DOCSLIB.ORG

Is It All a Game? Understanding the Principles of Gamification

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Is It All a Game? Understanding the Principles of Gamification Business Horizons (2015) 58, 411—420 Available online at www.sciencedirect.com ScienceDirect www.elsevier.com/locate/bushor Is it all a game? Understanding the principles of gamification a, b a a Karen Robson *, Kirk Plangger , Jan H. Kietzmann , Ian McCarthy , a Leyland Pitt a Beedie School of Business, Simon Fraser University, 500 Granville Street, Vancouver, BC V6C 1W6, Canada b King’s College London, University of London, Franklin-Wilkins Building, 150 Stamford Street, London SE1 9NH, UK KEYWORDS Abstract There is growing interest in how gamification–—defined as the application Gamification; of game design principles in non-gaming contexts–—can be used in business. However, Experience; academic research and management practice have paid little attention to the Mechanics; challenges of how best to design, implement, manage, and optimize gamification Dynamics; strategies. To advance understanding of gamification, this article defines what it is Emotions; and explains how it prompts managers to think about business practice in new and Behavior change; innovative ways. Drawing upon the game design literature, we present a framework of Motivation; three gamification principles–—mechanics, dynamics, and emotions (MDE)–—to explain American Idol how gamified experiences can be created. We then provide an extended illustration of gamification and conclude with ideas for future research and application opportu- nities. # 2015 Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 1. Press play to start employees and customers with game-like incentives (e.g., competitions among financial traders, leader- Games are everywhere. We play games while trav- boards for salespeople, participation badges). eling, while relaxing, or while at work, simply to However, increasing engagement and rewarding create enjoyable experiences for ourselves and for desired behavior with such incentives has always others. Firms, too, have long motivated their been hard to perform at scale. Only now, at a time when much of what we do is mediated by digital technologies and social media, may firms change that behavior by turning traditional processes into * Corresponding author deeper, more engaging game-like experiences for E-mail addresses: [email protected] (K. Robson), many of their customers and for their employees. [email protected] (K. Plangger), This process is commonly referred to as gamifica- [email protected] (J.H. Kietzmann), [email protected] (I. McCarthy), [email protected] (L. Pitt) tion. 0007-6813/$ — see front matter # 2015 Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2015.03.006 412 K. Robson et al. Gamification has potentially wide applications in real-world simulations (Keys & Wolfe, 1990), or contexts such as healthcare, sustainability, govern- game theory in organizational settings (Camerer, ment, transportation, and education, among others. 2003). It does not. Rather, gamification is the appli- For instance, more than 75 energy companies are cation of lessons from the gaming domain to change already using Opower, a service that equips homes behaviors in non-game situations. ‘Gamified’ expe- with sensors enabling residents to compare their riences can focus on business processes (e.g., cus- householdenergy consumption with that of neighbors, tomer acquisition) or outcomes (e.g., employee and broadcasting their achievements on Facebook sales). Moreover, these experiences can involve (Wingfield, 2012). Samsung Nation, Pepsi Soundoff, participants–—or players–—outside of a firm (e.g., and other online loyalty programs use points, levels to co-develop products with customers) and/or (e.g., gold status), or badges to drive customer en- within it (e.g., to improve employee satisfaction). gagement and deepen the relationships they have While firms’ use of such game-like experiences to with the brands they use or aspire to use. Drivers of control behavior and increase loyalty and engage- a Nissan Leaf can collect points for driving in an ment is not new, efforts to date have neither sought ecologically friendly manner, and can compete with to learn from formal game design principles nor theirfriends on Facebook. Xerox employs gamification been labeled gamification. In fact, the term gami- to train managers who collaborate online to complete fication only started to attract widespread attention quests, and Salesforce uses challenges and leader- in non-gaming contexts in 2010 (Zichermann & Cun- boards to increase sales. Microsoft has gamified the ningham, 2011). We suggest the heightened interest relatively tedious but important process of translating in gamification today is the result of three recent its Windows 7 operating system into different lan- developments. guages and adapting it to work in different cultures. First, over the last 20 years with the growth and Although studies suggest that 70% of the world’s importance of the computer game industry, game largest public companies will have at least one ga- designers and researchers have invested significant- mified application in the next 2 years (Gartner, 2011), ly in studies to better understand what makes a there are warnings that about 80% of current gamified computer game engaging and successful. This has applications will fail to meet business objectives led to a number of theories and lessons about the (Gartner, 2012), primarily because processes have design and management of gaming experiences, and been inappropriately gamified. A likely reason for to frameworks about incentives that motivate indi- this is a lack of understanding of what gamification is, viduals to play. In the next section, we build on this how gamification works and, more