HabitRPG: gamification works, yo
Aug. 20th, 2014 01:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
swan_tower“Gamification” is a bit of a buzz-word these days: the idea that, hey, games are a really great psychological tool (challenge, risk, reward), so what if we harnessed their behavioral-modification powers for good?
HabitRPG is built around precisely that idea. And I’ll tell you up front: the rest of this post is me raving about how useful it’s been for me, so if you don’t want to read something that sounds like an enthusiastic infomercial, you can just skip this post. 
The basic notion is that you can earn gold and XP and treasure by doing stuff in your daily life. The game divides these into habits (either positive or negative, i.e. things you want to encourage or discourage yourself from doing regularly), dailies (things you intend to do on a set schedule, either every day or on certain days of the week), and to-dos (one-off items). If you indulge in a bad habit or fail to complete a daily, you take damage to your Hit Points, but completing things lets you level up, which improves your stats, as does the gear you buy. It also gives you a chance to find eggs, hatching potions, or food; these are used to hatch pets, and feeding a pet can turn it into a mount for you to ride.
Your stats matter because you can form parties with other people on HabitRPG and go on quests; these take the form either of collection quests, where you have a chance of finding a specific object every time you complete a task, or boss fights, where you inflict damage by completing dailies and to-dos. The latter gives you more incentive to finish your tasks, because if you miss a daily, not only do you get hurt, but the rest of your party also takes damage from the boss. Add in a small chat-room function, and you’ve got the basics of social networking to help keep you engaged and playing.
I will not pretend this works for everybody. But for me? HECK YES. Oh my god. Early on, I would find myself doing things like taking out the recycling before the bag was overflowing, because if I was very productive today I might be able to buy an upgrade to my gear! These days I’ve bought all the gear for my character class (at higher levels you get to pick a class and obtain skills that can help you or your party), but I still motivate myself to complete all my dailies by remembering that if I miss one, I lose the buff to my stats that comes from getting everything done. I’ve made attempts in the past to keep a to-do list, but never managed it for longer than a short period of time; having it online (there’s a mobile app as well as the web interface) helps, but linking it to rewards helps even more. Recently I’ve found myself hunting for things I can easily complete because dang it, I am so close to getting the Beastmaster achievement (hatching all the basic pets), but I haven’t been getting enough zombie hatching potion drops.
Press bar, get pellet! Dance, little lab rat, dance!
The major flaw in it so far — apart from the mobile app, which is only slowly acquiring full functionality — is that once you’re a certain distance in, some of the motivating aspects lose force. I worked hard to earn enough gold for all my gear, but once I had that, gold became pretty useless. There’s a solution to that, which is that you can design your own custom rewards and set a price on them; the difficult part is figuring out what rewards will be effective for you. I don’t, for example, want to make “read for an hour” a reward, because it would be detrimental to my life and career if I positioned that as a special treat I have to earn, rather than a routine part of my existence. My best idea so far is actually “flake out”: I can, for fifty gold, buy the right to skip a daily without taking damage for having done so. Because sometimes you need a break, and this is one I earn by not skipping things all the time.
HabitRPG includes a subscriber option, where you can toss five bucks their way each month to help support the service. This gives you the ability to buy gems with your gold (though there’s a monthly cap on that), and the gems can purchase other things, like treasure or character customization. I think I’d been playing for less than a month when I subscribed. Am I getting five dollars a month’s worth of benefit from this?
Heck yes.
Originally published at Swan Tower. You can comment here or there.
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Date: 2014-08-21 02:22 am (UTC)Going for that Ambassador contributor level? ;)
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Date: 2014-08-22 07:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-20 08:34 pm (UTC)I'm five away from Beastmaster, have too much gold (I am rewarding myself with 'buy something' every 1500, but I don't have the actual money to make that work), and oh I want more things to buy in-game. Oh so much. I would buy everything and equip a world.
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Date: 2014-08-20 09:07 pm (UTC)And yes, it's important that the game both reward you for doing well and punish you for falling short. You need both the carrot and the stick, y'know?
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Date: 2014-08-21 12:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-20 11:18 pm (UTC)YES USE MY PSYCHOLOGY IN MY FAVOR
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Date: 2014-08-21 12:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-21 12:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-21 12:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-21 12:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-21 11:42 am (UTC)Only reason I wouldn't win the game is because I don't stick to my lists and it's a good day when I do 75% of what I write down.
