"[Discussion] Gym Badges, Medals & Raid Lobby Bios - An Analysis on Pokémon Go's achievement/Badge System and its effectiveness in fostering engagement and self-satisfaction"

#PokemonGO: Hello TSR! After all of the recent posts about raids, raids, and more raids, I decided to take this discussion in a direction most of us have completely forgotten about: Medals, Gym Badges, and 'social proof' through Raid Lobbies.This week, I read a fantastic article analyzing how video game achievements, badges, and trophies work from a psychological standpoint. Obviously, Pokémon Go, as a video game with a 'badge' system, can be analyzed under the same framework. But how well does Pokémon Go's achievement system encourage healthy gaming behaviors and increased motivation?If you haven't read the article, I highly recommend it before proceeding, but it isn't 100% necessary. It drills down into 8 different reasons why achievement systems inherently work, and I will be using that same framework to examine Pokémon Go.The author, Jamie Madigan, outlines the "Eight potential reasons why badges, achievements, and trophies might work:They anchor our performance expectations.Having goals increases our self-efficacy.Completing goals leads to satisfaction.They create goal commitment.They act as guidance mechanics and provide feedback.They facilitate psychological flow through feedback.They trigger social proof.They trigger motivating social comparisons. "A bit of background on what Pokemon Go's achievement system consists of: Pokemon Go's medal system has numerous ranges of goals to meet, whether it be catching a certain number of Pokemon, walking X amount of kilometers, winning X amount of gym battles, etc. Players can also earn vanilla, bronze, silver, and gold gym badges for every gym they interact with. You can also read numerous stats (Pokemon Caught, Kilometers Walked, Battles Won) of your peers in Raid Lobbies. Under these frameworks: What does Pokemon Go's achievement system do well given the eight outlined reasons?Tiered Medals (Bronze, Silver, Gold)Having a system to represent increasing difficulty for in-game goals helps to ground expectations of the player base as to what is anticipated from them (Anchored Expectations). Once you have completed the first bronze medal for a certain milestone, you're more inclined and motivated to reach the next step given the information you acquired during your first push for a medal (Commitment).Item Bonuses (Gyms) and Catch Bonuses (Medals)Having a tangible reward for completing certain medals is a catalyst for many of the successes of achievements above. It increases our motivation to complete said goals (Commitment) for a reward that has worthwhile effects for the rest of the game (Satisfaction). What can Pokemon Go's achievement system do better?Balancing Medal Type and Required Time InvestmentLet's face it - a lot of medals are much easier to acquire gold for than others, while other medals have completely unrealistic expectations to complete (looking at you, 'Champion' medal). For the 'Champion' medal in particular, there are some merits to providing an extremely difficult obstacle to overcome (see another article about "conceptual consumption" by the same author), but hiding it behind a paywall is a very unhealthy way to do it. The large variance in needed time investments per reward provides a lot of confusion when identifying what is possible for yourself (Self-Efficacy) and what the game expects from the player base as a whole (Anchored Expectations). The wild variance of time between awards for certain categories interrupts any semblance of a steady feedback loop as well (Psychological Flow), causing peaks and troughs of motivation.Innate Passivity of Medals/AchievementsWhile the inherent nature of Pokemon Go's gameplay is grinding towards rare and strong Pokemon collections, many of the medal concepts don't dare to escape the confines of usual day-to-day interactions, or make the players choose new avenues of gameplay. A good example of one medal that doesn't fit this mold is the 'Pikachu Fan' medal, which prompts players to explore their local Pikachu nests rather than grind at their usual spots. However, most medals aren't at the forefront of player motivations; they serve as an accessory to your other reasons for opening the app every day, not forcing any additional strategic decision making.There are many other challenges in the game that can be discovered through achievement guidance (Achievements Guide Players). Raids, in particular, are an untapped goldmine for motivation through achievements, like soloing a tier 3 raid boss, something that the usual player wouldn't aim to do outside of personal challenge. Tougher achievements should encourage strategic decision making and alternate gameplay methods, creating satisfaction through knowing you completed something most others have not (Satisfaction).Lack of Tools to Compare Yourself to your PeersWhile the raid system dipped their feet in the social comparison pool (Level, Pokemon Caught, Distance Walked, Battles Won), there is no other way to gauge the amount of trials and tribulations your fellow players have gone through without looking at screenshots/their phone. This is a jab at Niantic's lack of leaderboards and achievement data as it relates to local, national, and worldwide demographics. The availability for raids to show you a glimpse of your relative power level is a strong benchmarking tool and motivator for you to catch up to others or consistently work on being the best in your desired demographic (Achievements Trigger Social Proof/Comparisons). However, there's no similar mechanic for gym badges and medals, leading to questions on what normal progress looks like for these achievements.Something like "# of Gold Badges" information or username flair in raid lobbies given the completion of certain achievements would go a long way to bridge motivation and benchmarking for players. A tangible reward that serves as a way to communicate your desired message (favored gameplay, tough achievements unlocked, etc.) to your fellow players about your journey is a large step towards figuring out what is "not only possible, but that is in fact normal for [most] players to do the same." Overall, I think that Pokemon Go's achievement system has a lot of work needed to function as a strong motivational tool. Not enough strategic decision making is encouraged by medals, and a lot of motivation to complete certain achievements (Gold Gym Badges/Gold Medals) comes from predictions about future enhancements to the game. However, Pokemon Go has created a solid foundation to build upon, and I look forward to seeing what Niantic plans on doing with its achievement system as a whole.Thanks for reading and reflecting! TL;DR: Pokemon Go has a solid foundation for an achievement system, but a lack of benchmarking, social comparison, and achievements encouraging challenge and unorthodox playstyles have left the player base without any tools to bolster their motivation and engagement for the game, like an achievement/trophy system should. via /r/TheSilphRoad http://ift.tt/2xKjdes