, or marketing campaign. Gamification is achieve them. This makes points incredible motiva-
an emerging marketing discipline that provides a means of influencing tors. Points can be used to reward users across multiple
the behavior of people online. It borrows key concepts from a number dimensions, and different categories of points can be
of related areas, including game design, customer loyalty programs, used to drive different behaviors within the same site or application.
behavioral economics, and community management. Points can also be used as status indicators, users can spend them to
unlock access to content, or spend them on virtual goods and gifting.
Game mechanics are the rules and rewards that that make up game
Studies done at IBM Research and the University of Chicago describe
play — the aspects that make it challenging, fun, satisfying, or whatever
the dramatic effect that earning points can have on user behavior, even
other emotion the game’s designers hope to evoke. These emotions, in
if there’s no monetary value associated with them. People just love to
turn, are the result of desires and motivations we call game dynamics.
be rewarded and feel like they’ve gained something

Game Mechanics Motivate Behaviors Levels

The addition of game mechanics to a site or application allows you to Levels are different classes in frequent-flyer programs,
layer compelling user experiences into existing activities. These gami- colored belts in martial arts, job titles in industry: an
fied activities satisfy basic human desires, creating the addictive user indication that you’ve reached a milestone, a level of
experiences that motivate users to take certain actions. But what are accomplishment in a community and should be afforded
these game mechanics? a certain amount of respect and status. Levels are often defined as
point thresholds, so that users can automatically level up based on
Game mechanics are tools, techniques, and widgets that are used as
their participation, or use levels to indicate status and control access to
building blocks for gamifying a website or application. Using them
content on the site.
individually or together, it’s possible to build a highly motivational user

Figure 1 illustrates the interaction of basic human desires and game play. The green dots signify the
primary desire a particular game mechanic fulfills, and the blue dots show the other areas that it affects.

© 2010 Bunchball, Inc. All Rights Reserved 9

white paper
Gamification 101: An Introduction to the Use of Game Dynamics to Influence Behavior

Challenges, Trophies, Badges, Achievements Competitions

Challenges (aka trophies, badges, or achievements) give Competitions enable your users to challenge each other
people missions to accomplish and then reward them for to get the high score at some activity. Once everyone
doing so. Challenges give people goals and the feeling has done the activity, the user with the highest score
like they’re working toward something. The general ap- wins a reward while all the losers get a consolation prize.
proach is to configure challenges based on actions that you’re tracking, This is great for “multiplayer-enabling” one-player games and other
and reward your users for reaching milestones with trophies, badges single user experiences. For example: “I just scored 500,000 points at
and achievements. Asteroids, I dare you to beat that!”

