What Is Gamification? Examples for Websites and Communities

Transcript

What is gamification? It means using the rules of a game, like points, levels and badges, to reward the things you want people to do. Points for each action. Levels for progress. And badges for the moments worth remembering. You have seen it everywhere. The stamp card at a coffee shop. The streak in a language app. Airline miles. Fitness rings. Reputation on a forum. A certificate at the end of a course. None of these are games. Each one borrows a single idea from games. Effort gets a score you can see. It works because of a simple loop. Someone does one small thing, and gets a reward straight away. They can see their progress building, so they have a reason to come back tomorrow. Nothing is forced. People repeat what gets noticed. It is used wherever people need a reason to keep going. Online communities. Courses and training. Customer loyalty. Employee onboarding. Support forums. And membership sites. Without it, most websites are quiet. Visitors read, then leave. Members post once and disappear. And the people doing the most for your community are never noticed. Here it is on a real community site. A member votes in a poll, and earns a point for it. Every action adds up on a leaderboard the whole community can see. Each member has a level and a rank, and can see where they stand this month. And on a profile, the badges say what each person is known for. Challenges, streaks and kudos from other members all live in one place. The site owner decides what earns points, and what each level is called. Badges are set up once, and awarded automatically from then on. And can see which actions are bringing people back. So what does the site owner gain? Visitors who have a reason to come back. Members who post, answer and help more, because the effort is counted. And numbers that show which actions keep people around, in place of a guess. Starting is simple. Pick the actions that matter most on your site. Give each one a number of points. Name your levels, so progress means something. And show a leaderboard, so effort is seen. So the difference is this. On a quiet site, people read and leave. On a rewarding one, they come back. They post once, or they build a streak. Good work goes unseen, or it earns a badge. And you stop guessing what keeps people around, because you can see it. Other communities already reward their members every day. Each day yours does not, the habit forms somewhere else. WB Gamification is the points and badges plugin for WordPress. Add points, levels and badges to your WordPress site this week. Get WB Gamification. The link is below.