All games circumscribe behavior with rules, rewarding some forms of action and punishing others, and Niantic is not the first to employ the structure of a game as a means of effecting behavior change in its players. Indeed, "gamification" as an approach to behavioral engineering is a subject of intense interest that has produced a robust academic and popular literature. According to Wharton professor Kevin Werbach, games include three tiers of action. At the highest level are the "dynamics" that drive the motivational energy of the game. These can be emotions aroused by competition or frustration, a compelling narrative, a structure of progression that creates the experience of development toward a higher goal, or relationships that produce feelings such as team spirit or aggression. Next are the "mechanics." These are the procedural building blocks that drive the action and also build engagement. For example, a game may be structured as a competition or a solo challenge, as turn taking and cooperation, as transactions and winner take all, as team sport or individual conquest. Finally, there are the game "components" that operationalize the mechanics. These are the most-visible aspects of a game: points to represent progress, quests laid out as predefined challenges, "badges" to represent achievements, "leader boards" to visually display all players' progress, "boss fights" to mark the culmination of a level, and so forth.

Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Cap…, loc. 983