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Date: 2014-08-21 05:42 pm (UTC)There's no "winning" the game, though, and you can generally tailor stuff in a way that works for you. I only make Daily the things that I really. need. to do every day (e.g. physical therapy), where I want the serious motivation of the Perfect Daily buff on the reward side, and taking damage on the risk side. Other things I just make Habits, sometimes even if I'm doing them every day, because that way I can have a small reward (gold and XP) without screwing myself over if I don't get to everything.
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Date: 2014-08-21 05:45 pm (UTC)And the habits vs. stuff I vitally need is probably a good one, because it's actually more forgiving than my own system where I see unchecked things and wail and gnash my teeth.
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Date: 2014-08-21 05:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-21 01:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-21 09:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-21 09:54 am (UTC)I tried to use it last night but it wouldn't "play." Is it app only or ..well, it could be my connection. ..
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Date: 2014-08-21 05:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-21 02:25 am (UTC)also even having found all the pets i'm still super-excited about getting food so i can make mounts. that's an incentive that won't be depleted anytime soon
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Date: 2014-08-21 09:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-21 12:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-21 05:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-21 07:19 pm (UTC)I should put a reward in for hatching eggs and feeding pets. That would be motivating.
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Date: 2014-08-21 07:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-21 05:44 am (UTC)Reminds me of the time a while ago that I wanted to start getting up at a regular hour rather than turning off the alarm and dozing, and so I picked out a Lego set that I wanted (and probably would have bought anyway), and decided that if I got up at a specific time -- and actually got out of bed -- every day for a month, I'd buy it.
Of course, the day after that I slept in. It didn't really stick, in large part because I was setting the habit mostly because I felt like I should rather than that I was seeing tangible benefits from it, and when the artificial reward went away, so did the "habit".
The group-quest addition is a rather clever addition to this -- especially since it seems like it's not as drastic as the usual sort of "you missed a thing and thus simply by missing it let everyone down because we were trying to all be perfect" thing.
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Date: 2014-08-21 09:25 am (UTC)Definitely the group quests are a key part of the whole thing. It provides a degree of accountability, plus another goal to strive for (oooh, if I complete this big item then I'll do more damage to the boss!).
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Date: 2014-08-21 12:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-21 04:13 pm (UTC)Now, if they did a Civ or Diplomacy style version where I needed to do my habits or I would lose armies or not be able to construct farms or forfeit my turn at midnight or the like, I'd be all over that. :)
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Date: 2014-08-21 05:52 pm (UTC)1) Your character's stats matter, directly (by affecting the damage you do to a boss or how well you resist damage) and indirectly (getting more XP lets you level up and improve your stats; getting more gold lets you buy better gear).
2) At higher levels you get class-specific skills, which cause your stats to matter in other ways, too: I'm playing a Mage, and one of my skills lets me do extra damage based on my Intelligence.
3) If I don't complete dailies or to-dos, it isn't so much that I lose my turn as, my turn is completely ineffective. When you do 1.9 damage to a boss with 1200 HP, that's pretty much a wasted day. :-P
4) You do lose HP if you fail to get stuff done, and if you "die," you lose a level and a piece of gear.
The ways in which it behaves like an RPG are admittedly on the smallish side; it isn't trying to be Dragon Age or anything like that, and it definitely isn't real-time. The non-virtuality of the rewards and consequences depends partly on investing in the social side of things, i.e. having a guild and a party; damage to you may not matter, but you do (or can, anyway) feel bad inflicting it on your party members.
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Date: 2014-08-22 03:54 pm (UTC)To me, this reads like a lot of character building -- more stats, more stuff, more development -- with little to no actual game play per se. I understand that you can set tasks (for lack of a better word) for you char -- fight bosses, go on raids, etc -- but it seems like that is something that largely happens "off camera." When I fight the boss, it is something that is referred to in terms of damage you did, etc., but not something you actively participate in (on a screen, pressing a key and seeing the hit; in a gaming session, rolling the dice and getting the immediate reaction and feedback around the table). That disconnect is big enough that I know from past experience it wouldn't be a valid motivator for me. I might start out interested, but it wouldn't be long before I ended up not caring what happened the to character and walking away. This is probably why I've never done by-mail or weekly turn games or the like -- the gap is too big for me to care.
I can definitely see the social aspect being a strong motivator. But then, again, I'm not much of a party player when it comes to virtual or on-line games. One-on-one or in person around a table? Absolutely. Via internet? Not so much. With kids and life and work, I just don't have the time or space to make room for another virtual social contract. Plus, for me, the connection needs to come with the play -- I can't jump in and expect it to be a motivator right out of the gate. Not enough of a personal connection yet.
