The game layer on top of the world Seth Priebatsch

my name is Seth pre-match I’m the chief

ninja of scavenger I am a proud

Princeton dropout also proud to have

relocated here to Boston where I

actually grew up and yeah Boston easy

wins I should just go and name the

counties that we’ve got around here so

I’m also I’m also fairly determined to

try and build a game layer on top of the

world and this is sort of a new concept

and it’s really important because while

the last decade was the decade of social

and the decade of where the framework in

which we connect with other people was

built this next decade will be the

decade where the game framework is built

where the motivations that we use to

actually influence behavior and the

framework in which that is constructed

is decided upon and that’s really

important and so I say that I want to

build a game layer on top of the world

but that’s not quite true because uh

it’s already under construction it’s

already happening and it looks like this

right now it looks like the web did back

in 1997 right it’s not very good it’s

cluttered it’s filled with lots of

different things that in short aren’t

that fun

there are credit-card schemes and

airline mile programs and coupon cards

and all these loyalty schemes that

actually do use game dynamics and

actually are building the game layer

they just suck they’re not very well

designed right so that’s unfortunate

but luckily as as my favorite Action

Hero Bob the Builder says we can do

better we can build this better and the

tools the resources that we use to build

a game layer or game dynamics themselves

and so sort of the crux of this

presentation is going to go through four

really important game dynamics really

interesting things that if you use

consciously you can use to influence

behavior both for good for bad for

in-between hopefully for good but this

is the sort of the the important stages

in which that framework will get built

and so we want to all be thinking about

it consciously now just before we jump

into that there’s sort of a question of

why is this important I’m sort of making

this claim that there is a game layer on

top of the world and that it’s very

important that we build it properly the

reason that it’s so important is that

the last decade what we’ve seen has been

building the social layer has been this

framework for connections and

construction on that layer is over it’s

finished there’s still a lot to explore

there’s still a lot of people who are

trying to

figure out social and how do we leverage

this and how do we use this but the

framework itself is done and it’s called

Facebook and that’s okay right a lot of

people are very happy with Facebook I

like it quite a lot they’ve created this

thing called the Open Graph and they own

all of our connections they own half a

billion people and so when you want to

build on the social layer the framework

has been decided it is the Open Graph

API and if you’re happy with that

fantastic if you’re not too bad there’s

nothing you can do but this next decade

that’s a real thing I mean we want we

want to build frameworks in a way that

makes it and that makes it acceptable

and makes it you know productive down

the road so the social layer is all

about these connections the gain layer

is all about influence it’s not about

adding a social fabric to the web and

connecting you to other people

everywhere you are everywhere you go

it’s actually about using dynamics using

forces to influence the behavior of

where you are what you do there how you

do it that’s really really powerful and

it’s going to be more important than the

social layer it’s going to affect our

lives more deeply and perhaps more

invisibly and so it’s incredibly

critical that at this moment while it’s

just getting constructed well the

frameworks like Facebook like the Open

Graph are being created for the game

layer equivalent that we think about it

very consciously and that we do it in a

way that is open that is available and

that can be leveraged for good and so

that’s what I want to talk about for

game dynamics because construction has

just begun and the more consciously we

can think about this the better we’ll be

able to use it for anything that we want

so like I said the way the way that you

go through and build on the game layer

is not with your glass and steel and

cement and the resources that we use are

not this two-dimensional swath of land

that we have the resources our mind

share and the tools the raw materials

are these game dynamics so with that you

know a couple game dynamics to talk

about for I’m back at scavenger we like

to joke that with seven game dynamics

you can get anyone to do anything and so

today I’m going to show you four because

I hope to have a competitive advantage

at the end of this still so the first

one it’s a very simple game dynamic it’s

called the appointment dynamic and this

is a dynamic in which to succeed players

have to do something at a predefined

time generally at a predefined place and

these dynamics are a little scary

sometimes because you think you know

other people can be using

forces that will manipulate how I

interact what I do where I do it when I

do it that this sort of loss of free

will that occurs in games can be

frightening so with each dynamic I’m

going to give three examples a one that

shows how this is already being used in

the real world so you can sort of

rationalize it a little bit one that

shows it in what we consider a

conventional game I think everything is

a game but this is sort of more of a you

know what you would think is a game

played on a you know a board or on a

computer screen

and then one how this can be used for

good so we can see that these forces can

really be very powerful so the first one

the most famous appointment dynamic in

the world is something called happy hour

so I just recently dropped out of

Princeton and actually ended up for the

first time in a bar and I saw these

happy hour things all over the place

right and this is simply an appointment

dynamic come here at a certain time get

your drinks half off to win all you have

to do is show up at the right place at

the right time this game dynamic is so

powerful that it doesn’t just influence

our behavior it’s influenced our entire

culture and that that’s that’s a really

scary result that one game dynamic can

change things so powerfully it also

exists in more conventional game forms

I’m sure you’ve all heard of farmville

by now if you haven’t I recommend

playing it you won’t do anything else

for the rest of your day

farmville has more active users than

Twitter it’s incredibly powerful and it

has this dynamic where you have to

return at a certain time to water your

crops fake crops or they wilt and this

is so powerful that when they tweak

their stats when they say your forms

your crops wilt after eight hours or

after six hours or after 24 hours it

changes the life cycle of 70 million

some people during the day they will

return a like clockwork at different

times so if they wanted the world to end

if they wanted productivity to stop they

could make this a 30 minute cycle and no

