I recently watched this awesome presentation by Sebastian Deterding. It’s called “Just add points? What UX designers can (and cannot) learn from games”, and I really recommend watching it (in full screen.. click “menu” in the bottom left-hand corner of the widget).

But if you don’t have time to watch the slideshow, or are impatient, and want to return to it later, you can skip to my notes and analysis, below.

Welcome back.

So it seems to me that there are nine important principles at play here:

1) Presence of S.M.A.R.T. goals

SMART stands for specific, measurable, actionable, realistic and timed. It is crucial to have both short-term and long-term goals. A short-term goal is going from level 2 to level 3; a long-term goal is peaking at level 99. Having a long-term goal seems to set the context for the behavior. If it’s specific and measurable, you can tell whether or not you have achieved it (achievement is a binary state); if it’s actionable, you can act in order to advance your progress; if it’s realistic, it is practically achievable. I have no comment about the necessity of a “timed”, except that a timer can add some fun by placing parameters that make you work within constraints.

2) Actions to achieve our goals are explicit, and prepackaged so we can directly execute on them.

I learned this lesson when I was an intern at a software company in Silicon Valley. I was debating with my boss about what kind of copy should go on our new site, MaviShare.com. This was in the days before data-driven decision making became universally embedded in start-up culture (the correct answer to the debate is really “who cares? Try it and see, and let the results speak for themselves”). Anyway, he asked his MBA girlfriend (now wife), and she said, “People like steps.” It’s a lesson I took to heart.

How often are we overwhelmed by tasks just because they seem so impossible due to their enormous imposing size? What’s bad about the size is not that it’s really long, or really wide, but it’s this ambiguous amorphous monstrous blob.

Humans don’t like to think. It’s not a good use of our mental resources; we use social proof to determine the best course of action. “Which way is the right way off the train platform? No need to look for myself, just head in the direction of the herd!”

This is the basis for our parents asking us if we would jump off a bridge if Jimmy did it too, after we get caught vandalizing the school locker room and swimming pool.

Unfortunately, if you want to be a leader, by definition, you need to be ahead of the pack. Being ahead of the pack means that you can’t look to the pack for direction; you have to set your own course of action. Sometimes this means being stupid and trying arbitrary things and hoping to get lucky that your process worked … but more often than not, to advance requires developing critical thinking skills, and “thinking for yourself”.

Back to difficult, imposing tasks: we don’t like to think. We like to be able to just “do”. This is why people study hard, get good grades, go to college, get a job, date, get married, and die: because even though these things aren’t easy, they are straightforward, socially acceptable and bear some external rewards.

The solution to a difficult and ambiguous task, by the way, is to try to chunk it into discrete steps. This is a theme that will be developed throughout the article, so back to games: in a good game, the only thinking we have to do is to decide which action should be done next. Sid Meier, creator of the game Civilization says: “A game is a series of interesting decisions.”

3) Clear relation between action and goal: the action will *definitely* bring us closer to the goal

Fun games operate on the principle that our actions will definitely bring us closer to the goal. If you go and slash rabbits (action), you will definitely gain experience points (relation), and you will eventually level up (goal).

This is the reason so many people, including myself, have failed at difficult, uncharted things like entrepreneurship. There’s no guarantee that our next step will bring us closer to the goal. For example, we could easily invest 6 months into building a product that nobody wants to buy. Now, that specific problem can be ameliorated through processes of customer development, but the general problem still exists.

If we get a job, we’re probably going to get paid for our labors.

If we build a product and take it to market, we’re probably not going to get paid for our efforts. So where’s the motivation? It requires a lot of risk, and the human brain is not wired to consider long-term rewards! The nucleus accumbens, which may play a large role in the distribution of the phenomenon of pleasure and reward seeking, is part of the ancient limbic system, which motivates lots of behavior. Long-term goals require premeditated planning by the prefrontal cortex.

Hint: to live optimally, we should do things that are beneficial in the long run but are still enjoyable in the present moment.

Hint 2: it may be possible that through the practice of mindfulness, we can enjoy every moment. I will have to re-read Buddha’s Brain in order to figure out the scientific explanations for this.

4) Our status is clear: spatially, in terms of our skills/possessions, in relation to our goals (points and mission stats), in our relation to other players (leaderboards)

We like to know where we are and how we are doing, in absolute terms as well as relative terms. We want to know our location and where we are and how to get to other places, but we also want to know where we are in relation to our goals. And we want to know how we’re doing in comparison to our peers, in order to get some social context. These desires may make sense when viewed in the context of evolutionary biology; it’s useful to know where you are, and through social proofing/social conditioning, we can better understand our rank. (Expect a post on social rank very soon, and expect a detailed post on social conditioning eventually, as well).

(By the way, Grand Theft Auto IV implements this extremely well, which may partially explain why it received such excellent scores from review sites as well as through social consensus.)

