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How FarmVille Designs for Engagement

philmichaelson.com

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Re: How FarmVille Designs for Engagement

#3

Post by someone_here »

phil_KartMe wrote: post #2

If anyone has other thoughts on lessons to learn from FarmVille, let me know!

I've had a chat with someone who used to work for Zynga, and he said it was a great place to work. He said they knew full well the psychology of what they were doing, and were quite proud of how well they do.

Re: How FarmVille Designs for Engagement

#5

Post by phil_KartMe »

Tawheed wrote: post #4

This was an awesome article. Can anyone point to more articles like this? I'm looking for ways make my web-app (a social discussion forum) more engaging.

Thanks!

I've been collecting some links to presentations and posts on designing for engagement. See the list here: http://www.kartme.com/phil/web-design

Re: How FarmVille Designs for Engagement

#6

Post by NEPatriot »

someone_here wrote: post #3
phil_KartMe wrote: post #2

If anyone has other thoughts on lessons to learn from FarmVille, let me know!

I've had a chat with someone who used to work for Zynga, and he said it was a great place to work. He said they knew full well the psychology of what they were doing, and were quite proud of how well they do.

I wonder if they hired psychologists for this?

Re: How FarmVille Designs for Engagement

#7

Post by jrockway »

I don't use Facebook or Farmville, but it sounds like the strategy is to just give you little scraps of gameplay at well-spaced intervals so that you are never fully satisfied. That makes you keep coming back for more.

(HN and SO are similar in this way. You randomly get karma points, which mean people like you, and so you keep checking your threads page to see how much karma you've gotten since you've last looked. Same goes for replies. If there was no karma or no threads page, I bet HN wouldn't have any users.)

Re: How FarmVille Designs for Engagement

#9

Post by phil_KartMe »

jrockway wrote: post #7

I don't use Facebook or Farmville, but it sounds like the strategy is to just give you little scraps of gameplay at well-spaced intervals so that you are never fully satisfied. That makes you keep coming back for more. (HN and SO are similar in this way. You randomly get karma points, which mean people like you, and so you keep checking your threads page to see how much karma you've gotten since you've last looked. S…

one smart aspect of FarmVille is that you can gain points without other people giving you Karma. In fact, you get points for helping others.

Re: How FarmVille Designs for Engagement

#10

Post by phil_KartMe »

If HackerNew wanted to become more like FarmVille (not that it should), the system could:

* give you karma just for stopping by each day

* give you karma for upvoting other's posts

* give you profiles you could customize by trading in karma

* show you what your friends were upvoting and their Karma

* show you how close you were to attaining moderator status

* allow you to give one virtual gift per day to your favorite contributors

* have your karma decline if you don't stop by in a week

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