Gamification Core Drive 2: Development & Accomplishment

I’ve always enjoyed playing video games, from the time I got the original Nintendo Entertainment System to today. Nintendo game were notorious for being nearly impossible to beat. Whether it was realizing the princess was in another castle or trying to find all nine dungeons in the Legend of Zelda with ZERO help from the game, those games really pushed the limits of what an 8 year old could take before inevitably throwing a controller. And then there was that infamous dam level from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Achievements to be Proud of

When you really get down to it, Core Drive 2 is very much a part of a classroom culture. This Core Drive is where players work to accomplish a targeted goal and feel a sense of growth. Humans have this innate desire to accomplish something great, whether it be a personal goal or a highly publicized achievement. Think about how proud people are when they work hard to reach a weight loss goal. Or how good it feels to cross off that last item on your to-do list. Or even defeating that final boss that you always lose to (I’m looking at you NES Ganon).

Isn’t that essentially what we want our students to do in our classes? Learning, growing, and (dare I say?) being proud of what they accomplish. This is a core principle in Growth Mindset as well, so we should be all over this Drive.

While there are likely several things in your classroom connected to Development and Accomplishment, there are some intentional ways we can utilize this Core Drive to increase engagement for students. The key is making sure your students are “proud of overcoming the challenges that are set out for them.”¹

Game Design Techniques

When designing elements of Core Drive 2, remember to always come back to the question: Will this help my students be proud of what they accomplish? Throwing a bunch of badges out won’t work if there isn’t a desire in students to get them. Here are some of the different Game Techniques that relate to Core Drive 2

Technique	Description	Technique	Description
Status Points	Gain points (EXP) for completing tasks. Points accumulate and don’t go away, unless penalized. Typically, you level up and gain more abilities with this.	Last Mile Drive	Users feel so close to the goal that they rush to complete it.
Achievement Symbols	Badge, star, belt, hats, uniforms, trophies, medals, etc. that symbolize an achievement. Key point: it must symbolize an achievement, something that has been earned in some way.	Conformity Anchor	Displaying how close users are to a social norm through Feedback Mechanics
Leaderboards	Leaderboards that show how users compare with each other. Use urgent optimism, where the user feels optimistic that they can accomplish the task, but also the urgency to act immediately. Try to position user in the middle of the display, so that they only see who’s directly above and below them. Think of refreshing leaderboards (weekly, monthly, etc.) to give everyone equal opportunity to succeed.	Trophy Case	Mechanism that allows users to show off what they are proud of
Progress Bars	Bar that tracks your completion of Desired Actions. People don’t like it when incomplete things are dangling in front of them. Add animations or visuals to add to the aesthetic of the progress bar.	Exchangeable Points	Points that can be used. Players gain points, but can use them in exchange for something. It’s the currency of the game.
Fixed Action Reward or “Earned Lunch”	A reward given after a consistent, repeatable action, reinforcing behavior through predictable and regular incentives. This helps establish habits and encourages routine engagement.	Streaking	Encouraging users to maintain a consistent pattern of behavior over time. This technique uses visual indicators, like streak counters, to motivate continuous engagement.
Aura Effect	A visual or status indicator that radiates from a user, symbolizing their achievements or special status. This can influence social dynamics by showcasing expertise or prestige.	Progress Lost	Introducing the potential for losing progress to motivate users to maintain their achievements. This can create a sense of urgency and encourage consistent effort.
Boss Fights	Putting skill to the test against a “boss”.	FOMO Punch	Counter to negative Status Quo Sloth. We fear losing what we could have had. Very effective in the Discovery Phase.
Crowning	Bestowing a visible, often prestigious, symbol of achievement on a user, such as a crown or title. This public recognition can motivate users through social validation and status.	Status Quo Sloth	Not wanting to change your behavior. Good for Endgame phases by developing highly engaging activity loops that allows users to turn Desired Actions into habits. The Hook Model (trigger, Desired Action, reward, investment)
Milestone Unlock	Unlock some new, exciting possibility that wasn’t there before the milestone was reached	Rockstar Effect	Making users feel like everyone is dying to interact with them (i.e. “earning followers”)
Elitism	Form a prideful group based on certain criteria or common interest; makes members feel like part of a larger cause	League Rank	Ranking users within competitive tiers or leagues based on their performance. This fosters competition and encourages users to improve their standing.
Head Start	Giving users an initial advantage or progress in a task to motivate continued effort. This technique capitalizes on the sunk cost fallacy and encourages users to keep going.	Carrot	Offering a positive incentive or reward to motivate behavior. This contrasts with using negative reinforcement (stick).
Mini-Quests	Short, manageable tasks that contribute to a larger goal. They break down big challenges into smaller, more achievable steps, keeping users engaged through frequent wins.	Quick-Stop	Designing tasks or activities that can be completed quickly, catering to users who prefer short, manageable sessions of engagement.

What can look like in the classroom?

There are a lot of ways Development and Accomplishment can be utilized in class. The great part: we already have foundations for a lot of these in class already. We may just tweak a few things or add some visualization to make it a little more engaging. Here are a some ideas I’ve used in class or have come across that I’m working into class.

• I use status points as my grading system by utilizing Experience Points (XP) and levels. For every task students complete, they receive XP with a specified amount of XP gaining another level, up to level 100 max. Their level is their grade, so they continue to work their way upward toward a goal grade rather than stressing about every assignment potentially dropping their grade. You can read more about this in my series about additive grading.
• You can use achievement symbols in any number of ways to recognize student achievements. These could be certificates, badges (or whatever term you want to call them), stickers, whatever. It doesn’t have to be just for academic achievements either. Create achievements for behaviors, leadership, work ethic. Just make sure that whatever it is, it’s something that recognizes an accomplishment that students have to work for.
• I like to use progress bars on longer projects. Students can often get bogged down in multi-step assignments, so having a visual that shows how they are progressing through the assignment can be a good boost. If you’re a Google Sheets person, you can use the Sparkline function to create a progress bar. Flippity also has an easy to use progress indicator.
• I love doing boss fights as a class collaboration assessment. You can read about it in my Boss Battle post. Additionally, you can add in an aura effect, milestone unlock, achievement symbol, or trophy case elements to it as a reward for the class that does the most damage, or for classes that defeat the boss in general.
• If you have parts of your class that you know students don’t like, or something they struggle with, you can use streaks to incentivize them. This works well for things you do regularly. Offer some kind of reward, bonus, privilege for reaching various streak milestones. Five consecutive weeks without a tardy? Take some candy. Tenth consecutive homework assignments completed? Here’s some bonus XP. You went five days without getting tagged for being on your phone? I don’t know what that rewards would be because it never happens 🙂

These are some ideas I’ve been able to come up with. What about you? What ideas sparked to life? Please share in the comments section.

1. _{Chou, Yu-Kai. Actionable Gamification – Beyond Points, Badges, and Leaderboards. Yu-Kai Chou, 2017.} ↩︎