My friend recently bought a Cyberpunk. I ask him in a week:

— Well, has it been over yet?

— No matter what, I ran for 30 minutes. Even the prologue didn't go through.

— Why is that?

— Yes, I'm fucking scared even. I know there are 160 hours of gameplay ahead. And where am I going with all this? When will I get through this? I still have to work.…

Do you think I'm just telling this story? Of course not, for example.

I want to highlight an important nuance: Users are repelled by large tasks. And when we implement gamification, we have to take this into account.

Smart people even came up with a special term for this – task decomposition. We know him primarily from work. We have conceived a large–scale project, but it is unclear how to saw it. They decomposed into small pieces, and now the light at the end of the tunnel is already visible.

And when we control user behavior (especially through gamification), we must apply a similar approach. That is, to break down large tasks into small pieces.

Is it not clear? Then I'll explain it with examples now.

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And here's a story to prove it. Non-Telegram started flirting with gamification. Implemented the achievements:

• Post 500-750 stories;
• Collect 50-100 likes under the 1st post (not in total);
• Attract 250 subscribers;
• Make 10 posts;

By the way, just a couple of months ago, the achievements were completely different:

• Collect 100-300 plays on your videos
• Make 100 posts
• Get 250 subscribers

I think the team draws conclusions and changes the content of the achievements.

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Why did they implement such gamification?

Obviously, they want to stimulate the behavioral factors of users. Improve activity metrics.

And now let's imagine a real user case:

The user saw these achievements. And not from the cohort that is already actively using the product. And the most common one, the activity of which we want to stimulate. With 3-4 really close friends. And with a dozen less close people who can potentially subscribe to it.

How long will it take him to get these achievements?

Weeks? Months? Years?

I have an account (from which screenshots were taken) since about 2013-14. And, apparently, that's why some achievements have already been received.

Does he have enough motivation to get these achievements? I doubt. After all, you need to spend a lot of time and effort to achieve them.

And for what? They don't really give anything. There is no value either for the user or for his account.

Now, if some kind of “booster” was given out for receiving them, which would promote posts with algorithms - then I would still understand. Completed the achievement – the social network promoted your content.

And so why?

And in general, let me insert: I have already written more than once, achievements for starting a gamification project are almost the worst solution. But what is the best place to start – I described it in this article in a separate post.

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Such large and “long” tasks simply kill motivation. The user understands perfectly well:

— Yes, I will never fulfill them.

And naturally scores.

And to prevent this from happening, we must decompose the tasks. Make them achievable. Design them from simple to complex.

My logic for decomposing the complexity of tasks in gamification

When I gamify another product, I always use the following logic:

Any tasks (including achievements) must be divided into at least 3 levels of difficulty:

Level 1 – tasks that are performed within one or two sessions;

Level 2 – tasks for 4-7 days of completion;

Level 3 – tasks for 2-4 weeks of completion.And so on…

In this way, we effectively work through the entire depth of the DAU/WAU/MAU. We keep the user motivated by the achievability of the next step.

Just like in that saying:— We will not try to swallow the elephant whole. Instead, we'll cut it into steaks.

And after running and configuring these scenarios, you can move on to the next level – 1-3 months.

It would not be superfluous to recall one study (which I did not find a link to).

If the user already has accumulated progress, then the conversion rate to complete the task will be higher than if this progress did not exist.

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Returning to the Nelzyagram case. I think their achievements should have been designed something like this:

Level 1:

• Make 1 publication
• Post 1 story
• Attract 3 subscribers

Level 2:

• Make 3 publications
• Post 5 stories
• Collect 30 plays

Etc. Gradually. Increase the requirements from simple to complex. Naturally, with an eye to analytics and data on user behavior.

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Instead of a conclusion 

The audience here is not stupid, so I'm sure you can figure out for yourself without me: where, how and why to apply this approach in your product. 

And if you have any questions along the way, do not hesitate to ask them. Especially in person – there the chances of getting a quick response are much higher than in the comments. 

And I am always glad to meet new people and opinions. 

And hold the tomatoes. Don't rush in and accuse me of self-advertising. 

After all, I write a lot of articles about gamification and not all of them are published on the Astana Hub. Therefore, those who are particularly interested in this topic can read my other articles in my telegram channel. That's all for today.

Do business effortlessly!