I occasionally wind down on my PlayStation 3 with Zen Pinball, a fantastic video pinball game. One of the interesting features that Zen Pinball has is an intelligent leaderboard, which I think has interesting tactical value in many other settings.
Here’s a quick quote from Ryan Olson who was also impressed by the leaderboard:
“What makes Zen Pinball stand apart from all other pinball games is the fact that your scores are constantly fed into a leaderboard where you can filter results. You are able to battle the entire world or a small circle of friends for a top score.”.
The purpose of the leaderboard is to keep people “hooked” and active in the game’s network; to instill a bit of friendly competition, recognition, and self-pride into what would normally be a somewhat “solo” past-time. In short, it’s what the Forrester Institute in the Groundswell book refers to as a reputation reward system. What stands out in my mind is how well the Zen Pinball leaderboard mixes different levels and types of performance with a bit of banter… national level top scores, local networks, and then just to make you think you are doing well and encourage you to try a little harder, throw your own scores into the mix to give you the impression that everybody nationally is seeing your name pop up once in a while. By including many different types of performance stats - not just top total scores, but “highest 60 second scores”, “best one-week scores”, and rankings among friends and regions as well as national, it creates more opportunities to make the individual feel they are getting recognized for their efforts.
Here’s a little video clip of a couple of Zen Pinball’s leaderboard text; my own login ID is “sky-spirit”, which you will see pops up right alongside a national high-scorer.
How is the Zen Pinball leaderboard useful for other social media applications? In general, it’s a smart and adaptive, network-based reputation reward system, designed to fuel and reinforce a desired activity or behavior. Imagine a charity that leverages volunteers to raise donations via “fun runs”, walks, or endurance runs, such as the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life, the American Heart Association’s Heart Walk, or the Susan Komen Breast Cancer Foundation’s Race for the Cure. These foundations rely on their volunteers to leverage their personal networks; and while volunteers certainly contribute their time and energy for benevolent reasons, there’s plenty of opportunity to provide encouragement to reinforce and reward their efforts. Imagine a Facebook application, iPhone/Droid app, or personalized email bulletin that regularly shares messages like the following:
- Person Y (your friend) is only $$$$ short of displacing Person Z as the top fundraiser in the Miami-Dade Region! Help them reach their goal!
- Person W is gaining widespread attention, having raised over $$$ in donation commitments in one week! (an amount slightly more than you have recently made yourself)
- Person X is the #3 top fundraiser for the State of Georgia, having raised over $$$ in one month!
- Person Q (you!) is a tough competitor, for having raised almost $$$ in donations in one week!
In today’s “down economy”, charities are looking to leverage their core fundraising techniques better, and this would certainly be a creative way to bring new dimensions to old techniques. Reputation/reward applications can be extended by creating tools for letting friends, family, and others send kudos and thanks as well, similar to Facebooks “so-and-so likes this” feature.
Remember, it’s not just about network connections, friends and followers, but reinforcing and rewarding network behaviors!
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