Challenges of Implementing Gamification for Behavior Change: Lessons Learned from the Design of Blues Buddies

This paper reports some lessons learned from the first design stages of the gamified social network Blues Buddies, a persuasive intervention aimed at stimulating positive behavior in depression sufferers by influencing interaction and learning processes through gameful design. The challenges encountered are mostly at the level of the integration between persuasive design and gameful design, and in the design and development of a gamified system that stimulates positive instincts in people, according to the notion of a “compassionate” or “empathic” gamification.