Activity loops

Gamified systems, like other systems, are simply a series of actions. The player acts on the system and the system responds. We refer to how the user interacts with the system as activity loops. We will talk about two types of activity loops, engagement loops and progression loops, to describe our player interactions.

Engagement loops describe how a player engages with the system. They outline what a player does and how the system responds. Activity will be different for players depending on their motivations, so we must also take into consideration why the player is taking the action he is taking.

A progression loop describes how the player engages with the system as a whole. It outlines how he/she might progress through the game itself. Whereas engagement loops discuss what the player does on a detailed level, progression loops outline the movement of the player through the system.

For example, when a person drives a car, he/she is interacting with the car almost constantly...