Kitely Forums

Aug 7, 2013 2200 UTC at Kitely Mentors Hangout

Committee Purpose: Formed to explore ideas and suggested approaches in gamification to inspire Kitely community growth and development.

Overview: This was the arduous formation meeting designed to simply introduce ourselves, share our expectations, agree on meeting logistics, discuss guidelines for conducting the meetings, establish roles, decide on a team name, and begin discussion about what the team's purpose should be. Some differing perspectives, questions, and spirited discussion prevented attendees from having enough time to begin discussion about the team topic and goals. Meeting logistics were accepted. Guidelines were neither accepted nor rejected but there was discussion about informal guidelines after the formation meeting. A team name of oGAMi was suggested. The Mission Statement ( what the team works toward... not a task force statement of work or list of projects ) discussion will begin next week if enough interest exists for a team.

Attendees: Shelenn Ayres, Allen Partridge, Dundridge Dreadlow, Zoya Writer, Sierra Jakob

Next Meeting: Aug 14, 2013 2130 UTC at Kitely Mentors Hangout

Some chat at the end of the meeting regarding action items:

[16:16] Shelenn Ayres: do you have an idea what gamification is?
[16:16] Zoya Writer: i have it up on expedia - reading through it
[16:16] Zoya Writer: trying to bring up my game so I can know enough to participate
[16:16] Shelenn Ayres: Gamification is a business strategy which applies game design techniques to non-game experiences to drive user behavior."
[16:18] Shelenn Ayres: there are many ways that is done
[16:18] Shelenn Ayres: why am i here? Over 70% of Forbes Global 2000 companies plan to use gamification for the purposes of marketing and customer retention
[16:18] Zoya Writer: is it the strategy behind rewards systems - like airline perks and Credit cards ?
[16:18] Shelenn Ayres: the goal of the committee is to explore all types of gamification, decide which ones would be viable to try at kitely
[16:19] Shelenn Ayres: and suggest approaches for Ilan to implement
[16:19] Shelenn Ayres: some folks might want to try it on their own sims
[16:19] Shelenn Ayres: others might want to watch and learn
[16:19] Shelenn Ayres: but the end goal is to help kitely thrive
[16:19] Zoya Writer: Has gaming - like video games or casino games in Kitely been discussed ?
[16:20] Shelenn Ayres: IMO if kitely does not implement gamification to its benefit... other grids will surpass them in revenue quickly
[16:20] Shelenn Ayres: i dont think gamification is talking about vid games and such
[16:20] Shelenn Ayres: but i mgith be wrong
[16:21] Zoya Writer: u probably aren't - I'm just curious
[16:21] Shelenn Ayres: what we had hoped to establish in this first meeting is what the team goal is so we have direction in looking at all of the gamification methods
[16:21] Allen Partridge: The core concept is to apply game play mechanics in places not traditionally done
[16:22] Allen Partridge: common examples are the vending machines that engage people to play some little bit in exchange for some potential snack reward, or the cliche - getting a badge for your participation in a forum
[16:23] Zoya Writer: I see
[16:23] Shelenn Ayres: here are two good resources
[16:23] Shelenn Ayres: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamification
[16:23] Shelenn Ayres: http://www.gamification.org
[16:23] Zoya Writer: okay - thanks
[16:24] Shelenn Ayres: when you read them, it would be good to jot down thoughts on how you think that might work at kitely
[16:24] Shelenn Ayres: and how we can measure its effect to see if it will help kitely thrive
[16:24] Zoya Writer: sounds like a plan
[16:25] Shelenn Ayres: unfortunately sierra left before i could get to that
[16:25] Shelenn Ayres: in order for the team to decide on its mission statement (what we want to do)
[16:25] Shelenn Ayres: we all need to have these thoughts formed dont you think?
[16:26] Zoya Writer: absolutely
[16:26] Shelenn Ayres: people love rewards and recognition
[16:26] Shelenn Ayres: we are naturally competitive
[16:26] Shelenn Ayres: we strive to get rewarded
[16:27] Shelenn Ayres: its human nature
[16:27] Shelenn Ayres: gamification finds ways to do that in many aspects of business and education

I don't know whether the Kitely village, plaza, drop in point is an appropriate venue for gamificiation. Optional is always nice. Also somewhere in between is a lesson in balance. But coming from the background I have (Uru for serious/educational purposes) and because I follow the work of educator Paul Andersen, I appreciate what gamification does for my classroom. I've been using what I can for years in and around the curriculum. When I can use game strategies that lead to mastery, there are generally better outcomes.

