Gamification to improve our world: Yu-kai Chou at TEDxLausanne

In this Ted Talk, Yu-Kai Chou introduces and discusses his model for gamification, ‘Octalysis’, which are 8 core principles that he believes drives the human psyche to enjoy gaming as a method of learning.

Yu-Kai Chou starts off first by dispelling some common misconceptions about gaming. Moving away from the stereotypical and negative understanding that gamers are young kids or single, sad and lonely men, he provides statistics that over 65% of gamers are over 18, with the average gamer age being 35 and that half of gamers are women. He goes onto say that gaming can actually be a part of our daily lives as working, happy, productive adults who use the power of gaming to lead fruitful lives.

He explains gamification as the process of taking elements of gaming and incorporating them into daily life activities, often boring ones, so that it might make the activity more appealing. He proceeds to break down the 8 components of his model of Octalysis, providing examples of how the principle is used to bring change in social and community issues, such as incentivizing driving within the speed limit by allowing each person to enter into a lottery, or using a zombie apocalypse plotline to make joggers keep up their pace.

He categorizes these 8 elements into extrinsic and intrinsic motivational values as well as achievement versus avoidance traits that create the basis of what makes games fun for us, both as children and adults.