Gamification Lessons Learned From the OpenExO Community Game

The OpenExO Community Game has reached the end of its first season.

These were very stimulating and exciting months, in which we developed an Edge project that combined principles of gamification, rapid prototyping, iteration, and learning capabilities to generate a product that could achieve its main goal: engagement.

The project started as an evolution of previous applications of gamification in OpenExO, and you can follow the journey of our game through a series of iterations that led to this detailed engagement report.

Born from the previous "The Exponential Curve - Gamified 30-Doubling Challenge", the game involved a part of the community (about 240 players), who, over several months, completed challenges, connected, and played games.

With more than 60,000 games played by players from all over the world and nearly 1,000 challenges submitted, the game has also been a rich mine of information and community-generated content.

Part of the generated content includes case histories of members in the application of ExO attributes, their MTPs, lessons learned in their work, Do’s and Don’ts, and even cutaways of their lives with in-real-life activity reports.

The game was developed by the ExO Angels team who deployed their expertise in gamification, and experimentation approaches to projects and community management.

The gamification experience was designed around the Octalysis framework with the express purpose of giving visibility to all eight core drivers to serve an engaging experience for all different types of players and strengthen cohesion within the community. In the development, we tried to balance Black & White Hat drivers (with a predilection for White Hat), and a good equilibrium between the right brain (related to creativity, self-expression, and social aspects) and left-brain core drivers (associated with logic, calculations, and ownership).

The creation of this game has been a journey within a trip. On the one hand, we have had the opportunity to work closely with a wonderful team of advisors and creators, and on the other hand, we have had the opportunity to experiment and learn at a decidedly frantic pace. In the game’s six months of operation, more than 20 versions and over 50 new features have been released. Each feature was recorded, in terms of events, to understand how it contributed to participants’ engagement.

This gamification experience has left us a little tired (the last update was at 2 AM on Saturday), very satisfied and, most importantly, has enriched our experience with lessons learned, including:

• Empower creativity and strategies: the game also allowed players to develop and diversify their game strategies: using the right cards at the right time can completely change the game's outcome. (Stefano Benatti).
• Combine learning and creating: The lesson I’ll be taking with me after this 1st Season of the Game is that learning and creating together is beautiful and much easier. It’s nice to see how different backgrounds worldwide can come together and interact to create and solve problems. (Debora Barg).
• Facilitate connections: the App can allow users to connect with each other, share their experiences, and contribute to the development of the organization’s products and services. This can create a loyal customer base to spread the word about the organization to their friends and family. (Niki Faldemolaei).
• Make it social: Gamification can be a powerful tool for building communities and fostering social connections. Encourage users to share their progress, compete with others, and collaborate on tasks to help build a sense of community and increase engagement. (Sasha Sadovnikova).
• Iterate and adapt: it’s important to iterate and adapt gamified learning experiences over time. Analyze user data to see what’s working and what’s not, and use that information to make changes and improvements. This will help ensure the experience remains engaging and effective over the long term. (Fabrizio Gramuglio).

These are just a few lessons learned for which we again want to thank the ExO community for their participation, support (we should not forget to mention the more than 800 pieces of feedback we received), and the opportunity to connect with them.

During the game, we rewarded our players with more than 85.000 EXOS. EXOS tokens are a type of digital currency used within the OpenExO Community Game. These tokens were earned by players for their participation and performance within the game, and they can be used to purchase various rewards and privileges. EXOS tokens are an important aspect of the OpenExO Community Game, as they provide incentives, rewards, and privileges for players who perform well within the game.

If you are curious to download and read the full report of Season One download our 35-pages PDF (OpenExO Community Game - Progress Report 2023).

Season One is over, as we said in the opening. Now it’s time to capitalize on what we learned and prepare for Season Two. Stay tuned!

Collaborators from the OpenExO Community of coaches, consultants, investors, and entrepreneurs whose collective massively transformative purpose is ‘Transforming the World for a Better Future’:

Origin Game Developers - Niki Faldemolaei - LinkedIn, OpenExO                               Gillian Robb - LinkedIn  OpenExO , ExO Angel Game Advisors

Sponsor: ExO Angels(™) provides resources for the creation and distribution of the OpenExO Community Game, Team Play Challenge, 30-Doubling Challenges, Island17, and NextGen Economy(™) initiatives.