specifically, how work and introduce three important gamification to design gamification experiences that inspire player principles that are based on the gaming literature’s (e.g., employee, customer, citizen) behavior changes lessons: mechanics (i.e., the goals, rules, and re- and result in desirable outcomes. wards), dynamics (i.e., how players enact the me- However, the academic business literature offers chanics), and emotions (i.e., how players feel little direction to, or understanding of, gamifica- toward the gamified experience). tion, its design principles, and the key underlying Second, the pervasiveness of social media and psychological motivations by which gamification mobile and Web-based technologies has changed changes behavior and achieves organizational goals. how individuals and organizations participate in, Thus, we begin by defining gamification and describ- share, co-create, discuss, and modify any type of ing its application in organizations. Next, we explain experience (Kietzmann, Hermkens, McCarthy, & the psychology behind the promise of gamification. Silvestre, 2011). Today’s firms can request and We then introduce a framework, rooted in game generate previously unattainable amounts of data design, that includes three principles for creating about people and their opinions, feelings, and be- gamification experiences: mechanics, dynamics, havior. The quantity and quality of the resulting and emotions (MDE). Next, we link the MDE frame- insights has only now become useful for producing work to employee and customer engagement by gamified employment or consumption experiences illustrating its application in the popular reality at scale, which in turn will yield new data. television show American Idol. Finally, we present Third, firms are continually looking for new and concluding remarks on gamification and present impactful ways to better connect with, learn from, ideas for future research and application. and influence the behaviors of employees and cus- tomers. Three recent developments provide a rich 2. Gamification defined landscape of opportunities to innovate in this re- gard: (1) new knowledge about the design and The term gamification could be misleading, suggest- management of gaming experiences (2) combined ing that it represents the use of actual games, with the advent of social media and technology and Is it all a game? Understanding the principles of gamification 413 (3) the heightened interest in providing more en- positive or negative, such as loss avoidance–—and gaging experiences. should generally lead to satisfying outcomes for the players. Through this mix of rewards and emo- tions, employees and customers in a gamified expe- 3. Why gamification works rience repeat the behavioral outcome desired by the organization in a habitual or routine form (Duhigg, Gamification can change stakeholder behavior be- 2012). Through tapping into rewards and emotions, cause it taps into motivational drivers of human an effective gamification experience will motivate behavior in two connected ways: reinforcements individuals’ behavior changes in business settings. In and emotions. First, both positive and negative order to understand how to design an effective ga- reinforcements encourage repetition of behaviors, mified experience, we examine the fundamental as operant conditioning (Skinner, 1938) and the law principles that underpin gamification by introducing of effect (Thorndike, 1905) show us. These ap- the MDE framework. proaches have long been used in psychology to explain a range of human behaviors as well as behavior modification. They also posit that behavior 4. Gamification principles: The MDE changes can be motivated either through extrinsic framework or intrinsic reinforcements. That is, while external factors such as money or fame can certainly
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Building a Poker Playing Agent Based on Game Logs Using Supervised Learning
    FACULDADE DE ENGENHARIA DA UNIVERSIDADE DO PORTO Building a Poker Playing Agent based on Game Logs using Supervised Learning Luís Filipe Guimarães Teófilo Mestrado Integrado em Engenharia Informática e Computação Orientador: Professor Doutor Luís Paulo Reis 26 de Julho de 2010 Building a Poker Playing Agent based on Game Logs using Supervised Learning Luís Filipe Guimarães Teófilo Mestrado Integrado em Engenharia Informática e Computação Aprovado em provas públicas pelo Júri: Presidente: Professor Doutor António Augusto de Sousa Vogal Externo: Professor Doutor José Torres Orientador: Professor Doutor Luís Paulo Reis ____________________________________________________ 26 de Julho de 2010 iv Resumo O desenvolvimento de agentes artificiais que jogam jogos de estratégia provou ser um domínio relevante de investigação, sendo que investigadores importantes na área das ciências de computadores dedicaram o seu tempo a estudar jogos como o Xadrez e as Damas, obtendo resultados notáveis onde o jogador artificial venceu os melhores jogadores humanos. No entanto, os jogos estocásticos com informação incompleta trazem novos desafios. Neste tipo de jogos, o agente tem de lidar com problemas como a gestão de risco ou o tratamento de informação não fiável, o que torna essencial modelar adversários, para conseguir obter bons resultados. Nos últimos anos, o Poker tornou-se um fenómeno de massas, sendo que a sua popularidade continua a aumentar. Na Web, o número de jogadores aumentou bastante, assim como o número de casinos online, tornando o Poker numa indústria bastante rentável. Além disso, devido à sua natureza estocástica de informação imperfeita, o Poker provou ser um problema desafiante para a inteligência artificial. Várias abordagens foram seguidas para criar um jogador artificial perfeito, sendo que já foram feitos progressos nesse sentido, como o melhoramento das técnicas de modelação de oponentes.
