Gamification, understood as the employment of game design elements in non-game environments, is found nowadays in several digital applications. Just like the Duolingo Flames to boost our daily learning streaks, the Spotify Wrapped feature to recap our listening trends from the last year, LinkedIn profiles with All-Star icons, or Pokémon Go stimulating physical movement and collecting mechanics in a game, no app is absent from gamified elements. Insofar, users expect their favourite applications to feature gamified mechanics and content.
Although the global gamification market foresees for this year 2026 an investment of around 46 billion USD, the “standard” formula of gamification is questioned more each day. The reason, for whoever watches closely: The classical gamification model excludes systematically players and users, sometimes even without us noticing it.
PBL: A successful model with expiration date
The dominating model of the first gamification generation (Gamification 1.0) is based on three elements: Points, Badges and Leaderboards, also known as PBL. Points measure activity, Badges award for reached milestones during application usage, and leaderboards allow comparison of users and players with one another. The system is easy to implement, can show quick measurable results and is, therefore, a gamification standard since more than a decade in apps, HR tools and E-learning platforms. Whoever is awarded for a daily log-in in apps, gets badges for completing in-app-tasks and/or can compare his/her performance with other players, uses PBL mechanics.
Nevertheless, the problem lies in the purpose of the PBL Model, as it awards continuity and competition, but punishes all those who cannot keep up with it. For example, Duolingo Streaks are described as toxic in online communities, since a person loses the achieved progress if he/she cannot learn on a day due to time constraints, sickness or other responsibilities. The app even sells “Streak Freezes” as paid emergency alternative, whereas this, in the structure of GBL gamification, can be see as an exclusive game design. Thus, persons with little time, many things to do, disabilities or facing time challenges to use (or play) Duolingo are in a disadvantage. Leaderboards worsen this: whoever is not on top, just stops trying and gives up.
The New Generation: From Competition to Meaning
Modern Gamification (from 2.0 onwards) thinks in a new way. Instead of extrinsic, externally conditioned reward mechanics, it aims for models of intrinsic motivation, personalization and narrative embedding.
As an example, the Octalysis Framework of You-kai Chou, very known in the field of gamification, game design and Game-Based Learning (GBL) describes eight human core drives – from epic meaning, social influence to creativity and autonomy. Compared to PBL, which features at most two core drives of new framework, the Octalysis Framework builds products which appeal to users through real experiences, instead of fear through the loss of badges, milestones or places in a ranking.
Here, we show you some examples of applications using modern gamification:
Spotify Wrapped is an example of this shift from extrinsic to intrinsic gamification: no leaderboards to compete with other users; no streak accumulation for song listening; no time pressure – instead, the app offers a personalized review that reminds users of their last year using the application, and organically invites them to share their list of favourite songs with other users. The result is cultural relevance (“How does my song selection describe me as a person?” “What can my Wrapped say about me as a Spotify user?”) instead of short-term retention mechanics.
Celeste (our indie videogame from the first post in this blog series) shows the same approach of Gamification 2.0, also in computer games: Instead of time pressure and performance comparison between players, the in-game Assist Mode allows players to configure their own pacing and makes game achievement (and success feelings) accessible to everyone – without compromising any gameplay feature.
Foldit is an online videogame from the University of Washington, where players can fold different protein structures and actually contribute to solving scientific problems. This is a strong example of intrinsic motivation and „Epic Meaning“ from the Octalysis Framework: Mechanics serve to a goal bigger than the user him/herself. In Foldit, there is now time pressure or leaderboard as motivational core; rather, we find the feeling of contributing to a meaningful goal. Empowerment, Accomplishment, Social Influence and other Octalysis Framework cores are addressed here.
What can Startups take from this?
The shift is clear: away from use enforcement and towards creation of desired experiences. For startups, we prepared this short list to help you reach this goal with your applications, products and services:
- Mapping user motivations first
Bevor building a mechanic, ask: what does really motivate my users? Gather real qualitative feedback instead of click and visit rates. The Octalysis Framework is a good starting point to identify types of user motivations. - Testing (and discarding) mechanics
Instead of starting with a mechanic (e.g., „we build a quest search mechanic“) and searching potential uses for it, invert the question: Which attitude or experience are our users looking for, and which mechanic serves best to reaching this goal? Users who search for achievement do not necessarily need a streak pipeline – a personalized milestone overview can suffice. As well, users looking for social connection do not need a leaderboard, but rather a shared team progress feature. The starting point should be the human need, and not the game mechanic. - Visualize Progress – without comparing
User progress can motivate without having to compare users with each other. Personalized milestone overviews, before-after visualizations or individual review features (such as Spotify Wrapped) create connection without competitional pressure. - De-penalize failure
Streaks and loss aversion can create fear instead of joy. Instead, build failure-tolerant mechanics: interruptions in the application usage can be ignored, waived or even framed positively (“taking a break” instead of “defeat”) - Test cooperation before competition
Test if shared team goals, collective milestones and shared progress contribute more to user engagement and satisfaction rather than rankings. In B2B tools, learning platforms and community apps, this is becoming the preferred approach. - Plan AI-supported personalization
Modern gamification adapts difficulty, reward models and pacing dynamically based on user profiles, instead of having a same formula for everyone. Whoever also effectively analyses and interprets user data for better features, can iterate them for better application, product or service versions. - Iterate gamification instead of a one-time launch
No gamification system is polished on the first release. Even before launch, plan A/B tests, foresee churn rates and also analyse who stops using the product. What is not used in the product is a good signal on what can be improved.
Image Sources:
- Octalysis Framework: https://yukaichou.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/complete-octalysis-framework-8-core-drives-2026.png
- Spotify Wrapped: https://elheraldoslp.com.mx/new/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Spotify-Wrapped-2025-estrena-la-Edad-Sonora.jpg
- Celeste Assist Mode: https://i.imgur.com/ztxaj2D.png
- FoldIt: https://img.zeit.de/wissen/2010-11/s108-protein/square__960x960
