Gamification and levelling up

Gamification continues to be a hot topic in egaming. The ICE show in London next week is set to be full of products that add progression, achievement and other gameplay mechanisms to try and bring gambling products to life for an audience raised on mobile games.

One of these will be Aftermath Interactive, the start-up firm behind the innovative “poker” game Hands of Victory. The game is an attempt to blend the worlds of gamifciation and gambling, and builds on the initiatives discussed in a recent article in eGaming Review.

One of its founders Kim Lund feels a true understanding of the potential is still lacking in the industry. “I believe that dabbling with gamification without understanding its limitations and the danger of applying a gamification mindset to a product that is a game to begin with is a recipe for failure,” Lund says.

We asked him where the sector should go next and just what exactly they have been working on with Hands of Victory.

eGR: What are operators not aware of in gamification – what should they be doing that they are not?

Kim Lund: Gambling games function just like all other games. The mental triggers that make them fundamentally enjoyable are the same. Wagering is just one intriguing game mechanic among many others. Same goes for the type of progression and reward mechanisms that often make up gamification layers.

How great a game experience truly is hinges on how well various game mechanics and mechanisms interconnect and feed off each other within a game. At the center you have the core gameplay experience (playing a hand of poker or taking a slot for a spin for example).

And then you build outward from that making sure that even small actions on the surface lead to consequences in the core. By isolating one set of game mechanics from the rest – which is essentially what gamification is about – you risk not being able to truly harness the power of game design.

eGR: How do you see gamification developing in the egaming sector and how has that influenced what you are doing?

KL: I think there is a great trend towards operators and developers investing in innovating their core gameplay experiences. Inspired by the success of agile boutique slots developers other verticals seem eager to now follow along.

I also think the success of delicately crafted meta game layers will lead to increased sophistication and investments into such layers. There is a lot more that can be done to increase interactivity and sociability. Story-telling is also being under-utilized in my opinion.

However, these two great trends often occur in isolation. One because the infrastructure of the industry (slots is a great example) means that one single company isn’t responsible for the entire end-user game experience. And two because even when that’s the case (like with stand-alone poker operators) the responsibility is stupidly split across divisions. Like “gamification” being the responsibility of marketing and CRM while a product team manages the core gameplay experience.

eGR: So what are you doing with Hands of Victory that’s different?

KL: We’re doing what we think everyone should be doing. We’re merging these two trends and rebuilding gambling games from their core by treating them 100% as the games that they are. With online poker as our first focus, we’re not limiting the lessons that can be learned from other game genres like card battlers (Hearthstone), MOBA games (League of Legends) and PvP strategy games and shooters to a slapped-on rewards layer.

We’ve infused the core poker gameplay experience with tried and tested game mechanics in order to reinvigorate it as the awesome competition game that it is. Then we’ve added layers of progression, storytelling, strategy and customization that interact with the core gameplay experience on lots of levels.

eGR: Is this still a poker game or something else entirely?

KL: Hands of Victory definitely stretches the definition of what poker is, but we’re still very conscious about retaining poker’s integrity and soul. You raise, you bluff and you get your aces cracked. We do this firstly because the basic mechanics of poker are genius and secondly because we want to show how much can be done without bastardizing a gambling game beyond recognition.

Hands of Victory which will obviously not resonate with everyone but we do believe it’s the kind of initiative required for poker to truly connect with a generation of gamers for whom competitive gaming is sometimes bigger than sports. And certainly bigger than gambling.