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Applied Behavioral Economics: A Game Designer’s Perspective

Investigating the Gamification of Modern Games and How Similar Techniques Can be Leveraged in Non-Game Environments

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Gamification in Education and Business

Abstract

Modern game companies, such as Zynga, have expanded the boundaries of traditional game design. They have attempted to leverage the existing knowledge of behavioral economics and psychology to essentially gamify games. New feature-sets have been developed and traditional ones optimized. These activities are useful to both the academic and business worlds because these companies are implementing features that are unique, both in their visibility to the public and in the accountability available via directly measurable success factors. This chapter examines a number of concepts from behavioral economics theory that seems to have ties to common mechanics found within modern games. Once these game mechanics are identified, adaptations to help these mechanics fit within non-game environments are examined. In addition, common errors in the design and implementation of these gamification methods are discussed.

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Correspondence to Charles Butler .

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Butler, C. (2015). Applied Behavioral Economics: A Game Designer’s Perspective. In: Reiners, T., Wood, L. (eds) Gamification in Education and Business. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-10208-5_5

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