Trophies, badges, ribbons, etc. are the visible recognition of having

Game Dynamics Satisfy Desires
reached new levels or completed challenges. One of the keys to making
levels and challenges effective is providing a forum for them to show off Why are people motivated by game mechanics? Because of game
their achievements, like a trophy case or user profile page that displays dynamics.
their badges. These have counterparts in the real world as well, as in
People have fundamental needs and desires — desire for reward, status,
Scouting merit badges, colored credit cards that indicate high spending
achievement, self-expression, competition, and altruism among oth-
limits, or colored frequent flyer cards that indicate member status.
ers. These needs are universal, and cross generations, demographics,
Virtual Goods cultures, and genders. Game designers have known for years how to
address these needs within gaming environments, and gamification
Virtual goods are non-physical objects that are pur-
now enables these precepts to be applied more broadly. By wrapping
chased for use in online communities or online games.
the appropriate set of game mechanics around your website, applica-
They have no intrinsic value and, by definition, are
tion, or community, you can create an experience that drives behavior
intangible. Virtual goods include such things as swords,
by satisfying one or more of these human needs:
coins, and potions, as well as digital gifts and digital clothing for avatars
and virtual rooms. Virtual goods give your users a place to spend their Reward
points, a reason to want to earn, a way to buy each other gifts, and a
Human beings are motivated by receiving rewards — something of
way to self-express. Virtual goods can also be used as a revenue center,
value given for some kind of action. A reward, tangible or intangible,
by selling users virtual goods for real dollars.
is presented after the occurrence of an action (i.e., behavior) with the
For a game economy to be effective over time, it helps to have a place intent to cause the behavior to occur again. With gamification, the
to spend your points, a reason to want to earn more, and the ability to primary reward mechanism is through earning points or the equivalent
customize something that reflects your identity. Because that gets you (like frequent-flyer miles). But obtaining virtual goods, leveling up, and
invested, it gets you locked in, and it becomes a really great vector for even completing achievements also satisfy this desire.
creativity, competition, and self-expression in the community. You want
Status
your wall or virtual environment or avatar to look good, because all your
friends can see it and compare it to theirs. Humans generally have a need for the esteem and respect of others,
for status, recognition, fame, prestige, and attention. Status and esteem
Leaderboards
presents the normal human desire to be accepted and valued by oth-
Most of the successful games ever created have wisely ers. People need to engage themselves to gain recognition, and have
implemented a “high-score table.” They bring aspira- an activity or activities that give them a sense of contribution, to feel
tion, “fame,” and your name in lights. They also indicate accepted and self-valued. All elements of game mechanics drive the
“how am I doing” against friends and against everybody status dynamic, but having achieved a higher level (such as getting a
else. In the context of gamification, leaderboards are used to track and gold or platinum credit card) is the primary motivator.
display desired actions, using competition to drive valuable behavior.

© 2010 Bunchball, Inc. All Rights Reserved 10

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Gamification 101: An Introduction to the Use of Game Dynamics to Influence Behavior

Achievement Competition

Some (but not all) people are motivated by a need to achieve, to ac- Individuals can also be motivated by competition. It has been proven
complish something difficult through prolonged and repeated efforts, to that higher levels of performance can be achieved when a competitive
work towards goals, and to win. People motivated by achievement tend environment is established and the winner rewarded. That’s because
to seek out challenges and set moderately difficult (but achievable) we gain a certain amount of satisfaction by comparing our performance
goals. Their most satisfying reward is the recognition of their achieve- to that of others.
ments.
All elements of game mechanics tap into this desire, even self-
Self-expression expression, but the use of leaderboards is central to display competi-
tive results and celebrate winners. Most all games provide at least a
Many people want and need opportunities to express their autonomy
simple top ten list, and using that public display to indicate new levels
and originality, to mark themselves as having unique personalities from
achieved, rewards earned, or challenges met can be a great motivator
those around them. This ties into the human desire to show off a sense
to other players.
of style, identity, and personality and to show off an affiliation with a
group, or demonstrate a connection with a celebrity of some kind. Using Altruism
virtual goods is a common way for players to create their own identity,
Gift-giving is a strong motivator if you have a community where people
whether they are earned through rewards, received as gifts, or bought
seek to foster relationships. Not all gifts are equal, so in a world of free
directly with real currency. A person’s avatar can often serve as a rich
and commodity items, motivated gifters will seek out a more valuable
focal point for expression, and some people update their Facebook
form of expression, either through money or through time spent earning
profile picture more than once a day.
or creating the gift.

In gamification, gifting is an incredibly powerful acquisition and reten-

tion mechanic. You receive a gift from someone that pulls you into the
game, and then you’re incented to send gifts to all your friends, creating
a great acquisition loop. And every time you receive a gift, it pulls you
back into the application to redeem it, so it serves as a powerful reten-
tion vehicle as well.

© 2010 Bunchball, Inc. All Rights Reserved 11

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Gamification 101: An Introduction to the Use of Game Dynamics to Influence Behavior

IV. SUMMARY AND NEXT STEPS

We’ve laid out a basic framework for gamification here: what it is, why it’s powerful, and how companies are using it now. So what’s next? Here are
some brief starter questions to get clarity on before embarking on the gamification process.

