81 (c) Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015
T. Reiners, L.C. Wood (eds.), Gamif i cation in Education and Business,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-10208-5_5
Chapter 5
Applied Behavioral Economics:
A Game Designer’s Perspective
Investigating the Gamif i cation of Modern Games
and How Similar Techniques Can be Leveraged
in Non- Game Environments
Charles Butler
5.1  Introduction: A Game Designer’s Perspective
From the outset, the reader should bear in mind that this paper is written from the
perspective of someone who has spent time in the video game industry as a game
designer, among other capacities, dealing with many of these issues on a day-to-day
basis. Many of the included examples, anecdotes, and assumptions are based on that
experience and are intended to describe one perception of the current state of the
industry and how it relates to potential best practices.
5.1.1  A Different Set of Goals
It seems quite common these days to enter into an engaging discussion over the
merits of gamif i cation (or more likely, the lack thereof). The participants of these
discussions seem to often be professionals who are in a business-oriented role
in their respective companies. These individuals typically want to fi nd a way
to improve some aspect of their company’s business. Occasionally, educators and
academics will be lured into the fray, hoping, in a similar fashion, to either
improve various things or to evaluate to what extent such improvement is possible.
C. Butler ( * )
The Norwegian School of Information Technology ,
Schweigaardsgate 14, 0185 , Oslo , Norway
e-mail: charlesabutler@gmail.com