Wharton professor Kevin Werbach explains the business potential of gamification.

1. FOR
THE
WIN
Kevin Werbach
The Wharton School
werbach@wharton.upenn.edu What Businesses are
Learning from the
Penn Homecoming
World of Games
November 2011

2. A Famous Growth Story
Place a single grain of rice on
the first square of a chessboard.
Double the amount on each
subsequent square.
How many grains in total at
the end of the board?

3. A Famous Growth Story
Place a single grain of rice on
the first square of a chessboard.
Double the amount on each
subsequent square.
How many grains in total at
the end of the board?
18,446,744,073,709,551,615

4. A Famous Games Story
Place a single grain of rice on
the first square of a chessboard.
Double the amount on each
subsequent square.
How many grains in total at
the end of the board?
18,446,744,073,709,551,615

5. A Contemporary Growth Story

6. Growth
Zero to 100 million users in 41 days

7. Growth
http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2011/02/26/facebook-groupon-zynga-off-the-chart-revenue/
“Zynga’s profit was also about $400
million in 2010, only its third full year.”

8. (aka “WoW”)
Massively Multiplayer Online Game
11+ million players; >$1 billion annual revenue

9. how?

10. first,
let’s play
a game

11. Look in your wallet or purse.
Pull out the oldest coin (just one).

12. Who thinks they have
the oldest coin in the room
(raise your hand)?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/uhuru1701/2247520563

13. Winner!

14. GAME 2:
With your teammates,
make exactly 200 using either
the denominations or the
last two digits of the date.

15. Which was a better game?
What made the games fun
(or not)?

16. Why is this Girl so Excited?

17. fun

18. games are fun

19. digital games
are designed to be fun

20. designed to be fun

21. designed to be fun

22. designed to be fun

23. designed to be fun

24. growth of
digital games

25. in the beginning…
…AKA 1972

28. And, the most successful video game of all time…

29. Windows Solitaire:
9 billion hours in 2003

30. Today

31. Games Today

32. …and mobile, too

33. …and social, too
…and casual.

34. Digital Allows Feedback Loops
“So we put it in a feature we
can build in a week – it’s a
ghetto build we AB test it, we
flow test it, we put it out to one
percent. We built a data
warehouse with a testing
platform so we’re running
several hundred tests at any
given time for every one of our
games. And no single user has
more than one test.” Mark Pincus
Founder & CEO, Zynga
http://grattisfaction.com/2010/01/ Wharton alumnus
how-zynga-does-customer-development-minimum-viable-product/

35. Put it Together = Monster Growth
Zero to 100 million users in 41 days

36. Overall Games Market
Source: Digi-Capital

37. Games are 21st Century Media
In 2011, the games industry will generate
double Hollywood box office revenues.

38. Games are 21st Century Media
97% of kids 12-17 play
videogames (Pew 2008)

39. lessons
(for business)?

40. Games for Business

41. designed to be fun

42. what else
might be
designed to be fun ?

43. gamification

44. “Suddenly, gamification is the
hot new business concept, with
many of the world’s most
admired companies signing on.”
- Alex Konrad, Fortune, Oct. 17, 2011

45. Gamification is…
The use of game elements
and game design techniques
in non-game contexts.

55. 3
keys

56. points
design
interest curves
competition
narrative
challenges
appointments
rankings
surprise
customization
quests
achievements
avatars
collections
social experiences
etc.

57. analytics
“So we put it in a feature we
can build in a week – it’s a
ghetto build we AB test it, we
flow test it, we put it out to one
percent. We built a data
warehouse with a testing
platform so we’re running
several hundred tests at any
given time for every one of our
games. And no single user has
more than one test.”
http://grattisfaction.com/2010/01/how-zynga-does-customer-development-minimum-viable-product/

58. motivation
• competence (mastery)
• autonomy (meaningful choices)
• relatedness (social, purpose)
= Intrinsic engagement
Source: http://www.despair.com/motivation.html

59. http://www.gamifyforthewin.com
Twitter: @gamifyforthewin

60. let’s have
some fun!
http://www.gamifyforthewin.com
Twitter: @gamifyforthewin
werbach@wharton.upenn.edu