Good game mechanics can do a handful of things for your site:
Engagement
By rewarding users for meaningful participation, you can encourage them to participate more often. What could you do with more users doing more of the things you want?
Referrals
Games are always more fun when played with friends. We understand this and are building the service to support existing platforms to leverage this such as Facebook and Twitter. Whether actively or passively, this increased exposure can lead to more referrals.
Education
Your users are now encouraged to fill out settle in to your application and learn the basics. A good system will help guide them through your application and help them move from beginner to expert over time, leading to less turnover.
Retention
By providing goals and an element of competition, users are encouraged to come back more often to improve and maintain the status they have worked for.
Loyalty
Building up a user’s status within your site strengthens their identity and connection to that site. Recognizing the things they do in the site helps to develop loyalty to the site.