    [Show full text]
  • The Mathematical Analysis of Games, Focusing on Variance
    The Mathematical Analysis of Games, Focusing on Variance Dr. ir. Tom Verhoeff, TU Eindhoven Last November, I gave a lunch talk on game analysis for W.I.S.V. Mathematically interesting questions are: Given the game's state, `Christiaan Huygens'. If you missed it, you can catch up here. how do you decide your best move? Which player can force the best Games, Mathematics, and Decisions outcome from the start? What is the (long-term) optimum result? Games have always been loved by mathematicians. Because of their A Strategic Coin Game (usually) well-defined rules, games admit a formal analysis, sometimes Let us dive into a simple strategic coin game. The two players, with surprising results. It is impossible to provide comprehensive Alice and Bob, simultaneously and secretly each choose 0 (head) or coverage in this article. Instead, I will give an overview and focus on 1 (tail)1. After committing their choices, the payoff is determined by the role of variance, which is often overlooked. the matrix in Figure 2. Alice receives e 2 from Bob when the choices J¨orgBewersdorff wrote a nice book on applying mathematics to the Bob chooses analysis of games [2]. I recommend it to the mathematically inclined reader. It classifies games according to the sources of uncertainty 0 1 that confront the players, also see Figure 1. m m Combinatorial Games generate uncertainty by the many ways in which 0 " 1 2 moves can be combined, in spite of the fact that the players have Alice chooses m open access to all information.
    [Show full text]
  • Applications of Game Theory in Project Management: a Structured Review and Analysis
    mathematics Review Applications of Game Theory in Project Management: A Structured Review and Analysis Mahendra Piraveenan Faculty of Engineering, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia; [email protected] Received: 30 July 2019; Accepted: 4 September 2019; Published: 17 September 2019 Abstract: This paper provides a structured literature review and analysis of using game theory to model project management scenarios. We select and review thirty-two papers from Scopus, present a complex three-dimensional classification of the selected papers, and analyse the resultant citation network. According to the industry-based classification, the surveyed literature can be classified in terms of construction industry, ICT industry or unspecified industry. Based on the types of players, the literature can be classified into papers that use government-contractor games, contractor–contractor games, contractor-subcontractor games, subcontractor–subcontractor games or games involving other types of players. Based on the type of games used, papers using normal-form non-cooperative games, normal-form cooperative games, extensive-form non-cooperative games or extensive-form cooperative games are present. Also, we show that each of the above classifications plays a role in influencing which papers are likely to cite a particular paper, though the strongest influence is exerted by the type-of-game classification. Overall, the citation network in this field is sparse, implying that the awareness of authors in this field about studies by other academics is suboptimal. Our review suggests that game theory is a very useful tool for modelling project management scenarios, and that more work needs to be done focusing on project management in ICT domain, as well as by using extensive-form cooperative games where relevant.