Stoybuilding lends itself well to expeditions. Once all my scenes and props are built (yes,its taking awhile) I expect to offer an expedition that jumps from one world to another. Explorers earn tokens, artifacts and the story gets revealed to them along the way. What I did learn from my Uru as educational experience is that the games need to be less complex, or a walkthrough needs to accompany them. In my classroom its different, because I am there to scaffold the experience.

So I am glad to see that this group is being developed to think about these methods. It is my experience that once a student is a game strategist, the learning process is not forgotten.

EDIT: oh, and at school I don't call it gaming, I call it teaching in the narrative. I am not sure whether anyone really understands what teaching in the narrative is until they see what it is. It does require some attention to classroom setup and graphical immersion.

Very nice Ruby! The method you describe is but one of many that gets grouped into the term "gamification". Anything that makes learning fun is great in my book. But, from what I've read, gamification has a much broader scope and is very subtly used in many aspects of our lives (we often don't realize it). There is a good synopsis of various methods at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamification

In the sense of Kitely thriving, engaging environments (not complex timed games) and loyalty/reward systems I think will help convert visitors to active users. The committee's purpose is to look at all types of gamification and our focus is not limited to the new user start region. Please feel free to join us at the next meeting.

Aug 14, 2013 2130 UTC at Kitely Mentors Hangout

As an action item from the previous meeting, general gamification methods were discussed along with user types that seem to be a good fit for both new and experienced users. Common goals for community growth and loyalty is evident with the Kitely Welcome Center team purposes and design. Some questions answered or posed in the meeting included:

1) Is gamification being used by Kitely at present? (from Kitely's services page)
Yes, a free region, 6 free hours immediately equivalent to 360 KC when activating a user account, and 2 free hours equivalent to 120 KC monthly.

2) What aspects of gamification strategies are compatible with virtual worlds communities? (from various expert sources)
Types of rewards include points, achievement badges or levels, the filling of a progress bar, and providing the user with virtual currency for spending time in world or for user referrals.

Making the rewards for accomplishing tasks visible to other players or providing leader boards are ways of encouraging players to compete. Another approach to gamification is to make existing tasks feel more like games. Some techniques used in this approach include adding meaningful choice, on-boarding with a tutorial, increasing challenge, and adding narrative to learning environments. An important aspect of any currency reward system is expiration to stimulate the virtual economy. Not having expiration dates contribute to stagnant economies.

3) What could the goals of gamification be at Kitely?
Improve user engagement through user type oriented paths, instill community growth by converting visitors into active users, increase return on Investment by stimulating the virtual economy, and create innovative learning methods geared toward's Kitely's target market.

4) What user types should be considered for virtual worlds gamification?
All user types in virtual worlds were considered players for the purpose of discussion. Two groups of players were identified as new and experienced. Bartle's player types (Initially 4 types were identified; Killer, Achiever, Socialiser and Explorer. Later, he would expand on this and create a more detailed model that included 8 types; Griefer, Networker, Politician, Friend, Opportunist, Scientist, Planner and Hacker.) were the basis for a new approach by Andrzej that seems to be a good fit for virtual world's personalities.

Specifically, Andrzej's analysis included intrinsic motivation and extrinsic rewards. The eight user types based on motivation and what they act on are summarized in the following diagram: http://marczewski.me.uk/wp-content/uplo ... wnload.pdf It would be interesting to see if these types of users have been considered in the Kitely Welcome Center design.

5) How can we assess the existing Kitely community in terms of user types so that we can provide a targeted balanced approach to meeting their needs?
A user type test designed by Andrzej is available at http://marczewski.me.uk/characteristics ... gwTX5JwobQ
Ilan, would it be possible to ask existing Kitely users to complete these test in exchange for some KC so that we can compile the data about the existing Kitely community and what it would like to see?

6) What gamification method would be a natural step for Kitely to take at this time while balanced reward systems are designed to meet the needs of the 16 user types (8 in each group) so that we have an inclusive community rather than an exclusive one?
We agreed that we do not want to alienate users by establishing popularity hierarchies, basing rewards on number of regions, basing rewards on number of groups, or exclusively requiring users to engage in exactly the same activities regardless of user type. Time in world (equivalent to KC) has already been established as an incentive.

Initially, to create a reward value system that can stimulate the virtual economy as the Market Place opens, we propose three types of KC:

Monthly stipend (do not expire) - currently exists
Purchased (do not expire) - currently exists
Earned (expires) - currently does not exist?

Since we know the Kitely Welcome Center goal is to convert visitors to active users (community growth), a natural segue would be some type of reward for referrals and community assistance in the center. The question of reward expiration possibilities has to be answered by Ilan before suggesting any reward or loyalty system.

