Game Mechanics

[...] “If I give you points every time you brush your teeth, you’ll stop brushing your teeth b/c it’s good for you and then only do it for the points. If the points stop flowing, your teeth will decay.” Jesse Schell

Ada Chen from Mochimedia on Zynga’s Frontierville:

1. Achievement – An !Explosion! of Rewards – available for limited time. [Prehistoric]
2. Competition – Jack is always one step ahead [Death Rally]
3. Reciprocity – “ghost” friends helping you out [Need For Speed?]

See the Game Dynamic Playdeck!

1. Achievement – Rewards
2. Appointment Dynamic – Be on time or something bad happens
3. Avoidance – Press button every minute not to get shocked
4. Behavioral Contrast – Live up to expectations or not
5. Behavioral Momentum – If a smart person plays a game for hours, it must be useful and thus must be continued to do so.
6. Cascading Information Theory – Basics firsts and only then move on to advanced moves
7. Chain Schedules – Unlocking one step is like unlocking a reward
8. Communal Discovery – Something which cannot possibly be achieved by one person alone
9. Contingency – [1] 10 orc [2] block  [3] your path
10. Countdown – Kill Frenzy, 60 seconds
11. Cross Situational Leader boards – “equal” opportunity to score
12. Disincentives – Penalty to induce behavioral shift
13. Endless Games – Static content vs user content
14. Envy – My friend has an item I want
15. Epic Meaning – working to achieve something bigger than themselves
16. Extinction – No more reward for this action
17. Fixed Interval Reward Schedules – Wait 30 minutes to harvest crops
18. Fixed Ratio Reward Schedule – Kill 10 ships, get a level up, visit five locations, get a badge.
19. Free Lunch – Someone else (other 100 players) did the work and have had the luck to profit (buy for free or at discount) from the work done.
20. Fun Once, Fun Always – Simple repeatable fun actions
21. Internal Reward Schedules – wait N minutes, collect rent
22. Lottery – Winners will play, losers will move on. Scratch tickets!
23. Loyalty – feeling of partial ovnership
24. Meta Game – Secret games to be discovered within games
25. Micro Leader boards – Be the top scorer at Joe’s bar this week and get a free beer
26. Modifiers – Doubles the points you will collect
27. Moral Hazard of Game Play – Action once fun in its own is no more due to excess rewards
28. Ownership – Taking over places or having something valuable for others to display
29. Pride – This is my bubble. There are Many Like it, but this one is mine.
30. Privacy – You can share your private information or not at all
31. ProgressionDynamic – Progress bar, leveling up
32. Ratio Reward Schedules – Kill 10 orcs, get a power up
33. Real time vs Delayed Machanics – More action due to the lack of certanity
34. Reinforcer - Receiving a level up after killing 10 orcs
35. Response – The player takes the action to kill 10 orcs
36. Reward Schedules – Contingency, Response, Reinforcer.
37. Rolling Physical Goods – real value rewards
38. Shell Game – Illusion of choice
39. Social Fabric of Games – It takes a lot of trust to play a game with someone.
40. Status – Paladin level 42
41. Urgent Optimism – Win is possible,  hope of success
42. Variable Interval Reward Schedules – Wait ca 30 minutes for a weapon to appear.
43. Variable Ratio Reward Schedule – Kill ca 20 ships, visit ca 5 locations and to you get a badge
44. Viral Game Mechanics – Invite friends to become more successful - social check-in.
45. Virtual Items - Tradeable game objects

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