    [Show full text]
  • An Instrument to Build a Gamer Clustering Framework According to Gaming Preferences and Habits
    Computers in Human Behavior 62 (2016) 353e363 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Computers in Human Behavior journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/comphumbeh Full length article An instrument to build a gamer clustering framework according to gaming preferences and habits * Borja Manero a, c, , Javier Torrente b, Manuel Freire c, Baltasar Fernandez-Manj on c a Harvard University, USA b University College of London, UK c Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain article info abstract Article history: In the era of digital gaming, there is a pressing need to better understand how people's gaming pref- Received 20 October 2015 erences and habits affect behavior and can inform educational game design. However, instruments Received in revised form available for such endeavor are rather informal and limited, lack proper evaluation, and often yield re- 1 March 2016 sults that are hard to interpret. In this paper we present the design and preliminary validation (involving Accepted 31 March 2016 N ¼ 754 Spanish secondary school students) of a simple instrument that, based on a 10-item Game Preferences Questionnaire (GPQ), classifies participants into four ‘clusters’ or types of gamers, allowing for easy interpretation of the results. These clusters are: (1) Full gamers, covering individuals that play all Keywords: fi Educational games kinds of games with a high frequency; (2) Hardcore gamers, playing mostly rst-person shooters and Classification of gamers sport games; (3) Casual gamers, playing moderately musical, social and thinking games; and (4) Non- Gaming preferences and habits gamers, who do not usually play games of any kind. The instrument may have uses in psychology and Instruments for serious games behavioral sciences, as there is evidence suggesting that attitudes towards gaming affects personal at- Applied games titudes and behavior.
    [Show full text]
  • How Video Games Expose Children to Gambling
    Gambling on games How video games expose children to gambling Gambling themes, simulated gambling and outright gambling for objects with monetary value are found in a range of video games, including some of the most popular. Changes to the classification system to restrict gambling content to adults would go some way to addressing this problem. Discussion paper Bill Browne February 2020 About The Australia Institute The Australia Institute is an independent public policy think tank based in Canberra. It is funded by donations from philanthropic trusts and individuals and commissioned research. We barrack for ideas, not political parties or candidates. Since its launch in 1994, the Institute has carried out highly influential research on a broad range of economic, social and environmental issues. About the Centre for Responsible Technology The Australia Institute established the Centre for Responsible Technology to give people greater influence over the way technology is rapidly changing our world. The Centre will collaborate with academics, activists, civil society and business to shape policy and practice around network technology by raising public awareness about the broader impacts and implications of data-driven change and advocating policies that promote the common good. Our philosophy As we begin the 21st century, new dilemmas confront our society and our planet. Unprecedented levels of consumption co-exist with extreme poverty. Through new technology we are more connected than we have ever been, yet civic engagement is declining. Environmental neglect continues despite heightened ecological awareness. A better balance is urgently needed. The Australia Institute’s directors, staff and supporters represent a broad range of views and priorities.
    [Show full text]
  • Real-Time Rule-Based Classification of Player Types in Computer Games
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Helsingin yliopiston digitaalinen arkisto Real-time rule-based classification of player types in computer games Ben Cowley, Darryl Charles, Michaela Black & Ray Hickey User Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction The Journal of Personalization Research ISSN 0924-1868 User Model User-Adap Inter DOI 10.1007/s11257-012-9126-z 1 23 Your article is protected by copyright and all rights are held exclusively by Springer Science+Business Media B.V.. This e-offprint is for personal use only and shall not be self- archived in electronic repositories. If you wish to self-archive your work, please use the accepted author’s version for posting to your own website or your institution’s repository. You may further deposit the accepted author’s version on a funder’s repository at a funder’s request, provided it is not made publicly available until 12 months after publication. 1 23 Author's personal copy User Model User-Adap Inter DOI 10.1007/s11257-012-9126-z ORIGINAL PAPER Real-time rule-based classification of player types in computer games Ben Cowley · Darryl Charles · Michaela Black · Ray Hickey Received: 8 September 2011 / Accepted in revised form: 16 July 2012 © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012 Abstract The power of using machine learning to improve or investigate the expe- rience of play is only beginning to be realised. For instance, the experience of play is a psychological phenomenon, yet common psychological concepts such as the typology of temperaments have not been widely utilised in game design or research.
    [Show full text]
  • Generic Interface for Developing Abstract Strategy Games
    Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto Generic Interface for Developing Abstract Strategy Games Ivo Miguel da Paz dos Reis Gomes Master in Informatics and Computing Engineering Supervisor: Luís Paulo Reis (PhD) February 2011 Generic Interface for Developing Abstract Strategy Games Ivo Miguel da Paz dos Reis Gomes Master in Informatics and Computing Engineering Approved in oral examination by the committee: Chair: António Augusto de Sousa (PhD) External Examiner: Pedro Miguel Moreira (PhD) Supervisor: Luís Paulo Reis (PhD) 11th February 2011 Abstract Board games have always been a part of human societies, being excellent tools for con- veying knowledge, express cultural ideals and train thought processes. To understand their cul- tural and intellectual significance is not only an important part of anthropological studies but also a pivotal catalyst in advances in computer sciences. In the field of Artificial Intelligence in particular, the study of board games provides ways to understand the relations between rule sets and playing strategies. As board games encompass an enormous amount of different types of game mechanics, the focus shall be put on abstract strategy games to narrow the study and to circumvent the problems derived from uncertainty. The aim of this work is to describe the research, planning and development stages for the project entitled “Generic Interface for Developing Abstract Strategy Games”. The project con- sists in the development of a generic platform capable of creating any kind of abstract strategy game, and is essentially divided in three phases: research on board games and related topics, design and specification of a system that could generate such games and lastly the development of a working prototype.
