The maturing of gamification research Nacke, Lennart E.; Deterding, Sebastian
Computers in human behavior,
June 2017, 2017-06-00, 20170601, Letnik:
71
Journal Article
Background. Games are increasingly used to collect scientific data. Some suggest that game features like high cognitive load may limit the inferences we can draw from such data, yet no systematic ...overview exists of potential validity threats of game-based methods.
Aim. We present a narrative survey of documented and potential threats to validity in using games for quantitative data collection.
Method. We combined an unsystematic bottom-up literature review with a systematic top-down application of standard validity threat typologies to games to arrive at a systematisation of game-characteristic validity threats.
Results. We identify three game characteristics that potentially impact validity: Games are complex systems, impeding the predictable control and isolation of treatments. They are rich in unwanted variance and diversity. And their social framing can differ from and interact with the framing of research studies or non-game situations they are supposed to represent. The diversity of gamers and their differences to general populations bring further complications.
Discussion and Conclusions. The wealth of potential validity threats in game-based research is met by a dearth of systematic methodological studies, leading us to outline several future research directions.
•There are at least nine different ways of functionalising badges.•The uncovered functionalisations only partly align with prior theorisations.•Badge design details foster but do not determine ...different functionalisations.•Users’ functionalisations impact their experience, motivation and behaviour.•The functional significance-framework is useful for understanding gamification.
Do game design elements like badges have one, fixed motivational effect or can they have several different? Self-Determination Theory suggests that people situationally appraise the functional significance or psychological meaning of a given stimulus, which can result in different motivational states, but there is little empirical work observing actual functionalisations of game design elements. We therefore conducted a qualitative in-the-wild diary and interview study with 81 university students who reported on their experiences with badges on two popular gamified online learning platforms, Khan Academy and Codecademy. Participants functionalised badges in nine distinct ways that only partially align with prior theory. Functionalisations shaped experience and motivation and prompted function-aligned behaviour. Badge design details fostered but did not determine different functionalisations, while no user or context characteristics were identified that reliably linked to particular functionalisations. We conclude that future research may need to conceptualise game design elements in a more differentiated way to capture what aspects support different motivational functions.
Flow and self-determination theory predict that game difficulty in balance with player skill maximises enjoyment and engagement, mediated by attentive absorption or competence. Yet recent evidence ...and methodological concerns are challenging this view, and key theoretical predictions have remained untested, importantly which objective difficulty-skill ratio is perceived as most balanced. To test these, we ran a preregistered study (n=309) using a Go-like 2-player game with an AI opponent, randomly assigning players to one of three objective difficulty-skill ratios (AI plays to win, draw, or lose) over five matches. The AI successfully manipulated objective balance, with the draw condition perceived as most balanced. However, balance did not impact play behaviour, nor did we find the predicted uniform 'inverted-U' between balance and positive play experiences. Importantly, we found both theories too underspecified to severely test. We conclude that balance and competence likely matter less for behavioural engagement than commonly held. We propose alternative factors such as player appraisals, novelty, and progress, and debate the value and challenges of theory-testing work in games HCI.
"Gamification" is an informal umbrella term for the use of video game elements in non-gaming systems to improve user experience (UX) and user engagement. The recent introduction of 'gamified' ...applications to large audiences promises new additions to the existing rich and diverse research on the heuristics, design patterns and dynamics of games and the positive UX they provide. However, what is lacking for a next step forward is the integration of this precise diversity of research endeavors. Therefore, this workshop brings together practitioners and researchers to develop a shared understanding of existing approaches and findings around the gamification of information systems, and identify key synergies, opportunities, and questions for future research.
The Gameful World Walz, Steffen P; Deterding, Sebastian; Zimmerman, Eric ...
01/2015
eBook
What if our whole life were turned into a game? What sounds like the premise of a science fiction novel is today becoming reality as "gamification." As more and more organizations, practices, ...products, and services are infused with elements from games and play to make them more engaging, we are witnessing a veritable ludification of culture.Yet while some celebrate gamification as a possible answer to mankind's toughest challenges and others condemn it as a marketing ruse, the question remains: what are the ramifications of this "gameful world"? Can game design energize society and individuals, or will algorithmicincentive systems become our new robot overlords?In this book, more than fifty luminaries from academia and industry examine the key challenges of gamification and the ludification of culture -- including Ian Bogost, John M. Carroll, Bernie DeKoven, Bill Gaver, Jane McGonigal, Frank Lantz, Jesse Schell, Kevin Slavin, McKenzie Wark, and Eric Zimmerman. They outline major disciplinary approaches, including rhetorics, economics, psychology, and aesthetics; tackle issues like exploitation or privacy; and survey main application domains such as health, education, design, sustainability, or social media.
Language models are widely used for different Natural Language Processing tasks while suffering from a lack of personalization. Personalization can be achieved by, e.g., fine-tuning the model on ...training data that is created by the user (e.g., social media posts). Previous work shows that the acquisition of such data can be challenging. Instead of adapting the model's parameters, we thus suggest selecting a model that matches the user's mental model of different thematic concepts in language. In this article, we attempt to capture such individual language understanding of users. In this process, two challenges have to be considered. First, we need to counteract disengagement since the task of communicating one's language understanding typically encompasses repetitive and time-consuming actions. Second, we need to enable users to externalize their mental models in different contexts, considering that language use changes depending on the environment. In this article, we integrate methods of gamification into a visual analytics (VA) workflow to engage users in sharing their knowledge within various contexts. In particular, we contribute the design of a gameful VA playground called Concept Universe. During the four-phased game, the users build personalized concept descriptions by explaining given concept names through representative keywords. Based on their performance, the system reacts with constant visual, verbal, and auditory feedback. We evaluate the system in a user study with six participants, showing that users are engaged and provide more specific input when facing a virtual opponent. We use the generated concepts to make personalized language model suggestions.
Participatory research can improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and scope of research processes, and foster social inclusion, empowerment, and sustainability. Yet despite four decades of ...agricultural research institutions exploring and developing methods for participatory research, it has never become mainstream in the agricultural technology development cycle. Citizen science promises an innovative approach to participation in research, using the unique facilities of new digital technologies, but its potential in agricultural research participation has not been systematically probed. To this end, we conducted a critical literature review. We found that citizen science opens up four opportunities for creatively reshaping research: (i) new possibilities for interdisciplinary collaboration, (ii) rethinking configurations of socio-computational systems, (iii) research on democratization of science more broadly, and (iv) new accountabilities. Citizen science also brings a fresh perspective on the barriers to institutionalizing participation in the agricultural sciences. Specifically, we show how citizen science can reconfigure cost-motivation-accountability combinations using digital tools, open up a larger conceptual space of experimentation, and stimulate new collaborations. With appropriate and persistent institutional support and investment, citizen science can therefore have a lasting impact on how agricultural science engages with farming communities and wider society, and more fully realize the promises of participation.
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