Gamification Core Drive 8: Avoidance & Loss

Duolingo has me hooked. I enjoy learning languages in general, but now that I started on their, I’m stuck. I’ve racked up quite a streak of consecutive days, and now I don’t want to break my streak. It’s at the point where I’m trying to figure out how I can continue my streak when we go on a cruise in a few months and won’t have internet access. Aside from my desire and enjoyment of learning a new language, I have to keep that streak going. I don’t want to lose it. Enter our final Core Drive: Avoidance & Loss.

Balance the Bad with the Good

Core Drive 8 is pretty simple: “It motivates through the fear of losing something or having undesirable events transpire.”¹ In the classroom, it looks like some of our standard school practices. Students complete work because if they don’t, their grade drops (losing something). If students skip class, they get suspended (undesirable event).

When you look at it that way, you can see how Avoidance & Loss can be a precarious Core Drive. As with other Black Hat Drives, too much of this can have an opposite effect. When you consider the examples above, it makes sense. Doing work because you’re afraid of your grade dropping, or exhibiting good behaviors just to avoid punishment doesn’t create the right motivation. It doesn’t actually motivate a student to learn or behave.

We want students to develop a love and desire for learning, which is why we have to be extra careful employing Core Drive 8. If the only motivation is to prevent their grade from dropping, you’re still going to have issues with student motivation.

This is where advice from Actionable Gamification is helpful.

“When we utilize design elements in an experience that appeal to Core Drive 8: Loss & Avoidance, it should only be at critical bumps where you really need the user to take the Desired Action. This should be followed by a series of White Hat Core Drives to encourage and balance the motivations of the user.”²

Yukai Chou

Consider those places where you really want to make sure students complete something. It could be assessments or projects. It could be certain times of the year (usually October and February for me). It could be state testing. Whatever it is, keep in mind the second part of the advice: find White Hat Drives to pair with it. How could you add Epic Meaning & Calling, or what kind of Accomplishment could you set up? Is there a way you could add some Creativity to it?

Yukai Chou frames Core Drive 8 by explaining, “often it [Core Drive 8] manifests as the reversal of the other Core Drives.”³ Preventing a loss is opposite gaining something. Pair avoiding a drop in grades with some kind of bonus, even if it’s just a small one. Consider some kind of meaningful choice you might include for a less desirable assessment.

One caveat to this Core Drive is “[students] must know exactly what they should do to prevent the undesirable event from happening.”⁴ We can’t just say something bad will happen. We have to be specific about what students need to do in order to prevent the bad from happening. Don’t just say that failing the exam will drop your grade. Detail what skills and knowledge student must show in order to pass. Hopefully we’re already doing that in class. That’s also where we can throw in some of the White Hat Drives.

Maybe students can compete to complete a study guide. Add some social aspects where they work together and so on.

Game Design Techniques

When designing elements of Core Drive 8, look for places where students may want to avoid certain things or prevent some kind of loss. Be careful, though, because like all Black Hat Drives, too much can have an opposite effect.

Obviously, grades would fit into this category. The reason a lot of students complete assignments is to prevent their grade from dropping, but we also want to make sure we’re motivating students to learn, not just get a grade.

Core Drive 8 relates to a lot of the techniques mentioned in previous posts, so I won’t list design techniques, but I will give some ideas for implementation in class.

What can look like in the classroom?

When adding Core Drive 8 elements to your classroom, think of how you might pair avoidance of loss with other motivating techniques. Here are a few ideas I’ve found.

• I like to you Virtual Goods to balance the negative avoidance. I use item card that I print out, but you could use it however you want. I use things like eliminating two options on a question or see if you have a question correct. These are for assessment that I have control over. I also have things like extra time for an assignment or homework pass or the ability to complete a missing assignment that I’m no longer accepting.
• The Plant Picker/Meaningful Choice technique is useful for larger assignments that students may typically find unmotivating. For my research projects, for example, it’s not just a big part of a grade. I’ll let them choose their topics (that must pass my inspection) as well as options for types of writing to do with this research. Check out multi-genre research projects if this sounds like your jam.
• My Boss Battles are how I try to combat the struggle of assessments. This is even something that you could utilize for standardized testing as well by offering some class bonus when you get results back.

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. Packt Publishing, 2019. ↩︎
2. Chou, Yu-kai. Actionable Gamification: Beyond Points, Badges, and Leaderboards. Packt Publishing, 2019. ↩︎
3. Chou, Yu-kai. Actionable Gamification: Beyond Points, Badges, and Leaderboards. Packt Publishing, 2019. ↩︎
4. Chou, Yu-kai. Actionable Gamification: Beyond Points, Badges, and Leaderboards. Packt Publishing, 2019. ↩︎