Archive by Author
Launching the Zynga Bingo Closed Beta
Posted on05. Feb, 2012 by Michael Gugel.
Zynga Bingo got it’s first real users last week! It was awesome to be part of the project. More details to come, but for now, here are some scenes from the SF HQ:
Continue Reading
Transformative Experiences
Posted on06. Nov, 2011 by Michael Gugel.
I was addicted to poker. It was an awesome addiction though — I loved the ups and I loved the downs. And in the end, it made me a wiser and a much stronger person.
It started playing poker when I was a senior in high school. At lunch time, you could find me huddled in [...]
Continue Reading
Getting Terminology Straight: Open Graph, News Feed, Ticker & Timelines
Posted on02. Oct, 2011 by Michael Gugel.
You know the guy that misuses industry jargon and comes off looking like a dummy? I was that guy this week. I didn’t have all the new concepts / terminology from FB’s f8 conference locked down. Here’s what I wish I knew last week.
Facebook’s old version of Open Graph let you slap on a “Like” [...]
Continue Reading
Achievement Design
Posted on25. Sep, 2011 by Michael Gugel.
Check out Greg McClanahan’s awesome post on Achievement design from Gamasutra.
Here’s the best part:
GOOD reasons for making achievements hard to get:
High skill component
Perfection of a core game mechanic
Handicapping the player (in a way that makes sense and is still fun)
BAD reasons for making achievements hard to get:
Completely luck-based (and rare)
Perfection of non-central game mechanic that isn’t overly [...]
Continue Reading
Second-to-Second Play
Posted on11. Sep, 2011 by Michael Gugel.
“Focus on second-to-second play first. Nail it. Move on to minute-to-minute, then session-to-session, then day-to-day, then month-to-month (and so on). If your second-to-second play doesn’t work, nothing else matters. Along these lines, if your day-to-day fails, no one will care about month-to-month, either.”
- Brenda Brathwaite
Continue Reading
Benign vs Malicious Jealousy
Posted on05. Sep, 2011 by Michael Gugel.
People expect the world to be fair. If you work hard, you’ll be rewarded for your efforts. If you’re lazy, you won’t get much. You can be jealous of both the hard-worker and lazy luckbox, but it’s quite useful to classify that jealousy into two types:
Benign Envy: You feel benign envy when you see someone you [...]
Continue Reading
4 Reasons Why People Play Games
Posted on31. Jul, 2011 by Michael Gugel.
Why do people play games? According to a 2004 XEODesign study, there are 4 key elements that make people play: hard fun, easy fun, altered states, and the people factor.
Hard Fun
Gamers want to be in flow. That means giving them skill-based challenges that aren’t too easy or too hard. Failing 80% of the time (and [...]
Continue Reading
Top 6 Stats for a Social App
Posted on27. Jul, 2011 by Michael Gugel.
A few months ago, I was in San Francisco and was walking home from work with a friend. When we were about halfway there, he made a startling claim:
If it can’t be measured, then it’s not worth doing.
Whether or not you agree, there’s no excuse for failing to keep track of these basic social gaming stats:
DAU
Daily [...]
Continue Reading
Game Mechanics Satisfying Human Needs
Posted on21. Jul, 2011 by Michael Gugel.
Catherine Aurelio gave an interesting talk about gamification at TED Santa Cruz. The golden nugget from her presentation was the chart that mapped game mechanics to human needs:
The human needs she outlined are really high on Maslow’s hierarchy, but they’ll still probably hit a good chunk of your userbase.
Continue Reading
How We Interact With Other People Online
Posted on20. Jul, 2011 by Michael Gugel.
This mindblowing 244-page deck was put together by Paul Adams. Paul was a former researcher at Google, but now works at Facebook. His work laid the foundation for Google+ and has some truly profound insights on how we interact with other people online.
This is a MUST read.
The Real Life Social Network v2
View more [...]
Continue Reading
Subscribe