It’s fun to know what resources we have access to, where we can go, and where we’re at in our progress towards our goal, all at the same time: having all of these things visible (via attention) enables the information to flow to the reticular activating system, or RAS. The RAS is what shapes our beliefs of what is possible. All the relevant info shapes our decision-making, guiding our beliefs of what is possible, and therefore enables background charting of possible courses of action. Remember Sid Meier’s rule: “a game is a series of interesting decisions”.

5) Excessive positive/negative feedback

Excessive feedback is good because it stimulates learning. We learn through associative conditioning. Some layman’s neuroscience: when neurons fire together, they wire together (see “Hebbian synapses” for more info). Popular neural pathways are more easily accessed. This is why the principle of “spaced repetition” is so important to learning, and why cramming is a doomed technique in the long-run: you’re not giving yourself ample opportunity to build up strong connections over a variety of conditions.

Think of memory as a weighted directed graph.

Let’s say that node A represents ZacharyBurt.com, node B represents Saturday evening, node C represents my explanation of Hebbian synapses, and node D represents Monday afternoon. Let’s also assume that you’re reading this article on a Saturday evening, because you want an intellectual edge before you go out to the bars.

Since all of these things have been connected together, they “wire” together and are given a weight of 1.

But then let’s assume you go ahead and read this article again, on Monday afternoon. Nodes A (“ZacharyBurt.com”), C (“Hebbian synapses”), and D (“Monday afternoon”) are going to wire together:

Notice how there’s now a stronger link between A and C? Therefore, if you want to recall how Hebbian synapses work, you’d best bet to try to think of ZacharyBurt.com! But even better, you will have a better memory of Hebbian synapses in general, because there are now more, stronger pathways to node C than there were before.

This is also the same principle of why actually understanding something is beneficial for recall, for example, in math. Not only can you deduce your results through ratiocination but you have a better understanding of how everything fits together because your information on the new principle fits into the connected graph filled with nodes representing previously learned principles. If you just memorize a fact through rote memorization, a better analogical device to represent the storage of information might be a disconnected graph.

That was a lengthy detour, but remember, we said excessive feedback is good because it stimulates learning. If feedback is excessive, it becomes akin to a strong node in our memory-graph, and learning is facilitated: there’s a clear connection, evinced by the strong node, between what we were doing (the process of playing the game) and our results.

Another reason excessive feedback is good is because it is damn enjoyable: as humans, we love novel stimuli. It’s intrinsically interesting. Why? Because it helps us predict the future…introduction of a new stimulus (a novel/different/interesting stimulus) is unaccounted for in the response-reward architecture, so we pay attention to it.

P.S. If you want to study some graph theory, I recommend this book.

6) Challenges get successively harder

If something is too easy, it bores us (our attention lets our working memory wander due to low levels of dopamine). If something is too difficult, it frustrates us, and bores us (we are unable to chunk it into working memory). So we want to stay in our “flow” zone.. see Csikszentmihalyi for more info on this.

6B) CHUNKING: easy challenges train you on basic skills, hard challenges require you to mix easy + difficult skills

In order to do a difficult skill, we must first learn all of the basic essential components. It’s another “secret” of life: if you want to live great, MASTER the fundamentals. As Brian Johnson says, ask yourself, “What is fundamental for me?” As in… when I do this thing, I have a good day. Now…practice those related skills! And if they’re too difficult, break them down into sub-skill components!

For example, in basketball, if I want to drive to the rim, and then pass the ball behind my back before laying it up into the net, I need to be able to:

• Dribble
• Perform a layup
• Pass the ball behind my back

I need to be able to do all those things consistently before I practice the new skill of combining them together in a fluid motion.

One of my many personal intellectual interests is efficient consolidation of procedural and other memory. Evidence suggests that sleeping is crucial for the improvement of skills: not just any sleep, but REM sleep following SWS. So one practical implication is that polyphasic sleep, which I believe encourages REM rebound (skipping SWS, non-dream sleep), could be a deterrent for the advancement of memory and skills. What use is all that extra time studying when you would be better off sleeping? It could be a real case of less is less and less is more. J

So, back to game analysis: once you learn easy skills, then you can learn more complicated skills that require the combination of different easy skills. The practice of advanced skill is intrinsically fun. Why? I’m just going to take Martin Seligman’s word for it, but when I find the answer, I’ll let you know.

8) Social comparison: facilitates social learning, and motivates competition [who's in the game, and at what level?]

We love comparing ourselves to others. It’s a very ego-based form of existence (ha!! I brought back the ego!!), and the spiritual ego thrives off of comparing ourselves to other people: judging, liking, disliking … all ego. When we take the ego too seriously, we begin to believe that it is real (“we like this thing”, or “we have this opinion”) even though it might just be a sentiment rooted in the moment.

I know who I am because I am different from you. Therefore I have this preference, which is tied into my identity. I don’t quite understand all this spiritual ego business in a systematic way, yet – but I’m working on it. I’m about to read Goffman’s Presentation of Self book, and that may shed some insight. Then, I can reread the Practical Neuroscience of Buddhism and visit its section on multiple Selves. Then maybe I’ll be more clueful. But remember, I’ll have to sleep, so my memory gets consolidated.

