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This short paper explores the gamification of an online academic conference. At the conference, digital gamification was meant to stimulate increased levels of participation among attendees. Instead, it resulted in a series of unintended consequences. Precisely because it was all too easy to score points and ascend the virtual leaderboard by means of machine-like grinding, the "Conference Challenge" posed a moral dilemma for its players: each participant had to determine for themselves where the border lay between playing the game and gaming the system. We use this case to raise questions about the ethics of game-playing in an academic context. In particular, we suggest that the Conference Challenge is a distorted reflection of what's already happening in the broader "publication game" in the university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the post-pandemic era, distance education and training modes without space constraints are gradually becoming a new trend in training. Game-based training combined with situational simulations is a potential approach. This study used a simulation company scenario and a decision-making analysis task of promotion assessment as the game context, and proposed an innovative game mechanism integrating the simulation situation scenario and the interactive contextual clue scaffolding as a guide to enhance learning effectiveness. This study used the Gather Town platform to design a simulation office scenario, and Google Forms to design interactive contextual clue scaffolding. This study conducted empirical research to evaluate this mechanism, with a total of 60 participants divided into an experimental group that conducted game activities and a control group that was only provided with document files as scaffolding for comparative analysis. The results of the study revealed that the proposed exploration guidance mechanism of integrating immersive scenes and interactive contextual clue scaffolding could allow learners to experience a high level of game fidelity and increase the discovery rate and usefulness of the scaffolding. It also reduced learning anxiety, maintained learning motivation and high flow, and resulted in significantly higher learning effectiveness than the control group approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document, titled "Making a Better Future Using Simulation and Gaming," discusses the potential benefits of using gamification and simulation in various fields. The authors highlight the positive impact that games and gaming technology can have on skills, cognition, and well-being. They also emphasize the importance of reliable simulations and gaming scenarios in preparing for and dealing with crises such as natural disasters and global conflicts. The authors express optimism and encourage readers to embrace insights and tools derived from gaming and simulation to address the challenges of today and the future. [Extracted from the article]

Jagoda, Patrick Experimental Games: Critique, Play, and Design in the Age of Gamification Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2020. Certainly, Jagoda offers compelling examples of games that interrupt the smooth flow of gamification, such as the independent videogame I The Stanley Parable i (pp. 130-136). But just how different is I Luxuria Superbia i from I Candy Crush Saga i - another touchscreen game that releases a satisfying burst of color and sound each time the player swipes their screen, but which for Jagoda exemplifies the "ideology of neoliberalism" (p. 66)?. [Extracted from the article]

Background: To overcome the high failure rate of gameful interventions, we need to better understand their design and evaluation strategies to build an evidence-base for best-practice approaches that bring about meaningful change. This systematic review asks: 'What behavioural and technological design and evaluation theories and approaches are applied in games developed to bring about positive environmental outcomes?'. Method: We reviewed 52 papers published between 2015 and 2020 that used gameful interventions to improve behaviour related to environmental outcomes. These papers were analysed to review the behavioural and technical design, and the assessment and evaluation approaches, employed by the intervention designers. Results: We found that these publications report on simple aspects of the behavioural and technical design behind the intervention but fail to justify their design choices in terms of theory and evidence. Furthermore, variability across their evaluation approaches and outcomes exists. Discussion: This review highlights several systemic flaws in the literature that limit our understanding of gameful interventions in the pro-environmental context. First, based on this review, we cannot be convinced that these interventions were designed according to best practice for intervention design or for technology development. Second, the justification for proposing a gameful intervention is not always clear. Finally, it is unclear whether these interventions are being evaluated based on best practice. Thus, it is not clear that we can draw confident conclusions about evidence-based outcomes of short-term engagement (in structural gamification interventions) or long-term behaviour change (in content gamification and serious game interventions). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Play is an important part of the childhood. The learning potential of playing and creating non-digital games, like tabletop games, however, has not been fully explored. Aim: The study discussed in this paper identified a range of activities through which learners redesigned a mathematics-oriented tabletop game to develop their ideas and competencies in an integrated STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) class. Method: Third and fourth graders worked as teams to make changes on Triominos over a period of six weeks. Considering what could be changed from the original game, each group provided a different design for Triominos to accommodate the changes introduced. We gathered data through weekly observations of two classes (about 45 learners, ranging from age eight to ten) in a west-Canada school. In this paper, we present the works of three groups of three teammates. Results: We found that any change made by learners not