Digital Blur
Version 1.0 beta
By Christian Schaefer
Create the future of packaging
with the Digital Blur playdeck.
- Appointment Dynamic
- Cascading Information Theory
- Chain Schedules
- Communal Discovery
- Companion Gaming
- Countdown
- Epic Meaning
- Extinction
- Fixed Ratio Reward Schedule
- Free Lunch
- Fun Once, Fun Always
- Interval Reward Schedules
- Lottery
- Loyalty
- Micro Leaderboards
- [ see more ]
- Modifiers
- Privacy
- Progression Dynamic
- Rolling Physical Goods
- Status
- Viral Engagement
- Virtual Items
- Combos
- Envy
- Ownership
- Pride
- Quests and Challenges
- Achievements
- Behavioral Momentum
- Discovery
- [ see more ]
- Points
- Motion Detection
- Temperature Tracking
- Proximity Tracking
- Augmented Reality
- Location Awareness
- Time Sensitivity
- Connectivity
- Media Recording
- Display Technology
- Media Playback
- Wireless Communication
- Two-dimensional Codes
- Customization
- Eye Tracking
- Appointment Dynamic
- Cascading Information Theory
- Chain Schedules
- Communal Discovery
- Companion Gaming
- Countdown
- Epic Meaning
- Extinction
- Fixed Ratio Reward Schedule
- Free Lunch
- Fun Once, Fun Always
- Interval Reward Schedules
- Lottery
- Loyalty
- Micro Leaderboards
- [ see more cards ]
- Modifiers
- Privacy
- Progression Dynamic
- Rolling Physical Goods
- Status
- Viral Engagement
- Virtual Items
- Combos
- Envy
- Ownership
- Pride
- Quests and Challenges
- Achievements
- Behavioral Momentum
- Discovery
- Points
- Motion Detection
- Temperature Tracking
- Proximity Tracking
- Augmented Reality
- Location Awareness
- Time Sensitivity
- Connectivity
- Media Recording
- Display Technology
- Media Playback
- Wireless Communication
- Two-dimensional Codes
- Customization
- Eye Tracking
Digital Blur
Would you like to use media content, personalization and gaming elements as part of your branding strategy? The Digital Blur card deck is the ultimate packaging design creativity toolkit! Companion to the video “Digital Blur - The future of packaging”, this convenient app contains 45 different game mechanics and technology cards that can be mixed and matched to create the foundation for next-generation packaging concepts.
Appointment Dynamic
Definition: A dynamic in which to succeed one must return at a predefined time and location to take some action. Appointment dynamics are often closely related to interval based reward schedules or avoidance dyanmics.
Example: Farmville - players are required to return to harvest their crops or they rot
Cascading Information Theory
Definition: The theory that information should be released in the minimum possible snippets to gain the appropriate level of understanding at each point during a game narrative.
Example: basic actions first › unlocking more as you progress through levels
Chain Schedules
Definition: The practice of linking a reward to a series of contingencies. Players tend to simply treat these as individual contingencies. Unlocking one step in the contingency is often viewed as an individual reward by the player.
Example: find all 3 keys to open the dragons cave, every 30 minutes the dragon appears
Communal Discovery And Collaboration
Definition: The game dynamic wherein an entire community is rallied to work together to solve a riddle, a problem or a challenge. Immensely viral and very entertaining.
Example: cottage industries that appear around McDonalds monopoly ›Boardwalk‹
Companion Gaming
Definition: Games that can be played across multiple platforms with completely seamless cross platform gameplay.
Example: games that can be played on iPhone, Facebook, Xbox, Pc & Mac
Countdown
Definition: The dynamic in which players are only given a certain amount of time to do something. This will create an activity graph that causes increased initial activity increasing frenetically until time runs out which is a forced extinction.
Examples: bonus rounds, timed levels
Epic Meaning
Definition: Players will be highly motivated if they believe they are working to achieve something great, something awe-inspiring, something bigger than themselves. Players' motivation increases with the aspiration level of the set goal/objective.
Example: Jane McGonical’s Ted talk
Extinction
Definition: Term used to refer to the action of stoppinp to provide a reward. This tends to create anger in players as they feel betrayed by no longer receiving the reward they have come to expect.
Example: receiving a reward or prize for doing something the first time
Fixed Ratio Reward Schedule
Definition: A fixed ratio schedule provides rewards after a fixed number of actions. This creates cyclical nadirs of engagement (first action will not create any reward, bursts of activity as the reward gets closer).
Examples: buy ten get one free punch cards, visit five locations to get a badge
Free Lunch
Definition: A dynamic in which a player feels that he is getting something for free due to someone else having done work. It is critical that the players are aware of the work which has been done in order to avoid breaching trust in this scenario.
Example: Groupon - 100 other people have bought the deal › you get it for cheap
Fun Once, Fun Always
Definition: The concept that an action is perceived enjoyable to the extent that it is continuously repeated. This generally refers to simple actions. The level of enjoyment is often limited.
Examples: local check-ins, product scans
IntervalReward Schedules
Definition: Interval based reward schedules provide a reward after a certain amount of time. There are two flavors: variable and fixed.
Example: wait 30 minutes › collect rent
Lottery
Definition: A game dynamic in which the winner is determined solely by chance and not a fairness-based concept. This creates a high level of anticipation and winners are found to continue playing indefinitely while losers quickly abandon the game.
Examples: gambling, scratch tickets
Loyalty
Definition: The concept of feeling a positively sustained connection to an entity leading to a feeling of partial ownership. Often reinforced with a visual representation.