one could do anything else right but

that’s a little scary but but this can

also be used for good this is a local

company called vitality and they’ve

created a product to help people take

their medicine on time right that’s an

appointment it’s something that people

don’t do very well and they have these

glow caps which in a flash and email you

and do all sorts of cool things to

remind you to take your medicine this is

one that isn’t a game yet but really

should be you should get points for

doing this on time you should lose

points for not doing some time they

should consciously recognize that

they’ve built an appointment dynamic and

leverage the games and then you can

really achieve good in some interesting

ways we’re going to jump onto the next

one

yes influence and status so this is one

of the most one of most famous game

dynamics it’s used all over the place

it’s used in your wallets right now

right we all want that credit card on

the far left because it’s black and you

see someone at CVS or on CBS like like

christian dior or something right I

don’t know I don’t have a black card

I’ve got a debit card but they don’t

think so they whip it out and you see

men they have that black card I want

that because that means that they’re

cooler than I am and I and I need that

and this is used in games as well modern

warfare one of the most successful

selling games of all time I’m only a

level four but but I desperately you

know what to be a liberal ten because

they’ve got that cool red badge thing

and that means that that I am somehow

better than everyone else and that’s

very powerful to me status is a really

good motivator um it’s also used in more

conventional settings and can be used

more consciously in conventional

settings school and remember I made it

through one year so I think I’m

qualified to talk on school is a game

it’s just not a terribly well-designed

game right there are levels there are C

there are B there is a there are

statuses I mean what is valedictorian

but a status if we called about it

valedictorian a you know white knight

paladin level 20 I think people would

probably work a lot harder so so so

school is a game and there’s been lots

of experimentations on how we do this

properly but let’s use it consciously

like why have games that you can lose

why go from an a to an F or a B to C

that sucks why not level up and at

Princeton they’ve actually experiment

experimented with this where they have

quizzes where you gain experience points

and you level up from B to an A and it’s

very powerful it can be used in

interesting ways the third one I want to

talk about quickly is the progression

dynamic where you have to sort of make

progress you have to move through

different steps in a very granular

fashion um this is used all over the

place including LinkedIn where I am a

nun whole individual I am only 85%

complete on LinkedIn and that bothers me

and this is this is so deep-seated in

our psyche that when were presented with

a progress bar and presented with easy

granular steps to take to try and

complete that progress bar we will do it

we will find a way to move that blue

line all the way to the right edge of

the screen this is used in conventional

games as well I mean you see you know

this is a paladin level 10 and

that’s a paladin level 20 and if you

were going to fight you know orcs on the

fields of Mordor against the Ra’s al

Ghul you’d probably want to be the

bigger one right I would

and so people work very hard to level up

World of Warcraft is one of the most

successful games of all time the average

player spent something like six six and

a half hours a day one of their most

their most dedicated players it’s like a

full-time job it’s it’s insane and they

have these systems where you can level

up and that’s a very powerful thing

progression is powerful it can also be

used in very compelling ways for good

one of the things that we work on it’s

scavengers how do you use games to drive

traffic and drive business to local

businesses to sort of something that is

very key to the economy and here we have

a game you know that people play they go

places they do challenges they earn

points and we’ve introduced a

progression dynamic into it where by

going to the same place over and over by

doing challenges by engaging with the

business you move a green bar from the

left edge of the screen to the right of

edge of the screen and you eventually

unlock rewards and this is powerful

enough that we can see that it hooks

people into these dynamics pulls them

back to the same local businesses

creates huge loyalty creates engagement

and is able to drive meaningful revenue

and fun and engagement to businesses

these progression dynamics are powerful

and can be used in the real world the

final one I want to talk about and it’s

a great one to end on is this concept of

communal discovery a dynamic in which

everyone has to work together to achieve

something and communal discovery is

powerful because it leverages the

network that is society to solve

problems this is used in some sort of

famous consumer web stories like Digg

which I’m sure you’ve all heard of Digg

is a communal dynamic to try and find

and source the best news the most

interesting stories and they made this

into a game initially they had a

leaderboard where if you recommended the

best stories you would get points and

that that really motivated people to

find the best stories but it became so

powerful that it was actually a cabal a

group of people the top seven on the

leaderboard who would work together to

make sure that they maintained that

position and they would recommend other

people’s stories and the game became

more powerful than the goal and actually

had to end up shutting down the

leaderboard because while it was

effective it was so powerful that it

stopped sourcing the best stories and

started having people work to maintain

their leadership so we have to use this

one carefully it’s also used in

like McDonald’s monopoly where the game

is not the monopoly game you’re playing

but these sort of cottage industries

that form to try and find boardwalk

right and then they’re just looking for

a little sticker that says boardwalk but

it can also be used to find real things

this is the DARPA balloon challenge

where they hid a couple balloons all

across the United States and said use

networks try and find these balloons

fastest and the winner will get $40,000

and the winner was actually a group out

of MIT where there created sort of a

pyramid scheme a network where the first

person to recommend the location of a

balloon got $2,000 and anyone else to

you know push that recommendation I’ve

also got a cut of it and in 12 hours

they were able to find all these

balloons all across the country right

really powerful dynamic and so I’ve got

about you know 20 seconds left so I’m

going to leave you with anything last

decade was the decade of social this

next decade is the decade of games we

use game dynamics to build on it we

build with mind share we can influence

behavior it is very powerful it is very

exciting let’s all build it together

let’s do it well and have fun playing