I think this is why I mentioned more turn-based strategy games -- not because I am that into them (I rarely play), but because I could see how a turn a day kind of set up with something like this would be more immediate and appealing, especially if I am in competition with either the computer or other players. If I don't get my act together and do my habits, I end up spending a turn not building or moving or what have you, and have to face both immediate and long-term consequences as the game plays out. I realize that is true in a RPG-based system as well, but not doing as much damage on a swing (for me) has less emotional impact than losing a resource point and thus having to wait longer to field an army or build a city or whatever.
In the end, that's what this ultimately comes down to: what is going to get you emotionally invested enough in the game to get you to alter your behavior in the real world? Different people need different hooks to get them invested. The hooks in this game clearly work for some people (which is awesome and clever and incredibly interesting on many levels) and not for others. Which is as expected. The reason I piped up is because while I love the idea behind this -- gaming to get you to modify your behavior in a positive, healthy way? Awesome! -- I hope they or someone else try some other applications. That it is working for you and the other commenters here shows that gamification can be effective. Maybe that's why I'm griping: I love the idea, and want to see it done in a way that will get me and others of a similar bent equally motivated. :)
In any case, thanks for sharing this. It's a cool concept and development, and I'll be keeping an eye out for more applications down the line.
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Date: 2014-08-22 06:42 pm (UTC)I think the social angle wouldn't work for me if it required me to interact with strangers, but most of my party is made up of real-life friends, so it's more like we're doing game-mediated support and cheerleading. It isn't so much Yet Another Thing in my life as a framework to be more effective at the things I'm already doing, if that makes sense.
I could see the concept working for a more strategy-type game. Not sure if the people at HabitRPG have the interest and capacity to do that or not, but if this kind of thing catches on, surely somebody else will come up with it!
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Date: 2014-08-22 11:24 pm (UTC)https://oldgods.net/habitrpg/habitrpg_user_data_display.html
(that link is on the tavern page)
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Date: 2014-08-23 08:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-24 06:00 am (UTC)As you say, if it hits, I'm sure other people will jump on board with other takes on the concept. Here's hoping. :)
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Date: 2014-08-22 01:30 pm (UTC)-steve
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Date: 2014-08-22 06:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-23 01:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-23 08:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-24 05:32 pm (UTC)I also recently discovered a fitness site with a somewhat similar approach, called Nerd Fitness (http://www.nerdfitness.com). The main part of the site has some useful videos and blog posts and things, but the real heart of it is the forums (http://rebellion.nerdfitness.com), where there's a huge, geeky community that gamifies fitness through an RPG model, where you choose a character class based on your particular fitness focus at the moment (strength training = warrior; running, hiking, biking, etc. = scout; yoga, tai chi, etc. = druid; and several other options), and a race based on either what you feel you currently most resemble (which means that yes, you can change your race as you accomplish goals), or really just whatever you feel like - I've seen races ranging from the standard elf, dwarf, etc. to "nocturnal crimefighter", "superpowered mutant", and "time lord's companion".
There are recurring six-week challenges in which you define a main quest (which could be anything from "Lose X pounds" to "Get into good enough shape that I can pass the fitness test for becoming a firefighter" to "Get my full mobility back after my recent knee surgery", or whatever), and then break it into sub-quests that are more tangible and measurable ("Go to the gym and work out with weights 3x/week," "Do yoga ever day," "Stop drinking soda," or whatever). You can also add an optional non-fitness-related "life quest". You then post your progress over the course of the challenge, and give yourself boosts to your various attributes based on how well you accomplish them. People can go to each other's challenge threads to post encouragement, questions, comments, advice, silly GIFs, etc., and you can join accountability groups of various sorts to make friends, check in with each other, set up group mini-quests, turn your activities into a kind of group storyline, etc. (I joined one called the CutLasses, who are an all-female pirate crew.)
Anyway, it seems to be a lot of run, and the people I've met thus far are really friendly. It's not an app, or, I suppose, a game in the literal sense - the game aspects of it happen via forum posts. But I'm really enjoying it so far (I just joined a few weeks ago and am midway through my first challenge).
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Date: 2014-08-31 02:47 pm (UTC)(which is to say thanks for posting this, it is the best)
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Date: 2014-09-08 06:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-09-07 04:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-09-08 06:38 pm (UTC)