1.
Gamification, Game Thinking and
Motivational Design

2.
A chapter from the full book

3.
Like many, my Master used to use gamification as an
umbrella term for all game-based solutions. Then, thinking
he was clever, he came up with Game Thinking as an alter-
native catch all.

4.
Game Thinking
Gamification is often used as a catch-all for games based solutions.
In theory, this is not a problem, but it can confuse people as to what
gamification actually is. That is why Game Thinking is such an
important concept in how I personally view gamification and other
game-based solutions. I define Game Thinking in the following way;
“The use of games and game-like approaches to solve
problems and create better experiences.”
Those problems could be “how do we engage a new audience” or
“how do we help people get to the next stage of this learning”.
Game Thinking contains four main categories: Gamification, Game
Inspired/Playful Design, Serious Games and Games.
Figure 1 Game Thinking by Intent

5.
Game Thinking
The categorisations consider the original design intent of the
products, whether it was designed to be just for entertainment or for
a purpose. Also, the inclusion of gameplay is taken into account.
For instance, in Figure 1, Serious Games contain gameplay, the
“thing” that really makes a game, where pure gamification does not.
However, both are created for a primary purpose other than fun or
entertainment.
Each of these four segments can then be further broken down.
Figure 2 Game Thinking
Game Inspired/Playful Design
This is where no actual elements from games are used, just ideas.
For example, user interfaces that mimic those from games, design or
artwork that is inspired by games or the way language is used. It can
also be the inclusion of “playful” elements. These do not affect the
workings of the system but are there just for some fun. You can see a
nice example of this on the Toca Boca website.

6.
Game Thinking
On their website, they have a novel way to scroll from the bottom
of the page back to the top. Rather than the more common arrow to
click, there is a balloon. When you click this, it floats from the bottom
of the page back to the top, dragging the screen with it. All of these
concepts have links to games but lack anything that you would
consider part of the inner workings of a game (mechanics, dynamics,
tokens, etc.)
I will look a little more deeply at play and playfulness later in the
book.
Figure 3 www.tocaboca.com
Serious Games
This group includes full games that have been created for reasons
other than pure entertainment. Here I split them into four basic types.
Teaching Games
This is a type of game designed to teach the player something, for
example, arithmetic, coding, or zoology, by playing a real game.

7.
Game Thinking
Unlike a simulation, it does not have to be representative of the real
world. For example, Phantomation is a game that teaches the player
how to use the animation software Play Sketch. Rather than just
showing you the tools or simulating them in a dry way, it has you
solving various puzzles that need deeper and deeper understanding of
the tool as the game progresses. It plays well as a game in its own right.
Figure 4 Phantomation
Meaningful Game/Games for Good
This is a group of games that attempts to get across a meaningful
message and promote change with that message. An example of this
would be Darfur is Dying. This was the result of a competition run by
the Reebok Human Rights Foundation and the International Crisis
Group 8. The winning game came from five students from the
University of Southern California that placed you in the shoes of a

8.
Game Thinking
displaced Darfurian refugee. It aimed to show the hardships faced by
the millions of people displaced by the crisis in Sudan.
Rather than trying to teach you a tool or a method of doing
something, this type of game is trying to inform you about ideas that
may never have crossed your mind in a way that is engaging and
meaningful.
Figure 5 Darfur is Dying
Purposeful Game
The idea of a purposeful game is that playing it has some sort of
real world outcome. Three examples of this come to mind: FoldIt, Tilt
World and Genes in Space from Cancer Research UK. FoldIt is a
popular game often cited by gamification advocates. Developed by the
University of Washington, FoldIt is a puzzle game that sets the player
the task of predicting the structure of proteins by folding them.