Action items: Continue to explore gamification user types, methods, and metrics appropriate for Kitely virtual world users

Attendees: Shelenn Ayres, Zoya Writer


Next Meeting: pending

Hi Shelenn,

Kitely used to give out KC for new user referral bonuses. They were given to the person whose world the new user first entered as long as the new user stayed in that world for at least 5 minutes. The goal was to motivate world managers to attract new users and keep them inworld long enough for those users to want to continue exploring what Kitely has to offer.

We stopped doing this after we found out that some people were just registering with throw-away accounts in order to earn KC they could trade. We then replaced giving out KC with giving out Minutes - which by their nature are non-transferable and expire at the end of each month. This made it much less attractive for people to try to game our system. We eventually stopped giving out new user referral bonuses in Minutes as well when we found out that doing so had a negative ROI and some people were actually aggravated by having been given something that expires.

We won't be automatically giving out free KC to anyone. Giving out free Minutes for completing various Kitely-related tasks is possible but, as experience has taught us, freebies can have a negative ROI so the business case has to be very clear for us to start doing that again.

It might be nice to have a KC allowance on the monthly premium package subscriptions, maybe an extra dollar for 300KC or thereabouts, or by sacrificing a few hours on the subscription for credits. So something like a Silver+ subscription for $21 with a few credits thrown in, or a Silver- subscription for $20, 115hours, 300KC. Might see people bounce around on the subscription types, heh.

If you ignore the slight extra layer of complexity, hassles with mid-month change and increased confusion for end users

Then again, maybe it's just easier to just get $5 or $20 worth of KCs

Yes Ilan, users gaming the system is certainly an issue that produces negative ROI. Right now we are just exploring the various options used in various ways and seeing how they might fit at Kitely. I think the first thing we might want to do is see if we can get some metrics on what users want and/or expect.

I remember the early days at SL when users earned a stipend for time in world, users earned Lindens for dancing and camping, users earned Lindens for visiting gambling sites, users earned Lindens for click through on advertising sites, and users earned Lindens for visiting adult sites. All of these were not sponsored by Linden and many have been disallowed but the same methods are still in use at many game websites who are excelling in their use of gamification. I know there are new laws that gave Linden reason to disallow certain activities. However, the key "user want" was to earn Lindens to spend and it did drive the economy.

The only aspect I think that might fit as a positive ROI feature is expiring stipends for use in world. Most people understand coupons expire, so a KC coupon reward (or some % discount off KC purchase) might be easily understood. Stipends don't have to be KC although money is a huge motivator for young virtual world users leaving SL in search of a cheaper alternative (your target market you mentioned).

If extra time is earned (equivalent to KC's) for time in world every month, this can be common to all paths. You might have noticed I also mentioned possible reward for people who spend time staffing the welcome center. This could still be one of the ways we can provide further incentives for community growth. Perhaps we might want to consider providing some training for helpers for consistency. I certainly have a lot to learn about user types I am not familiar with and ways they need help.

The questions to consider with every effort then become:

Is this what users want or expect?
Will it stimulate the economy?
Will it instill community growth?
Does it relate to other goals?

In order to answer any questions as we explore, the team needs to refine its goals aligned with Kitely's goals. I do think we need more data and definition of user types before we can look at alternative reward systems. So this goes back to some basic questions it would be great to have answers for (to point the team in a positive focused direction). We discussed these yesterday:

What are Kitely's gamification goals?
What are the Kitely community user types in terms of gamification strategies?
How can we use metrics to establish a baseline of user types and their needs?
How can we measure the effectiveness of any method recommended?

The survey results at http://marczewski.me.uk/characteristics ... g0dVZJwobQ are quite interesting. I took the quick survey and found the results interesting just for myself. They remind me very much of the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory test used by professional vocational counselors to aid individuals in career selection on the premise that we are happier, more productive, and more engaged when we work with people who have compatible personalities. I think this might just parallel virtual world community evolution - people tend to form sub-communities based on common interests and goals.

Oh Dundridge, I hear you on reducing complexity or even having some alternative plan types. It took some time for me to finally understand the services page. Ilan did help me clarify things so I appreciate his help with that.

BTW, if anyone who would like to attend meetings needs a different time and day to do so, please feel free to let me know if a time on Tuesdays or Thursdays is better.

Gamification already exist by 3rd party communities who have custom setups for roleplay and survival with leaderboards connected to http.... it takes alot of energy, free time, and money to do this... with inflation so bad right now it's impossible to organize this these days... in the old days it was easier.... these communities dissapear after sometime, consider it a temp project... I like 3d art myself but it's matter of free time, inspiration and my health.... my hands are so full and priority now is managing my health, CKD... yup, dialysis.... it's very draining and am sure there are others with their personal thing as well... everything has a price tag and it ain't cheap anymore..