Questions to Ask

As with any significant undertaking, there are many specific questions to answer as you think about applying gamification your situation:

Is the Product Compelling?

No matter the quality of the gamified experience, it is only a wrapper around your core offering. Gamification cannot make an unloved property into
a hit, but it might provide the tipping point that helps a good product find a larger audience, or turns a hit into a cross-channel smash. Gamification
works best when turning an exciting, attractive product into a richer, more participatory one.

What is the Context?

Will your audience discover your campaign on TV, in real-world stores, through social media channels, in print ads, or somewhere else? Does this
connect a real-world experience with an online or mobile application? How will you early users help to grow your audience for you and through what
means? Just as savvy advertisers connect TV, online, print, and other campaigns, consider how to extend the reach of the gamification process into
other avenues.

What Is the Timeframe?

Gamification should be thought of as an extended process, and the most engaging games offer an experience that unfolds over time. This can be
accomplished by making a deep and rich experience from the outset, or by evolving the experience over time, letting its audience build and drawing
experienced users deeper into the game. Gamification is a long-term strategy, not a launch-and-forget-it one.

Time to Market?

How soon do you need to gamify your site or application? What level of effort will be required to do this? Do you have the resources to do it? Do you
have the resources to support, operate, and enhance your gamification solution over time? What kind of expertise do you have in-house to make this
happen? All of these questions will impact your ability to gamify your site in a timely manner.

What Is Success?

Most important is to have a clear sense of what your business goals are and how you’ll go about determining if you’ve achieved them. This can be
measured as strictly ROI, but there are other measures equally as valuable.

© 2010 Bunchball, Inc. All Rights Reserved 12

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Gamification 101: An Introduction to the Use of Game Dynamics to Influence Behavior

V. ABOUT BUNCHBALL AND NITRO

Bunchball: The Industry Leader in Gamification

Bunchball is the leading provider of online gamification solutions, used to drive high value participation, engagement, loyalty and revenue for some of
the world’s leading brands and media. Customers including Warner Bros, Comcast, Victoria’s Secret PINK, USA Network, LiveOps, and Hasbro use
Bunchball’s Nitro gamification platform to create compelling, meaningful and enjoyable experiences for consumers, employees, and partners. Based
in Silicon Valley and founded in February 2005, Bunchball’s investors include Granite Ventures and Adobe Systems Incorporated. For more informa-
tion, visit Bunchball online at www.bunchball.com.

Nitro – The Participation Engine

Nitro enables you to track and reward participation across the Internet by adding game mechanics to your websites, Facebook applications, and
mobile applications. The Nitro solution includes the following:

Proven Gamification Platform

• Nitro, the industry’s most scalable, reliable gamification platform.

Expert Program Design Services

• Build your own solution, or let us help you - we’ve created more Gamification solutions than the rest of the industry combined.

Comprehensive Program Management Services

• Strapped for resources? Let us manage your program.

Advanced Analytics Services

• Data-driven insights into user behaviors and how to drive them.

The Nitro gamification platform is a highly scalable and reliable Cloud-based service for gamifying websites, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and mobile
applications – it has served over 80 million unique users and 4 billion transactions to date. Nitro’s flexible architecture enables our customer’s
engineering teams to get up and running quickly, while our powerful administration tools empower the site production and marketing teams with
real-time control over online user behavior. The platform delivers the industry’s most comprehensive set of game mechanics, including:
• Actions • Virtual Goods • Poker

• Challenges • Virtual Rooms • Comments

• Trophies • Avatars • Friends

• Badges • Groups • Facebook and Twitter Connector

• Achievements • Competitions

• Points • Real-time Notifications

• Levels • Newsfeeds

• Leaderboards • Trivia

© 2010 Bunchball, Inc. All Rights Reserved 13

bunchball.com
We gratefully acknowledge the contribution of many others to the ideas outlined in this paper. In particular,
we would like to give special mention to Kathi Fox, Amy Jo Kim, Barry Kirk, and Gabe Zichermann.