    [Show full text]
  • Impartial Intersection Restriction Games
    Impartial Intersection Restriction Games by Melissa Huggan A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Pure Mathematics Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario c 2015 Melissa Huggan Abstract Intersection restriction games are games played on hypergraphs in which options for a player are restricted based on previous play via some intersection property. This paper focuses on two games within this class: Arc-Kayles and a Triple Packing game. Arc-Kayles is a game where, on their turn, players remove an edge and all adjacent edges from a graph. Together, players are forming a maximal matching. The Triple Packing game is a combinatorial design game where players are choosing triples such that no two triples chosen share a pair. Both games are played under normal play. We give new results for Arc-Kayles played on a special star graph and the wheel graph as well as partial results for the Triple Packing game played on the complete graph. ii Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor Dr. Brett Stevens. Brett's knowledge and insight into mathematical connections has been very inspirational to my academic curiosity. Brett has provided me with invaluable national and international academic opportunities which expanded my mathematical thinking to new creative levels. I would also like to thank my examination committee members for their suggestions and thought-provoking questions throughout my thesis defence. My committee members include: Dr. Kevin Cheung from the School of Mathematics and Statistics at Carleton University; Dr. Jason Etele from the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Carleton University; and Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • Unifying Game Ontology: a Faceted Classification of Game Elements
    Unifying Game Ontology: A Faceted Classification of Game Elements Michael S. Debus This dissertation is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) at the IT University of Copenhagen. Title: Unifying Game Ontology: A Faceted Classification of Game Elements Candidate: Michael S. Debus [email protected] Supervisor: Espen Aarseth Examination Committee: Dr. Hanna Wirman Dr. Aki Järvinen Prof. Frans Mäyrä This research has received funding from the European ResearchCouncil (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant Agreement No [695528] – MSG: Making Sense of Games). Resumé I mindst hundrede år er spil blevet defineret og klassificeret. I de sidste to årtier er der dog opstået en forøget forskningsmæssig interesse for hvad spil er og består af. For at at udvikle en mere entydig terminologi for spil og deres bestanddele, undersøger denne afhandling spillets ontologi i to henseende. Med en tilgang inspireret af Wittgenstein, belyser jeg de forskellige betydninger der knytter sig til udtrykket ’spil’. Jeg fremlægger en ikke-udtømmende oversigt over fem underliggende ideer, der tjener som områder hvor man kan finde spils såkaldte familie-ligheder: spil som genstande, forløb, systemer, holdninger og ud fra deres udvikling og distribution. Jeg introducerer dernæst en række ontologiske begreber, for at kunne eksplicitere den forståelse af spil, som tages i anvendelse i denne afhandling. Spil er ’specifikker’ – samlinger af anonyme ’partikulærer’ – som enten kan være materialiseret (som genstande) eller instantieret (som forløb). Jeg vil dernæst, ud fra en ludologisk tilgang, undersøge spils underliggende formelle system. En række begreber fra biblioteksvidenskaben danner rammen for en analyse af de distinktioner der bliver anvendt i seksten forskellige spil-klassificeringer.
