Gamification by Design: Implementing Game Mechanics in Web and Mobile Apps [Kindle Edition]

As a UX designer working on various websites and mobile apps I found the first five chapters useful in my design thinking but I also found a the coding and platform chapters to be weak and kind of sleazy.

Before I write anymore, I want you to know that I'm not going to critique Gamficiation Theory here as that has been done well enough elsewhere. I just want to talk about the book :)

So the first five chapters of the book are useful and meaty enough to get you on your way. For instance, it provides some compelling arguments to think about your analytics in terms of 'levels' and 'experience points' in order to see what they are accomplishing, even if you don't expose the information to them. Moreover, the first five chapters gave me enough to work with to implement some gamified elements into my next project. There's also a supplemental workbook PDF on the authors website that compiles all the exercises found in the book which I could see using at a project kickoff.

That being said, I do have some complaints about this book. First, I feel like the author was selling his website GamificationU a little too hard. In order to download the aforementioned workbook I had to fill out a contact form and in order to get the 'advanced' movies the author provides you have to follow him on twitter. If you ask me it feels a little too sleazy considering I've already paid for the book. If I really want to be on the mailing list or to follow you, I would.

My second issue has to do with "Chapter 7: Coding Basic Game Mechanics". I applaud the author for including a chapter that walks us through the code, I really do. But given the current rapid development of rails he should have forked the project on Github and been more thorough with his documentation. As such, I'm still trying to get the environment setup and running...I'll report back on that when I'm done.

My third and last issue, Chapter 8: Sponsored by Badgeville. This is new for me as I've never seen a chapter flat out sponsored and written by a third-party vendor in an O'Reilly book. Their service actually doesn't seem that bad but the author should have written the chapter himself if he felt it was so good. So the result is that it either feels like this guy doesn't mind pushing Badgeville on his readers or that he was lazy.

If you're looking for a book to get you up to speed on gamification and working it into your UX Design, give this a read. Just don't be surprised by some of the other parts...

You want to have a textbook to install Gamification for your own services, programs or company? Motivated by all the hype about how Gamification is the solution to get an almost lifelong customer engagement and many returning sales? You want to copy the success of Zynga, Nike+ and Groupon (note the absence of Foursquare in this list as I think it's rather a bad example of Gamification)? You want to find the secret recipe in just one easy to read book?

Why not buy and read the newest book from the "foremost expert on the subject of Gamification"? Well the title of this book by Gabe Zicherman sounds like the perfect solution for your motivations above, right? Well, I have bad news for you, there is no easy shortcut to understanding and implementing successful principles of Gamification for you! Nor is this book gonna help you in achieving all that is promised on the outside of the book. Ever heard of "No pain no gain?". That's right, as I will tell you here right away that you have to do it the hard way, buy and read a minimum dozen of books (some reading list provided later) and even then it's not guaranteed you've found the secret recipe.

So safe your 14.10 US$ (strange that Amazon is already cutting the price on a newly book almost in half, unless it's not a bestseller, right?) and invest that and some more dollars into various other books with more insights, more practicable tips, more take-aways than this book. Save yourself from the pain to read through some cheap advertising of the services of Badgeville.com as there are many other companies that offer the same service as them - at least two others start also with a B in their company name (hint). Save yourself from being mislead on some of the important topics of motivation (intrinsic vs extrinsic), psychology and game design as the author didn't manage to either explain them correctly or, as Sebastian Deterding hints in his review, shows a dangerous piece of pseudo-knowledge!

Go to a local bookstore where you have the chance of unwrapping this book and read randomly inside to see if the claims are right, make yourself your own picture of the quality of this book (the look inside of Amazon can't give show you all)

Still find my review not convincing enough to give only one star? Want to get more in-depth details about why this book is only worth one star? Then go on to read Sebastian Deterdings full review, an excellent, very long post about why Gabe Zicherman's new book deserves just one star eg it just uses copy & paste from other people's (read: Amy Jo Kim) public available presentations without even giving proper reference, not even mentioning of devoting a full chapter of advertising one Gamification companies services [...] in chapter 7 of his book:

[...]

For those that find the review of Gabe Zicherman's new book to long, jump to end to read Sebastian Deterdings conclusion and to read the copy&paste proof of "Chapter 2: Player Motivation" and Chapter 7

Sadly, like many other reviewers said too, the concept of Gamification is really intriguing and can be a difference maker in your marketing efforts, but isn't that easy to be achieved. Ignoring intrinsic motivation and just focusing on extrinsic motivation is giving you a short, hyped-up experience where your program is going to die much quicker than it was hyped-up in the beginning. I for one haven't fully mastered Gamification as indeed just reading one or two books from the self-claimed "foremost expert on Gamification" isn't providing you a shortcut to understand Gamification fully, it requires ready and understanding a variety of different books from Motivation (Daniel Pink eg Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us) to Game Design (Jesse Schell The Art of Game Design: A book of lenses, Raph Koster A Theory of Fun for Game Design, Jane McGonigal eg Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World) to Psychology (Johnmarshall Reeve eg Understanding Motivation and Emotion) as well as reading through the various excellent and free available online presentations (like Amy Jo Kim, Sebastian Deterding, Michael Wu eg)

Gabe Zichermann's "Game-Based Marketing" was my introduction to gamification so when I saw that he released a follow-up I didn't hesitate to pick it up. The book didn't disappoint.

Whereas "Game-Based Marketing" provides more of a history on gamificiation and provides an excellent overview, "Gamification By Design" is a deeper dive into the underlying psychology that makes game mechanics effective. Along with reviewing his SAPS rewards model, Zichermann also discusses Bartle's personality types to segment various types of game players. Most articles I read focus too much on game mechanics without elaborating on the psychological drivers of gamification, which is similar to learning tools without knowing the trade. But this book provides the context for designers to apply tactics in a wide variety of marketing contexts. It also shares several instructive case studies and even touches on some rudimentary coding.

If you're not a game developer, the book won't turn you into one. But regardless of your level in the field, the book offers a robust lesson on gamification. As a marketer, it definitely helped me develop more creative and layered campaigns. Like all other Zichermann media I've either watched or read, the book is enjoyable because he is witty, funny and insightful without taking himself too seriously. The tone is quite appropriate, considering the magic of gamification is making things fun!