"Since games have spent decades (or even centuries depending on how you qualify a game) learning how to master motivation and engagement, we are now learning from games, and that is why we call it Gamification."

"I saw that almost every game is fun because it appeals to certain Core Drives within us that motivate us towards certain activities."

"1) Epic Meaning & Calling"

"Epic Meaning & Calling is the Core Drive where a player believes that he is doing something greater than himself or he was “chosen” to do something."

"A symptom of this is a player that devotes a lot of his time to maintaining a forum or helping to create things for the entire community (think Wikipedia or Open Source projects)."

"2) Development & Accomplishment"

"Development & Accomplishment is the internal drive of making progress, developing skills, and eventually overcoming challenges."

"most of the PBLs: points, badges, leaderboards mostly focus on."

"3) Empowerment of Creativity & Feedback"

"Empowerment of Creativity & Feedback is when users are engaged in a creative process where they have to repeatedly figure things out and try different combinations."

"4) Ownership & Possession"

"This is the drive where users are motivated because they feel like they own something."

"Finally, this is also the core drive that makes collecting stamps or puzzle pieces fun."

"5) Social Influence & Relatedness"

"This drive incorporates all the social elements that drive people, including: mentorship, acceptance, social responses, companionship, as well as competition and envy."

"6) Scarcity & Impatience"

"Many games have Appointment Dynamics (come back 2 hours later to get your reward) – the fact that people can’t get something right now motivates them to think about it all day long."

"This is the Core Drive utilized by Facebook when it first started: at first it was just for Harvard."

"7) Unpredictability & Curiosity"

"Generally, this is a harmless drive of wanting to find out what will happen next."

"8) Loss & Avoidance"

"This core drive is based upon the avoidance of something negative happening."

"Within Octalysis, the Core Drives on the right are Right Brain Core Drives, being more related to creativity, self-expression, and social aspects."

"The Core Drives on the left are Left Brain Core Drives, being more associated to logic, calculations, and ownership."

"Right Brain Core Drives are Intrinsic Motivators: you don’t need a goal or reward to use your creativity, hangout with friends, or feel the suspense of unpredictability – the activity itself is rewarding on its own."

"Techniques that utilize the top Core Drives are called “White Hat Gamification”,while techniques that utilize the bottom Core Drives are called “Black Hat Gamification”."

"The problem with Zynga games, according to the Octalysis framework, is that they have figured out how to do many Black Hat Game Techniques, which drive up revenue numbers from users, but it doesn’t make users feel good."