Example: achieving status at physical places, wall of favorite customers
Micro Leaderboards
Definition: The rankings of all individuals in a micro-set. Often great for distributed game dynamics where one prefers many micro- competitions or desire to induce loyalty.
Example: be the top scorers at Joe’s bar this week and get a free appetizer
Modifiers
Definition: An item that when used affects other actions. Generally modifiers are earned after having completed a task or a series of challenges.
Example: a modifier that gives you five times the points on the next action
Privacy
Definition: The concept that certain information is private and not for public distribution. This can be a demotivator (I won’t take an action because I don’t want to share this) or a motivator (by sharing this I reinforce my own actions).
Example: scales which publish your daily weight onto twitter
Progression Dynamic
Definition: A dynamic in which success is granularly displayed and measured through the process of completing itemized tasks.
Examples: progress bars, character level
Rolling Physical Goods
Definition: A physical good of real value that can be won by anyone on an ongoing basis as long as a certain characteristic is met which rolls rolls from player to player.
Examples: top scorer deals, mayor deals
Status
Definition: The rank or level of a player. Players are motivated by trying to reach a higher level or status.
Examples: Star Alliance Gold Status, VIP Shopper, Level 20 Paladin
Viral Engagement
Definition: A game element that requires multiple people to play (or that can be played better with multiple people)
Example: you are more successful in a game if you invite your friends to join
Virtual Items
Definition: Digital prizes, rewards and objects found or taken within the course of a game that often can also be traded or given away.
Examples: Gowalla’s items, foursquare badges
Combos
Definition: Often used in games to reward certain skills by combining them. This can add excitement or incentivize an additional action after already having completed one.
Example: a reward for completing a combination of actions or achievements
Envy
Definition: The desire to have what others have. Envy can only be generated if the object of desire is visible to other people (voyeurism).
Example: my friend has this item and I want it, too
Ownership
Definition: The act of controlling something, having it be ›your‹ property. Ownership is interesting on a number of levels, from taking over places, to controlling a slot, to simply owning popularity by having a digital representation of many friends.
Examples: Facebook friends, mayorships
Pride
Definition: The feeling of ownership of and joy about an accomplishment.
Examples: xbox achievements, badges
Quests and Challenges
Definition: Challenges usually imply a time limit or competition whereas Quests are meant to be a journey of obstacles a player must overcome.
Examples: complete a set of tasks, find the missing items in five minutes
Achievements
Definition: Achievements are a virtual or physical representation of having accomp- lished something. Achievements can be easy, difficult, surprising, funny, accomplished alone or as a group.
Examples: Xbox achievements, Apple Game Center achievements, virtual badges
Behavioral Momentum
Definition: Behavioral Momentum is the tendency of players to keep doing what they have been doing.
Example: Jesse Schell’s Dice talk
Discovery
Definition: A game dynamic (also called exploration) based on the fact that players love to be surprised and discover something unexpectedly.
Example: a bonus based on how many new locations a player visits within a week
points
Definition: Points are a running numerical values given for any single action or combination of actions.
Examples: attention tracking, reactive products
Motion detection
Technology: Motion can be detected by measuring change in speed or vector of an object. This can be achieved either by sensors or cameras that quantify and measure changes in the given environment.
Examples: Wii Remote, Xbox Kinect, iPhone
temperature TrACKING
Technology: Temperature can be assessed by measuring the physical property of a working material that varies with temperature.
Examples: quality control, temperature tracking
Proximity tracking
Technology: A proximity sensor is a sensor able to detect the presence of nearby objects without any physical contact.
Examples: scavenger hunts, reactive products
augmented reality
Technology: The term for a live direct or indirect view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer-generated sensory input, such as graphics or sound.
Examples: additional product information, virtual lines in sport broadcasts
Location awareness
Technology: Location awareness allows electronic receivers to determine their location (longitude, latitude, and altitude). Examples are gps, gsm and nlbs localization including bluetooth, wlan, rfid and near field communication technologies.
Examples: location-based services, local recommendations, navigation
time sensitivity
Technology: Time is used to sequence events, compare the duration of events as well as the intervals between them and to quantify rates of change, such as the motions of objects.
Examples: happy hour deals, holiday specials
connectivity
Technology: The networked interconnection of everyday objects (›internet of things) refers to the and the internet. Objects can interact as well as receive and send information from and to the internet.
Examples: intelligent fridge, recent news on packaging, personal recommendations
MEDIA RECORDING
Technology: The process of capturing data for storage and playback.
Examples: video reviews by customers, audio annotations
DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
Technology: A visual display is a piece of equipment which acts as an output device for visual reception as well as the presentation of images transmitted electronically without producing a permanent record.
Examples: oled, e ink, video playback
MEDIa PLAYBACK
Technology: The process of reproducing previously stored information or accessing live media.
Examples: video & audio playback
WIRELESS COMMUNICATION
Technology: Wireless communication may be used to transfer information over short or long distances.
Examples: wi-fi, rfid, nfc, radio
two-dimensional codes
Technology: A barcode is an optical machine- readable representation of data that shows data about the object to which it is attached.
Examples: urls, identification of items
CUSTOMIZATION
Definition: Customization or personalization involves using technology to accommodate the differences between individuals. There are two flavors: automatic (rules-based) customization and manual customization.
Examples: personalized magazine covers, nike id, character customization
EYE TRACKING
Technology: The point of gaze ›where we are looking‹ can be detected by measuring the motion of the eye relative to the head.
Examples: frequent flyer miles, tetris points
Add this page to your home screen to view the custom icon, startup screen, and full screen mode.