    [Show full text]
  • Two Player Zero Sum Multi-Stage Game Analysis Using Coevolutionary Algorithm
    Wright State University CORE Scholar Browse all Theses and Dissertations Theses and Dissertations 2019 Two Player Zero Sum Multi-Stage Game Analysis Using Coevolutionary Algorithm Sumedh Sopan Nagrale Wright State University Follow this and additional works at: https://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/etd_all Part of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Commons Repository Citation Nagrale, Sumedh Sopan, "Two Player Zero Sum Multi-Stage Game Analysis Using Coevolutionary Algorithm" (2019). Browse all Theses and Dissertations. 2175. https://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/etd_all/2175 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at CORE Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Browse all Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of CORE Scholar. For more information, please contact [email protected]. TWO PLAYER ZERO SUM MULTI-STAGE GAME ANALYSIS USING COEVOLUTIONARY ALGORITHM. A Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Electrical Engineering By SUMEDH SOPAN NAGRALE B.E.,University of Mumbai, 2012 2019 Wright State University WRIGHT STATE UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL April 24, 2019 I HEREBY RECOMMEND THAT THE THESIS PREPARED UNDER MY SUPERVISION BY Sumedh Sopan Nagrale ENTITLED Two Player Zero Sum Multi-Stage Game Analysis Using Coevolutionary Algorithm BE ACCEPTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DE- GREE OF Master of Science in Electrical Engineering. Luther Palmer, III, Ph.D. Thesis Director. Fred D. Garber, Ph.D. Chair, Department of Electrical Engineering Committee on Final Examination: Luther Palmer, III, Ph.D. Pradeep Misra, Ph.D. Xiaodong Zhang, Ph.D. Barry Milligan, Ph.D.
    [Show full text]
  • Facet Analysis of Video Game Genres
    Facet Analysis of Video Game Genres Jin Ha Lee1, Natascha Karlova1, Rachel Ivy Clarke1, Katherine Thornton1 and Andrew Perti2 1 University of Washington, Information School 2 Seattle Interactive Media Museum Abstract Genre is an important feature for organizing and accessing video games. However, current descriptors of video game genres are unstandardized, undefined, and embedded with multiple information dimensions. This paper describes the development of a more complex and sophisticated scheme consisting of 12 facets and 358 foci for describing and representing video game genre information. Using facet analysis, the authors analyzed existing genre labels from scholarly, commercial, and popular sources, and then synthesized them into discrete categories of indexing terms. This new, more robust scheme provides a framework for improved intellectual access to video games along multiple dimensions. Keywords: genre, facet analysis, video game, interactive media Citation: Lee, J. H., Karlova, N., Clarke, R. I., Thornton, K., & Perti, A. (2014). Facet Analysis of Video Game Genres. In iConference 2014 Proceedings (p. 125–139). doi:10.9776/14057 Copyright: Copyright is held by the authors. Acknowledgements: We thank Dr. Joseph Tennis (University of Washington, Information School) and Michael Carpenter (Seattle Interactive Media Museum) for their contributions to the project. We also thank the University of Washington’s Office of Research for their financial support for this research. Contact: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] 1 Introduction As video games increase in popularity, users expect efficient and intelligent access to them, similar to their access to other media. Game designers, manufacturers, scholars, educators, players and parents of young gamers all need meaningful ways of finding, accessing, and interpreting video games.
    [Show full text]
  • The City Game Fit: the Reverse Engineering of Urban Games
    The City Game Fit: The Reverse Engineering of Urban Games De Stad-Spel Schikking: Het Ontmantelen van Stadsspellen (met een samenvatting in het Nederlands) Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit Utrecht op gezag van de rector magnificus, prof.dr. H.R.B.M Kummeling, ingevolge het besluit van het college voor promoties in het openbaar te verdedigen op maandag 22 juni 2020 des middags te 4.15 uur door Sjors Carel Martens geboren op 4 juli 1991 te Rotterdam Promotoren: Prof. dr. J.F.F. Raessens Prof. dr. P.J. Werkhoven Copromotor: Dr. M.L. de Lange The author of this dissertation received financial support for the research conducted from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) within the project Graduate Programme Games Research (project number 022.005.017). Table of Contents Acknowledgements i List of Figures iv Summary in English v Samenvatting in het Nederlands viii Introduction 1 Chapter 1 – Urban Games as Playable Sociocultural Systems 15 1.1 Demystifying the Magic-Bullet Theory through Affordances 18 1.1.1 The Magic-Bullet Theory 19 1.1.1.1 Epistemology of the Magic-Bullet Theory 19 1.1.1.2 Technology of the Magic-Bullet Theory 22 1.1.1.3 Criticism on the Magic-Bullet Theory 23 1.1.2 Affordances Approach 25 1.1.3 Affordance Agency: Signifiers, Constraints and Feedback 28 1.2 Play as a User Model 30 1.2.1 Urban Play 31 1.2.1.1 Appropriation 32 1.2.1.2 Carnivalesque 34 1.2.1.3 Expressive, Personal and Autotelic 38 1.2.1.4 The Understanding of Play 40 1.2.2 Loops and Metagames 41 1.2.2.1
    [Show full text]