In sports parlance, the word “mechanics” is typically used when describing fundemental movements. I learned today of another kind of “game mechanics” which have nothing to do with sports, yet are equally fundemental and could have huge impact on our football team.
The “game mechanics” of which I speak were brought to my attention by Susan Wu, who I met at in Austin at SXSW. Susan sent me an interesting set of slides from Scott & Amy Jo Kim at Shufflebrain.
The Kims have thought long and hard about games and they expose in their presentation some important thoughts for those of us trying to start, nurture and grow social networks online. I won’t take time to explain their thoughts. Suffice to say that they illustrate in a compelling way this basic thesis: that humans react to “games” in predictable ways, and therefore we can use the “mechanics” of game design to inform our social software design and increase our chances of success.
In other words, think of your social net like a game, design it with the elements of games (game mechanics) and more people will “play” more often.
The Kims point out that “…game mechanics + social media = the futre of networked entertainment.” That means we’re in the “game” business. I like that thought!
The final slide in the deck offers a nice summary.
How to prepare for the future:
1. Content Sharing Networks: make it easy for players to create, share, rate and discuss content
2. Social game mechanics: co-evolve your game in partnership with your players
3. Accessible technology: Leverage the most accessible, widespread technology (e.g. XML, SMS, Voting, etc.)
4. Cross platform services: make sure that your game data lives on the network
5. Syndication: open up your API, enable widgets, encourage third party clients.
As always, I’ve run out of time this morning…but I’m sure we’ll touch on this subject at length in the future.
One other quick thought: you might want to check out the book, “Everything Bad is Good for You,” by Steven Johnson. It digs deep into video games and illustrates the instructive value of the gaming experience.
