badges and rewards in transmedia

• Signal– What’s possible– How to get best experience– What’s expected

• Incentivize– Good behaviour (community & personal)

• Reward– Loyalty

• Long-term• Frequency• Volume

– “Personal development”• Hard work• Excellence• Multiplatform Engagement• Quest completion• Social standing• Community contribution

Especially important in transmedia when “how to play” might not be known

• Experience will be unfamiliar to some audiences

– can use badges to

• signal things to try, steps to take

• Incentivize experimentation

• reward effort

• Social

• Participatory

Want to encourage good community behaviours (which can be at odds with personal achievement rewards)

http://amyjokim.com/2012/09/19/social-engagement-whos-playing-how-do-they-like-to-engage/

Achievers

SocializersExplorers

Killers

Bartle types

http://amyjokim.com/2012/09/19/social-engagement-whos-playing-how-do-they-like-to-engage/

Express: create, upload, tweet, post;

Collaborate: comment, like, help, curate,

vote, rate

Explore: collect, interact;

Compete: win

(Express & Collaborate)Ind

ivid

ual

Co

mm

un

ity

Things people like to do Signalling

Points table, Fanfare (public awards)

Activity Badge Tree; Character Development Map;

Locked badge list

Our Goal

Strengthen the community

Deliver better personal

experience

• There are three badge categories:– Hotel badges

reward loyalty and community contribution

– Character badgesreward community contribution and multi-platform engagement

– Game badgesreward quest completion, activity, achievement and excellence.

Need to cap at one interaction per day to prevent spammybehaviours. Want this to be a reward, not a challenge.

This signals a “hidden” delight

Signal that there’s avenues to explore without giving away the story

• Be careful what you wish for

– Choose your incentives wisely

• Balance the economy

– Reward without effort leads to spam