How to set a fair winning score

The winning score is the most important number in a game. Set it too high and shoppers lose, feel tricked and leave. Set it too low and the game is a handout with extra steps. Somewhere in between is a score that asks for real effort and rewards it.

Here’s how to find it.

Start with what the game is for

The right score depends on the job.

• A welcome offer. You want most first-time visitors to win. Whack to Earn suits this: it’s quick, it’s fun on a phone, and everyone can win. Set the bar where a first try usually gets there.
• A teaching game. With Know Your Product or In or Out, a win should mean the shopper knew something, or learned it on the way. The bar can sit higher, as long as the facts are learnable.
• A sale. If everyone gets the discount anyway, the game is there for fun and attention. Keep the bar low and the round light.

Effort only pays when people succeed

Research on the IKEA effect found that people value what they work for more, but only when the work ends in success. When people couldn’t finish, the extra value disappeared. A game most shoppers lose asks for effort and pays nothing back, which is worse than no game at all.

So aim for a score that feels like a small achievement, not a wall.

Play it yourself, then set the bar below your typical round

Play your own game a few times on your phone. Note your best score and a typical one. Then remember who you are: you know every product, you’ve played before, and you’re paying attention. A first-time shopper on a bus is none of those things.

A fair bar sits comfortably below your typical round, not your best one. If you only reached the score on your best attempt, it’s too high.

Game by game

Whack to Earn

Combos multiply points, and the golden piece is worth more than the rest, so scores spread out quickly. A shopper who catches a long combo or the golden piece can jump well ahead of one who doesn’t. Set the bar for a steady round, not a lucky streak, so a good but ordinary game still wins.

Know Your Product

Right pieces score and wrong ones cost points, so careful play beats fast tapping. If your decoys are convincing, expect lower scores than in Whack to Earn and set the bar to match. A shopper who taps mostly right pieces and avoids most decoys should win.

In or Out

The score is the number of cards answered correctly, and each card has two possible answers. A shopper who guesses every card will get about half of them right on average. A shopper who answers In to every card gets every In card right. Set the bar at more than half, and more than the number of In cards (or Out cards, whichever is bigger), so a win means the shopper actually knew your product.

Earnaroo does the first pass for you

When you build a game, Earnaroo works out what a perfect round can reach and suggests a winning score from it: about a third of a perfect round for Whack to Earn and Know Your Product, and about seven cards in ten for In or Out. It also won’t let a game go live with a score no round can reach, or one so low that a few taps win, or, in In or Out, a bar that answering the same way every time reaches, or that guessing reaches on average. Treat the suggestion as your starting point, then test it with real people.

Watch real people play

Before you go live, hand your phone to three people who have never seen the game. Don’t explain anything. Watch where they hesitate, what they tap by mistake and whether they win. If most of them lose a welcome game, lower the bar. If they all win a teaching game without reading a thing, raise it or make the decoys more believable.

Ten minutes of watching will tell you more than any formula.

Keep adjusting after launch

Once the game is live, the “What shoppers know” report shows how often shoppers get each piece, miss it or tap it by mistake. If one piece is missed far more than the others, it may be hard to spot or its fact may be unclear. Fix that piece before you lower the bar for everyone.

Change one thing at a time: the score, a decoy or a fact. Then watch again.

Fair also means the same rules for everyone

A fair score only counts if the rules hold. In Earnaroo, we check every round on our side, against what was dealt and the clock, and we limit how many codes each email address and each internet connection can get. Every shopper plays by the same rules.

A quick checklist

• You know whether this game is a welcome, a lesson or a sale.
• You’ve played it on a phone and set the bar below your typical score.
• In or Out asks for more than half right, and more than the In (or Out) cards.
• Three people who’ve never seen it have played it.
• You’ve planned when you’ll check the results and adjust.

Sources

1. Norton, M. I., Mochon, D., and Ariely, D. (2012). The IKEA effect: When labor leads to love. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 22(3), 453–460. doi.org/10.1016/j.jcps.2011.08.002