The Gamification of Journalism

Traditional news outlets are on the decline and journalism has embraced digital media in its struggle to survive. New models of delivering news to the public are being explored in order to increase the levels of readership and user engagement.The narrative of this chapter focuses on the future of journalism and media, and the potential benefits and dangers of gamifying journalism. Since gamification is a new trend, a thorough look at the intersection between the enhancements of public mobility, the digitalization of news services, and the engagement of gamified systems can bring better understanding of future channels of reading news to the users, to researchers, and to the industry. This chapter aims to bridge the gap between gamification as an emerging practice in news distribution and yet a vastly uncharted area or research.

Gamified Self

Gamified self has many dimensions, one of which is self-tracking. It is an activity in which a person collects and reflects on their personal information over time. Digital tools such as pedometers, GPS-enabled mobile applications, and number-crunching websites increasingly facilitate this practice. The collection of personal information is now a commonplace activity as a result of connected devices and the Internet. Tracking is integrated into so many digital services and devices; it is more or less unavoidable. Self-tracking engages with new technology to put the power of self-improvement and self-knowledge into people's own hands by bringing game dynamics to non-game contexts. The purpose of this chapter's research is to move towards a better understanding of how self-tracking can (and will) grow in the consumer market. An online survey was conducted and results indicate that perceptions of ease of use and enjoyment of tracking tools are less influential to technology acceptance than perceptions of usefulness. Implications and future research directions are presented.

Digital Development and International Aid

This chapter constructs a historical overview of digital games used for international development. While the decade long use of digital games in this field has seen mixed results, a trend towards gamification has continued. The various approaches to international development taken in these games are analyzed alongside the gaming goals, platforms, and narrative structures. Broadly, this chapter argues that the field of digital development games breaks down into three categories: Developing Developers, Digital Interventions, and Critical Play. Because these games are tied to larger frameworks of development thought, they are an important part of the development discourse and should be critically analyzed, regardless of their success at the level of individual attitude and behavior change. Such an analysis presents a useful way to think about what's happening in the current development field and how the trend towards gamification may impact its future directions.

Three Perspectives on Video Game Learning

Video games and gamified applications have been used for various purposes including helping businesses (in commercial marketing), or helping the individual, community or society (in social marketing). Video games are systems with rules, play structures, and narratives; while gamified applications utilize game elements, mechanics, and ways of thinking to generate meaningful, playful and fun experiences. Both video games and gamified applications require a learning process including learning to play, and learning through the game. This chapter advocates that learning is an inherent component of video games and gamified applications. The main purpose of this chapter is to examine the concept of ‘game learning' from three major theoretical positions, namely Behaviorism, Cognitivism, and Constructivism. In doing so, this chapter first explains, compares, and contrasts these three positions, then elaborates on how learning takes place in specific games designed for commercial and social marketing with the lens of these three positions.

Ambiguous Play

This chapter is a critical-conceptual introduction to the topic of gamification from the standpoint of game studies (the study of games) and ludology (the study of play). A secondary task is to move the definition and conceptual history of gamification away from essentialist notions of play and games and towards a more nuanced understanding of gamification as a philosophy of design with situational outcomes. By examining the controversy surrounding gamification as a complex history of concepts, the chapter aims to give the reader an overview of how gamification aligns with or deviates from various definitions of games and play. Gamification can be controversial when using traditional ludological concepts largely because traditional ludology is pre-digital, and does not account for the current technological and cultural shifts driving gaming and gamification. Finally, the chapter ends with the suggestion that the current cultural turn in game studies provides a way to analyze gamification as an example of the “gaming of culture.”

Games and Quizzes in Online Journalism

The competition for online news page views increasingly involves strategies designed to promote the “viral” nature of content, and to capitalize on the content's spread by ensuring that the content does not quickly lose timeliness or relevance. As a result of the pressure for these stories, news experiences which can be revisited by consumers are at a premium. In this ecosystem, interactive games and quizzes which can be played to receive different feedback or reach a different ending offer promise for news organizations to receive ongoing and widespread reward for their efforts. This chapter provides an overview of the state of gamification in journalism, challenges and opportunities for the growth of games in online news, and discusses evidence for the impact of increasingly gamified news content on how users process and perceive news information.

“A Spoonful of Game Design Makes the Work-Out More Fun”

Gamification is the concept of infusing elements of gameplay (competition, incentives, story/narrative, collaboration, problem-solving, etc.) into non-game activities in order to make those activities more compelling. Recently, game designers have begun stressing the need for greater “maturity” in the field of gamification with greater focus on the importance of designing applications for optimal user experience. One hurdle to achieving maturity in the field is the fact that even gamification experts question “What exactly are the essential elements of gameplay that optimize user engagement and enjoyment?” Thus, the goal of the current chapter is to provide a comprehensive listing of the elements of gameplay that are essential to user engagement, and to provide examples of how each of those elements has been applied successfully in game design in the past. The chapter reviews 14 essential gameplay elements including: chance, control, creativity, completion, spectacle, status, strategy, unification, rules, narrative, recognition, collaboration, escapism, and enjoyment.

Gamification of Human Resource Processes

Gamification promises to deliver more motivating, engaging, and, ultimately, effective human resource (HR) processes. The following chapter presents an overview of key motivational theories supporting the potential effectiveness of gamifying HR processes. Key motivational theories underpinning the success of gamification include Need Satisfaction Theories, Operant Conditioning, Flow, and Goal Setting Theory. After providing a theoretical framework supporting the effectiveness of gamification, emphasis will shift to an examination of key game elements used to improve four large categories of HR processes: recruitment, selection, training, and performance management. Case studies will be leveraged to provide real-world examples of organizations using gamification to improve HR initiatives. Finally, the chapter will cover key considerations and best practices that should be followed when developing and implementing gamified HR initiatives.

Gaining Reward vs. Avoiding Loss

This chapter enhances the dyadic gain-loss concept by presenting findings of a research project on uncovering whether the efficiency component of gamification could be better attained by balancing a shift from gain to loss, or completely avoiding it altogether. The gamification of any system requires a good selection and balance of game design elements to make the overall experience fun, as well as gaming emotions to keep it intrinsically rewarding. However, if not designed properly, participators of a gamified system that expect the prospect of gaining rewards, may ultimately realize a shift of engagement from gain to avoiding losses any earned status, badge, experience, or popularity often defined within the periphery of the gamified system. Findings reveal changing levels of motivation within different participatory foci, where loss avoidance (punishment scenarios) generates more motivation than the prospect of gaining rewards.

Gamification in Market Research

This chapter presents an overview of gamification in the domain of market research, with a specific focus on digital data collection methods, such as online surveys. The problems faced by the market research industry are outlined, followed by a discussion of why gamification has been offered as a possible way to overcome some of these challenges. The literature on gamification is reviewed, with a focus on results from empirical studies investigating the impact of gamification on outcome variables such as data quality and respondent engagement. Finally, the authors present results from an original study conducted in 2013, comparing differences between a conventional (text-dominant) survey and a gamified version of the same survey.