StoryForge and The Power of Gamification
Take a moment and talk to almost any gamer about leveling up. It’s a milestone that comes with perks and rewards and a sense of satisfaction that you’ve completed something. Even though they haven’t beaten the game, there is still a sense of accomplishment that keeps them engaged and progressing forward.
The process of taking that concept of points, leveling up, or other game elements or mechanics and applying them to something else is called “gamification”. There have been studies that have shown an increase in productivity and satisfaction when working in a gamified environment. It also works in other areas as well. Think about your Fitbit or other fitness tracker. They’ve gamified exercise by appealing to our base desires to be competitive and hit goals. Take a moment and look at your daily and hourly step goals. Doesn’t not being at or near your goal make you want to get up and log a few more steps?
With StoryForge, we apply the same idea to writing.
Looking at your giant word document can be daunting. You’re seeing dozens and dozens of pages and thousands of words and while you can see all that, where is the sense of accomplishment? You won’t get that hit of sweet, sweet dopamine until you type in the final few words of your ending and emphatically smack the period button. How do you make sure you’re staying motivated along the way?
Now if you’re writing on StoryForge, you’re going to be gaining experience points from writing new chapters, doing rewrites, and more. You’ll see that experience meter start filling. You’ll get those rewards as you level up. Instead of just seeing your page count go up you’ll get some form of actual reward for doing what you were already going to do anyway. You’ve got a clear goal in mind and more importantly, a clear visualization of that goal.
How does this help? Well, YouTuber Mark Rober coined the phrase “The Super Mario Effect” which helps you by “Focusing on the Pricness and not the pits, to stick with a task and learn more”. At StoryForge, we believe that this process is going to help you write more and write more often. Your end goal isn’t a princess though, it’s getting your high-leveled story published.
Now, in the words of Mario himself, “Let’s a go!”
