How to build great products with game design, not gamification

one should not be too stuck on game mechanics, game techniques, or any outer appearances of a design. Rather, one should focus on the Core Drives

“gamification” which attempts to use the trappings of games (reward structures, points, etc.) to make people engage more with product offerings. Does it miss the point of games? It is often layered on top of systems that lack the rich interpretability of a good game. A reward structure alone does not a game make.

Amy Jo labels this approach “game thinking.” (I could only wish that all of our projects used a process like what she describes here!) She calls it that because it is inspired by the way in which we game designers think of our players and their journeys: as a process of learning, guided by feedback, of hobby- and habit-building. A process of gettin