Back to games: I feel that to engage in game-play is essentially egoic. It has nothing to do with pursuing our highest truths and values. When we play fun games, we decide to dumb ourselves down and we become the equivalent of rats in cages.

OK, so you might now bring the argument, “doesn’t everything essentially boil down to experiencing reward in one way or another? Even writing this blog, you are playing your own sort of game.  And besides, who cares if I am being manipulated by my own psyche if I am enjoying it?” These are all valid points. I am being judgmental of game-playing, but I assure you, I have played many games in my life, and will probably continue to do so… they’re just so fun and addicting. However, when I enter the Now (commonly referred to as “transcending the ego”), and cast aside all aspersions and other judgments, I feel good, so I have no motivation to do anything).

Aside: maximum short-term and long-term happiness is the ultimate currency in this life. Anything we desire, be it money, sex, food, admiration, glory … ultimately boils down to happiness. But our core value can’t be happiness; happiness can only stem from living in adherence to our core values (so sayeth Stephen Covey).

But let me get back to the point: if we already feel good, what motivation do we have for doing anything? Why not just sit in a cave and chill out, and drop out? Some people do this. I think, though, that it is important to live in society so we can help bring other people out of the cave. If I don’t make money, I can’t live; if I can’t live, I can’t blog; if I can’t blog, I can’t share my ideas; if I can’t share my ideas, other people will suffer. (Of course, I could probably live a radically different lifestyle, with very little money, very few possessions, do my blogging at the library, and forage for food…this is something I’m kinda-sorta always thinking about in the back of my mind. I might be able to live in highest service to my values that way. But not necessarily; maybe living a consumer lifestyle enables my contribution potential. Also, I feel it’s lame to drop out of society until you have succeeded… maybe I’m just rationalizing, surrendering my prefrontal cortex’s control to the amygdala. Ultimately, at the end of the day, it’s all about my truest values,  so knowing them should elucidate the situation, but I have to say that I am only 22 and still discovering them. So I am still chaotically meandering through my life, easily prone to distractions. But I assure you that values-discovery is a top priority. Dr. David Hawkins says, “Straight and narrow is the path…Waste no time.” My interpretation: if we are living by our truest values, the path is probably very clear.

And now, back to games. I’d like to add one more principle that wasn’t in the slideshow. It makes for an ADDICTING game but not necessarily a fun one: variable ratio reinforcement schedules.

Are you familiar with operant conditioning (OC)? How about classical conditioning (CC), such as with Pavlov’s dog? In CC, when you pair an unconditioned stimulus with a conditioned stimulus, you get a conditioned response. Unconditioned stimulus = food, Conditioned stimulus = bell, Conditioned response = salivation. Pretty straightforward. It’s all about the network-graph, remember?

Operant conditioning works somewhat differently: it affects voluntary behavior. It refers to the ways in which reward affects our willingness to perform an act. If we are always rewarded for something, then we can predict the future and will only act when we want the reward. However, if the reward appears only occasionally, we will act more often, because we are unable to predict when we will receive the reward.  This explains why I repeatedly tap my spacebar after waking my Macbook from its sleep state: my Mac wakes up at seemingly random intervals!

Anyway, if the reward appears at a variable ratio (every 3^rd act, or every 10^th act) we are most likely to be constantly “pecking” and unlikely to stop. Our brains just aren’t naturally well suited to pick up on these patterns, just as our brains aren’t naturally well suited to understand probability and statistics.

Anyway, this is the principle that slot machines use to addict their players. Use it to addict people to your games.

Some other notes from the slideshow:

Work is what we should do, and work-applications ought to facilitate productivity. Games are voluntary; therefore, they’re “play”. Easter eggs, or, non-functional excess, introduce a feeling of “play” – and there’s no reason you can’t introduce them into your serious work applications to make them more enjoyable.

In the game “Monpoloy”, the mechanics of gaining and losing money lead to a poverty gap dynamic, creating a poor experience aesthetic for the losing player. Good games should be fun for both the winning and losing player. Zachary Burt’s opining: Moreover, good games should be flexible enough to allow for previously poorly performing players to compensate for their bottom-position through superior performance and play.

In conclusion: if you want to accomplish a task, see if you can turn it into a game for yourself. Things that don’t become game-link are un-fun, and don’t get done. This is similar to the workplace principle of “if it’s not a process, it’s not going to get done”. We exhibit better performance and enjoy more when we “play” instead of work. I have already began integrating some of these concepts into ZacharyBurt.com (hint: Jesus wasn’t oviparous but apparently I am!), and I am going to start working on creating “fun” games/applications that incidentally improve your life. Feel free to help brainstorm with me, or contact if you would like to collaborate (I have programming-skillz). How much better would we all be, btw, if rote repetitive questing in games like World of Warcraft used the same skills that were actually applicable to other areas of life through skill transference? (Right now, I’m actually referring to games specifically designed to improve your life.. such as making Gratitude fun, and competitive!)

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