9.
Game Thinking
Understanding how proteins fold can help lead to the development
of cures for all sorts of diseases, including HIV and cancer. Humans
are good at solving puzzles; so good that in just ten days, gamers had
solved one enzymatic structure, potentially a key to curing AIDS, that
scientists had been trying to unravel for more than a decade via more
traditional methods 9.
Figure 6 FoldIt
Tilt World, by Nicole Lazzaro, is a mobile game that puts you in the
body of the last tadpole – Flip. You must eat carbon from the air in an
attempt to restore the sunshine to Flip’s home. Although this may
seem like a meaningful game, in that it is trying to promote a message
about ecology, the unique thing about Tilt World is that playing it
leads to the planting of actual trees in Madagascar 10. As a final
example, Genes in Space is a space shooter game that uses gameplay
to map genomes to help the fight against cancer in the real world! 11

10.
Game Thinking
Gamification
As explained earlier, gamification is about taking ideas and
elements from games and using them in non-game contexts. I split
this into two basic types. Intrinsic deep and Extrinsic trivial. This is
very similar to Karl Kapp’s two types of gamification 12, where he talks
about structural and content gamification.
Trivial gamification is what most people are used to, where game
elements are bolted on to a system. You will often see points, badges,
progress bars, and the like.
Figure 7 Gamified UK with Trivial Layer Gamification
Figure 7 shows my own website, with a simple Trivial Layer imple-
mentation of gamification. It has points, badges, leaderboards and
more.
Intrinsic deep gamification is more about using motivation and
behavioural design to engage users.

11.
Game Thinking
A good example of this can be seen in question and answer sites
such as Quora or Stack Exchange, where points and the like are used
to reinforce particular behaviours, but do not form the basis for people
contributing.
A Quick Summary
 Teaching Game: Teaches using real games and gameplay.
 Meaningful Game: Uses gameplay to promote a meaningful
message to the player.
 Purposeful Game: Uses games to create direct real world
outcomes.
Simulation
A simulation is a virtual representation of something from the real
world, such as a flight simulator. Often this can be hard to distinguish
from a game or a serious game, as they look very game like. The
difference is that a simulation does not usually need gameplay
elements in order to function and fulfil its designed intent. It exists to
allow users to practice an activity in a safe environment.
Simulations are not a new phenomenon either, with military
simulations in one form or another used since the start of organised
warfare. The birth of modern wargames and simulations has been
credited to Herr von Reisswitz, Prussian War Counsellor and his war
game Kriegsspiel in 1812 13. This was a military game / simulation that
each regiment was encouraged to play on a regular basis to test out
strategies and tactics without having to risk troops.

12.
Game Thinking
Simulations can take many forms; physical such as board games or
role-playing, digital like computer based flight simulations or
business simulations, or blended where you have a bit of both as in
augmented reality.
Games/Play/Toys
Games, play and toys are explained in more detail in the next
chapter, however, it is useful to see a short summary of them here.
 Play is free form and has no extrinsically imposed goals. It is
undertaken for fun or joy.
 Games add defined goals and rules to play, like challenges.
 Toys are objects that can be used in play or games.
Concentrating on games, I categorise them into three basic types.
Entertainment
Entertainment is what most people would associate with games.
Call of Duty, Civilization or World of Warcraft for example. They are
designed with the intention of entertaining people in some way, with
no deliberate higher purpose.
Art
Art is subjective. I would consider a game such as Proteus more art
than game where some would not. Proteus is a game with little to no
gameplay but creates a beautiful and thoughtful experience. It is

13.
Game Thinking
entertainment but done in a way that evokes different kinds of
emotions to those of standard games.
Adver-Games
These are proper games created to advertise something. The game
is a real game, but at some stage, it is being used to try to sell you
something. An example I enjoyed playing, was Elfridges, an old school
platformer in the style of Super Mario, designed to raise awareness of
Selfridges and its various locations 14.
Figure 8 Elfridges, by Selfridges
Whilst I am a huge advocate of using “real” games where possible,
this book is going to focus more on the pure gamification aspects of
Game Thinking. That said, it is important to remember that you
should never ignore a solution just because it is not gamification. You
build what the client needs, not what you feel capable of doing or fits
your personal definitions of gamification.

14.
The End
If you enjoyed this chapter, find out more about the full
book at
http://www.gamified.uk/even-ninja-monkeys-like-to-
play/
Copyright © 2016 Andrzej Marczewski
Gamified UK
www.gamified.uk
@daverage
All rights reserved.