Gamification Mechanic Monday: Oracle effect
The oracle effect as a game element refers to being able to predict the outcome. An oracle would have all seeing and all knowing powers, from which they can predict the outcome in a game. The gambling industry built a whole industry on the emotional win high that comes from successfully predicting the outcome of a competition.
Obviously there are things you can do to stack the odds of winning in your favour, you can for example read up on the form of horse, the kind of soil they like and become wise like an oracle about a specific topic. When watching commentary on Twitch about gaming, the commentators often try to predict the next move of the players and the potential outcome given their set of game cards.
In business as a leader you are making decisions often a bit like the oracle effect, where you read up on opportunity, check out your competition and based on the information you make your next move. Sometimes this can pay dividends and creates that win feeling when you predicted it right. On the flip side the opposite can happen and leave you with a situation to look after.
Guessing the content has often been used as an advergaming tool, where based on what you can see you need to guess the nearest number of correct number. Predictability is the key.
Where else can you see the oracle effect being used?
