Pub Crawl Gamification

This is a great example to illustrate many of the motivators that you can implement in a gamification layer.

A group of pubs in Ireland wanted to drum up some business so they created a short term event called the 12 Pubs of Christmas.  Since this is short term, it is OK to have extrinsic rewards.  But they have a combination of all types.  And I added a few of my own to round it out for some player profiles that seemed left out.

Mastery

• Getting through all 12 Pubs alive (epic achievement motivation)

Relatedness

• Singing songs together (collaboration motivation)
• Wearing the same sweater (uniform) (in-group identity motivation)
• You could do the pub crawl with any set of friends you wanted (one to one bonding motivation)
• You could meet people as you went along (expand your network motivation).

Autonomy

• You could go to any pub, at any time during the window, in any order, and still be part of it (freedom of time motivation)
• If you weren’t interested in the special prizes, you could skip any of the pubs and any of the drinks on the list (freedom of action motivation)

Collection of sets

• There were specific drink types allowed at each Pub.  There was a special reward if you drank one of each.
• There were 12 pubs and you got a special reward if you went to them all.

Meaningful Purpose

• It was a Christmas-themed pub crawl (Is Christmas still meaningful?  If so . . . )

Mystery

• They could have had a few mystery drinks at one or two of the pubs.  Perhaps in addition to the official collection set or maybe as part of the set.

Disruption

• The bawdiness of the songs.
• The tackiness of the sweater.
• Acting obnoxious with a good excuse.
• Have safe times at each pub so that someone not interested in obnoxious and bawdy can also participate. 

Supplemental mechanics

• There was a set time window for the crawl (time pressure mechanic)
• They could have special rewards for being at a certain pub at a certain time (appointment mechanic)

Any others to add . . . . ???