{"id":4282223,"date":"2025-01-28T03:40:12","date_gmt":"2025-01-28T01:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deptagency.com\/insight\/what-financial-literacy-products-can-learn-from-neopets\/"},"modified":"2025-02-18T03:48:53","modified_gmt":"2025-02-18T01:48:53","slug":"what-financial-literacy-products-can-learn-from-neopets","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.deptagency.com\/en-au\/insight\/what-financial-literacy-products-can-learn-from-neopets\/","title":{"rendered":"What financial literacy products can learn from Neopets"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/mask><\/g><\/svg>\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tInsights\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\tWhat financial literacy products can learn from Neopets<\/h1>
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\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\tDate\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\tJanuary 28, 2025\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n<\/div>\n\n\n\tRisk diversification. Inflation. Numeracy. Compound interest.<\/p>\n\tIf your users understand at least three of these four concepts, they\u2019re one of a remarkably few people\u2014just 33% of the global population<\/a>\u2014who experts consider \u201cfinancially literate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\nWhy should banks care about financial literacy rates? Because financial literacy helps banks comply with regulatory requirements, enhances reputation and trust, and contributes to overall economic growth.

By creating a financial product that embraces gamification, you can help your users take steps to improve their financial education and well-being through increased product adoption.
<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\tGaming is the secret sauce for product adoption<\/h2>\n\tA gamified experience needs to be genuinely playful and entertaining to successfully attract users. It can\u2019t come across as an attempt to \u201cforce feed\u201d healthy habits or lessons.

Balancing engaging tasks with genuine learning moments is key to:<\/p>\n\n\t
  • Encouraging people to engage willingly.<\/li>
  • Ensuring the experience stays entertaining enough that people continue to come back to it.<\/li><\/ul>\n\nCracking this code isn\u2019t easy. The reality is that any kind <\/em>of product adoption is challenging, but it\u2019s especially<\/em> difficult for banks. Let\u2019s face it: the BFSI industry doesn\u2019t exactly have a reputation for being \u201cfun and entertaining.\u201d\u00a0

    As a result, adult-focused gamification and visuals for financial tools are few and far between. Those that exist are often lackluster\u2014but there is one that, while a bit of a dark horse for the title, we\u2019d argue is easily<\/em> the best game for teaching consumers about finance.

    That game is Neopets. For those who don\u2019t remember it, here\u2019s a snapshot of what it looks like:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\tLessons from the success of Neopets<\/h2>\n\tNeopets is an online Flash game that peaked in the mid-2000s and is still remembered by millions of Millennial and Gen X users for its educational legacy.\u00a0

    As one article, titled     \u201cAn ode to Neopets, the game that taught capitalism to kids,\u201d<\/a> describes:<\/p><\/div>\n\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n
    \n\t\u201c<\/span>\n\tThe motivation behind the game was to make as many Neopoints as possible, and there was even a Neopian stock market, called the NEODAQ (a nod to the NASDAQ), in which you could buy and sell stocks. <\/em>

    There were actual Neopets too\u2026 But really, the fun of Neopets was to hoard currency and become a 13-year-old business mogul.<\/em><\/p>\t
    \n\t\u201d<\/span>\n\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\t\n\tThe financial wisdom imparted by Neopets may have been a happy accident, but its success speaks for itself. Back in the day, Neopets was consistently ranked as     one of the “stickiest” websites<\/a>, with 14 million users each spending an average of nearly two hours every week playing it.\u00a0

    Even today, Neopets still offers plenty of valuable lessons for designing effective learning experiences through gamification.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\t1.) Unstructured discovery<\/h2>\n\tThe foundation of Neopets was built on the principle of unstructured discovery. A relative lack of tutorials and walkthroughs in the game\u2019s early days meant players learned financial concepts through experimentation and exploration.\u00a0

    While some<\/em> guidance is always necessary\u2014think basic navigation instructions\u2014fully scripted paths risk turning education into a passive activity. The value of unstructured discovery is how it inspires players to think, try, fail, and learn rather than just follow a \u201cperfect\u201d run-through someone else created.

    By minimising step-by-step cheat sheets or guides in favour of encouraging genuine discovery, educational games created by financial institutions could empower users to learn for themselves and reinforce their long-term understanding of financial concepts.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\t2.) Linking engagement with outcome<\/h2>\n\tGamification helps users get on board activities that aren\u2019t traditionally fun: The natural progression of a game acts as an incentive, demonstrating to users how engagement pays off.

    In Neopets, progression went hand-in-hand with finances. The more you played the game, the more Neopoints you could earn. And the more Neopoints you earned, the more fun the game became.

    With enough Neopoints, for example, you could purchase collectible items like \u201cPaintbrushes,\u201d which were highly coveted but so expensive that only the most experienced Neopets users could afford them.

    Hard-won and hard-to-resist digital collectibles like these can provide the incentive users need to engage long-term within a gamified financial experience. Abstract \u201cquests\u201d or satisfying visual milestones clearly showing the customer\u2019s financial progress are also worth considering.\u00a0

    Some financial management tools like Mint and Acorns have already introduced gaming-inspired celebratory visuals to signify achievement when users meet a savings goal, incentivising them to continue making investments as a way of making their money work harder.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\t3.) Community<\/h2>\n\tCommunity can also play a huge role in inspiring a sense of achievement. Part of Neopets\u2019 attraction was the ability to interact (and show off!) within a global community of users.\u00a0

    While that community is comprised mostly of tweens and teens, the appeal of simple social competition like this never<\/em> goes away. Just think about platforms like Strava, which emphasises community to inspire competition and engagement among an adult audience.\u00a0

    This principle can easily be carried over to financial platforms and experiences\u2014and even improved upon! By integrating friend challenges or the ability to share visual representations of achievements, you can leverage community to amplify engagement and learning outcomes even further.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\tGaming is a key part of the recipe for relevance<\/h2>\n\tFinance and gaming may seem like an unlikely duo, but there\u2019s a massive opportunity at the intersection between them.\u00a0

    By leveraging the principles of gamification, you can transform mundane financial tasks into engaging, interactive experiences that not only educate but also motivate users to take control of their financial futures\u2026 Just like Neopets did.\u00a0

    Ultimately, by creating experiences that are not only educational but also genuinely enjoyable, financial institutions could use game design principles to ensure that financial literacy is accessible and appealing to all.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n
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    \n\t\tCase study<\/span><\/p>How we helped the Prudence Foundation <\/p>\t<\/div>\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t
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    Enabling financial literacy through interactive gaming\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t

    View Work<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\t

    \n\t\tPrudence Foundation<\/p>\n\t\t
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