ABSTRACT Hulsey, Nathan Lamar. For Play: Gamification and Everyday Life. (Under the direction of Dr. Adriana de Souza e Silva.) This study undertakes the analysis of gamification in the context of everyday life. Everyday life can be defined as the tactics used by subjects to navigate and find meaning in (or through) strategically deployed modes of power. Gamification uses game mechanics to promote engagement with applications, alter behaviors and collect, display and contextualize data. Gamified design represents a seductive strategy that utilizes play to promote control in the form of ludic protocol. Additionally, it is an ideological and design-based approach to surveillance that eschews disciplinary techniques of control; rather, gamification uses seduction, in the forms of games and play, to encourage people to perform, track and submit to the data of everyday life. This dissertation examines gamification from ontological, epistemological and affective angles. Additionally, it uses historical examples of pre- gamified technologies and techniques to explore gamification effect on environments, bodies and spaces. © Copyright 2015 Nathan Lamar Hulsey All Rights Reserved For Play: Gamification and Everyday Life by Nathan Lamar Hulsey A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty of North Carolina State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Communication, Rhetoric and Digital Media Raleigh, North Carolina 2015 APPROVED BY: _______________________________ _______________________________ Dr. Adriana de Souza e Silva, Dr. Nick Taylor Committee Chair _______________________________ _______________________________ Dr. Rebecca Walsh Dr. Steve Wiley DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to my supportive parents and my closest friend. ii BIOGRAPHY Nathan Hulsey is a doctoral candidate at the Communication, Rhetoric and Digital Media programs where he is active in Media and Game Studies. He received his Master of Arts in Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Alabama, where he studied information use and community media in virtual environments. Currently, he studies media history, design, user experience and surveillance in the context of games and play. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my parents, Vicki and Terry, who supported me throughout this long journey. Thanks to my committee and my chair, who read many drafts of this and provided valuable feedback. Thanks also to my friend and partner Aliyah, who also read these drafts and encouraged me throughout the process. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES .............................................................................................................. vii Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 1 Literature Review ............................................................................................................... 9 Research Questions ........................................................................................................... 14 Method ............................................................................................................................... 17 Chapter Contents .............................................................................................................. 24 CHAPTER 1—Game Studies and Gamification ............................................................... 31 Games and Power ............................................................................................................. 34 Gaming and Production ................................................................................................... 49 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 63 CHAPTER 2—Defining Gamification ................................................................................ 66 Resituating Games and Play ............................................................................................ 71 Ambiguous Play: Taking the Fun out Gaming .............................................................. 85 A (Brief) History of Gamification .................................................................................... 91 Gamification of Culture ................................................................................................. 111 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 116 CHAPTER 3—Gamification, Power and Networks ........................................................ 121 It’s Gaming Cats and Dogs ............................................................................................ 125 Gamification and Biopolitics .......................................................................................... 131 Gamification and Network Architecture ...................................................................... 136 Gamified Ecology ............................................................................................................ 140 Gamification, Technogenesis and Environment .......................................................... 145 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 151 CHAPTER 4—Gamified Health and Bodies .................................................................... 154 Wearable Technology, Health Protocol and Games .................................................... 156 Quantified Living and the Quantified Subject ............................................................. 176 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 189 CHAPTER 5—Gamespace, Simulation and Gamification ............................................. 192 Gamification, Gamespace and the GUIs ....................................................................... 197 Radar Games: Spatial Monitoring and Spatial Play ................................................... 203 v Mathematical Marketing: Spacewar, Nimbi and Simulation-Based Spatial Software ........................................................................................................................................... 210 Gamespace and Seductive Network Architecture ....................................................... 225 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 245 Contributions to Research ............................................................................................. 257 Limitations and Future Research .................................................................................. 261 REFERENCES .................................................................................................................... 264 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: A screenshot of CLUE’s interface as it appears on the iOS. Individualized reporting generates a monthly readout displaying the contingencies of a woman’s reproductive cycle including fertility, diet, mood, sexual activity and personal experience. The data that is generated by CLUE is also used by third party clients who provide the revenue for CLUE, since it is a free application (Source: www.helloclue.com).................................................. 158 Figure 2: The Power Glove was notoriously inaccurate for controlling NES games. At the same time, it also demonstrated that 3D movement harnessed for game control was possible. Later iterations of kinetic, 3D motion controls were successful, most notably for the best- selling Nintendo Wii console (Source: Wikimedia Commons). ........................................... 164 Figure 3: Spacewar running on the PDP-1. The stacks of paper cards to the side were required to run and alter the program. This version of Spacewar was the first mass- distributed computer game. Its immediate similarity to a radar screen is noticeable (Source: Wikimedia Commons). ......................................................................................................... 212 Figure 4: Game of Life running on an early computer, circa 1970. Left to run, the screen will eventually fill with a thriving digital ‘world’ complete with autonomous cellular agents (Source: Wikimedia Commons). .......................................................................................... 223 Figure 5: The Strava application as it appears on the iOS operating system. Notice the location-based information readouts directly correlate to a complex readout of physical activity and the social readout of players’ activities, awards and points for completed tasks. (Source: Strava.com)............................................................................................................. 242 vii Introduction Video games have become nearly ubiquitous media in contemporary American life. According to the 2015 Electronic Software Association, digital games sales in the U.S. totaled $15.4 billion and 54% of total U.S. consumers played games (Marshall, 1999). Additionally, the average age of gamer is 35, with a substantial increase in adult and female gamers who now comprise over 44% of the total market share (Marshall, 1999). Digital games comprised a 91% use rate among U.S. children and teenagers ages 8-17 in 2013 (Callahan,