The fourth part of my Core Principles of Gamification, Rewards and Feedback. You can now get all four of the principles in a handy book from amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Marczewskis-Principles-Gamification-Chirstopher-Marczewski/dp/1974598306/

1. REWARDS AND
FEEDBACK IN
GAMIFICATION
Andrzej Marczewski’s Core Principles
of Gamification Series

2. A core consideration of most gamified systems
is how to reward activity and, more
importantly, how to provide relevant feedback
on that activity.
In this presentation I will explore some key
feedback mechanisms and some of the simpler
methods of rewarding people for their time and
investment into your system.
The main takeaway should be that feedback
needs to be meaningful and relevant, however
it is provided.

3. Rewards and Feedback
Defining the
Considerations and
Intentions of Game
Thinking

4. • Feedback is anything that gives a user some
understanding of progress and achievement. This can be
something as simple as a message that says, “You have
completed the survey”, to a full virtual economy working
with points, badges, levels, leaderboards, trading, prizes
etc. They are all just there to keep the user informed.
• Games provide feedback really well. They reward with
points, unlock controlled areas, provide powerups and
more – all to help the player feel that they have achieved
something. Although it isn’t the feedback that keeps
them playing, it does help to give some level of context
to their progress and increasing ability at the game.
• Rewards and feedback should be Relevant, In Time
and Meaningful (RIM).
• My mantra for using rewards is always Recognise don’t
bribe. If you are using rewards, they should celebrate the
achievement, not be the achievement.

5. Relevant
The feedback needs to be relevant to and in context with the activity. If the user is just being asked to tick a box – is it relevant to send them a certificate of
achievement by post? Would it not be more relevant to have a little “thank you” message or to assign points commensurate to the behaviour or activity?
In-Time
Does the feedback need to be instantaneous, or can it wait? For instance, in a game, players get several types of feedback. When a jump is mistimed, the
player dies. The feedback is immediate and it has to be! If the player gains experience, the game often notifies them on screen.
However, in the middle of a frantic battle, is that actually of use. A sudden message flashing up may be just distracting enough to get the player killed! It would
surely be better to wait a moment until the fighting has died down a little, and then give the feedback. That, or wait until the level has ended and then give
the feedback as part of a summary.
In gamification, this could be viewed as using a monthly leaderboard rather than an hourly one. If people are not going to be checking hourly, why feedback
hourly? Judge the best and most impactful time to give feedback and rewards.
Meaningful
This is the most important category for me as in my experience this is where many gamified systems I have seen fall short. Many systems seem to reward
almost every action the user takes, no matter how trivial it may be. Clicking start, registering, logging in and so on. Soon you have given the user awards and
badges for everything they have done. They become meaningless very fast due to requiring no effort on the part of the user to achieve!
Use feedback and especially rewards to celebrate and record actual achievement. Then it provides meaning to the user. If everyone can have the “I clicked like
10 times” badge, it means nothing. However, the “I just scored 100% on my exam” badge is harder to get. If you then make that reward transferable to real
life, it can have even more meaning to them. Maybe that badge gets them priority ticket allocation to see their favourite band.

6. Points, Badges, Ranks
and Leaderboards
The core of many
gamification systems

7. Points, Badges, Ranks and Leaderboards are one of the most common elements of gamified
systems, for better of for worse.
Their inclusion has to be well considered and very well implemented for them to work effectively
and provide the kinds of engagement, motivation and interactions that are required.
Together they represent a sort of sliding scale of simple rewards, starting with points and leading to
badges and finally increases in rank or level with leaderboards displaying the progress of everyone
involved.

8. Points
Giving points is a simple enough concept. In video
games, points are often given to players for completing
certain tasks. Kill the bad guy, find the scroll, save the
prince or princess. In gamification, this is frequently
translated into completing less complex tasks. Press the
“Like” button, leave a comment and use the same shop
multiple times.
Points help to power progress tracking, reward
management, badges, achievements, leaderboard
position and more. Even if the end user never sees
them, most systems have some form of points running
in the background.
You must balance points with effort to the user and
value to the system. If a task is hard, or it is of high value
to the system – reward it well.

9. Ranks/Levels
• Unlike points or badges which recognise specific
actions, levels or ranks are there to recognise
prolonged and consistent personal investment from a
user, their expertise and their value.
• As their investment into the system and in turn, their
value to the system increases, so their rank should
also increase.
• Ranks should be permanent and transparent, just like
everything else I have spoken about thus far! It
should be clear how and why a user has reached a
certain rank.
• High levels and ranks can also be used to show other
people in a system who the experts are in certain
fields. If a forum rates a person as a high rank in
JavaScript, it is a safe bet that they will be able to
provide a good answer to JavaScript questions.

10. Leaderboards
Leaderboards are an effective way to show a user
quickly where they currently stand within a gamified
system.
There are two main types of leaderboards, absolute and
relative
• An absolute leaderboard displays the leader of a
competition at the top of the leaderboard.
• A relative leaderboard shows the players position
relative to others who have a similar score to them.
Both have advantages and disadvantages over how
motivating they can be for people. Just keep in mind
that competition can lead to the formation of non-
productive actions if handled badly!
Relative Leaderboard Absolute Leaderboard

11. Progress and
Progress Bars
One of the most
important elements of
any gamified systems,
progress

12. • When people hear progress and gamification in the same sentence, they usually think of this of heading
towards a specific destination, like getting closer to the end of a level in a game. If that is not their first
thought, then it will be of progress bars.
• We use progress bars a lot on gamification, in fact, they are one of my favourite “mechanics” to use. A
progress bar is simple, efficient and works – LinkedIn would testify to that.
• When you start to internalise progress, it becomes all about a journey towards proficiency and mastery. This
is as intrinsic as motivation can get, the desire to better one’s self, to progress through the journey of life,
picking up everything we can along the way. This is not always a linear flat path from A to B to C. If it
involves progression of skills, it is often a multipath journey that takes you from A to C to B to Z and back
again – and anything but flat!
• Whether it is intrinsic progress, or just completing a form – always give them a way to understand where
they stand in their journey. This doesn’t need to be a progress bar, it can just be the occasional visual or
audio cue, an email to say well done, a virtual badge to represent some achievement along the way – it is all
part of providing meaningful feedback.
100%

13. Get in Touch
Gamified.uk
@daverage
andrzej@gamified.uk
If you found this interesting and want to know more,
get in touch.
Check out all the core principles in one handy book on
Amazon, or my Website for even more content on
player types, motivation and gamification!