only influenced mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics of the game but also helped engage learners, encourage unconventional ideas, promote learning, and solve problems. Based on our findings, we suggest redesigning games facilitated learners deepen their understanding of mathematical concepts as part of a designed game system in STEM classes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper measures a gamification effect in longitudinal web surveys among children and adolescents 7-15 years old. Two waves of the study were conducted using a volunteer online access panel in Russia among 737 children. Respondents were randomly assigned to one of the three conditions in the first wave without changing the treatment in the second wave: (1) a text-only survey, (2) a visual survey and (3) a gamified survey. Though in the first wave of the study respondents found it more enjoyable and easier to complete the gamified survey, no differences in participation rates were found between the conditions in the second wave. Contrary to expectations, a higher breakoff was found in the gamified condition. Moreover, it produced lower test-retest reliability correlations than the text-only and visual conditions in all survey questions. The promising gamification effect found in the first wave of the study faded in the second wave. It seems that implementing gamified elements in longitudinal web surveys might differ from the implementation of gamified elements in cross-sectional surveys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In line with the attention-to-affect model, this study employed a game that encompasses Gestalt perception to explore how extraneous cognitive load (ECL) and gameplay anxiety correlate with attitude towards exploitative learning and attitude towards explorative learning as students play the Visual-Saliency game (VSG) with images of artworks. The data of 56 sixth-grade students were collected and subjected to Smart PLS analysis to verify the pathways. The results of this study show that ECL is negatively related to attitude towards exploitative learning and attitude towards explorative learning. However, gameplay anxiety is negatively related to attitude towards exploitative learning, but is not significantly related to explorative learning when playing the VSG. The implication of this study is that Gestalt perception in game playing can give students more opportunities to practice reasoning, and they can gain more knowledge about the artworks themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Critical factors that influence the value of digital game-based learning (DGBL) for enhancing learning effectiveness remain debatable. Based on the self-determination theory (SDT), people can be autonomously motivated to adopt DGBL to enhance learning effectiveness if their basic psychological needs are satisfied. Additionally, studies that simultaneously examine the effects of two critical factors of information feedback and game quality on students' autonomous motivation and learning effectiveness in DGBL contexts are missing in the literature. This study integrates information feedback, game quality, and SDT to develop a research model for comprehending the effectiveness of DGBL systems. Data collected from 383 respondents was analyzed to validate our research model. The results showed that information feedback, game quality, and autonomous motivation significantly influenced students' learning effectiveness and their continuance intention to use DGBL systems. Additionally, autonomous motivation indirectly influenced continuance intention via learning effectiveness. Implications for theory and for practice are discussed accordingly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Technological advances and the big-data revolution have facilitated fine-grained, high-frequency, low-cost measurement of individuals' work. Yet we understand little about the influences of such quantification of work on workers' behavior and performance. This article investigates how and when quantification of work affects worker productivity. We argue that quantification affects worker productivity via auto-gamification, or workers' inadvertent transformation of work into an independent, individual-level game. We further argue that quantification is likely to raise productivity in a context of simple work, where auto-gamification is motivating because quantified metrics adequately measure the work being performed. When work is complex, by contrast, quantification reduces productivity because quantified metrics cannot adequately measure the multifaceted work being performed, causing auto-gamification to be demotivating. To substantiate our argument, we study implementation of an RFID measurement technology that quantifies individual workers' output in real time at a garment factory in India. Qualitative evidence uncovers the auto-gamification mechanism and three conditions that enable it; a natural experiment tests the consequences of quantification of work for worker productivity. This article contributes to the study of quantification, work games, technology, and organizations, and we explore the policy implications of further quantification of work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From crossword puzzles and quizzes to more complex gamification strategies and serious newsgames, legacy media has long explored ways to deploy playful approaches to deliver their content and engage with the audience. We examine how news and games fit together when news organizations, game creators and news audiences welcome gameful forms of communication and participation. Moreover, we reflect on the theoretical and empirical significance of merging news with games as a way to reformulate normative assumptions, production practices and consumption patterns. As a result, the boundaries between journalism and game's logics start to erode, and they begin to find new ways of converging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Declining consumption rates of traditional news have led media outlets to search for innovative ways for engaging their audiences. News gamification emerged as a way to offer a more personalized news experience and a playful content by employing tools like badges, points, and leaderboards. As we are beginning to understand the benefits and pitfalls of gamifying news, the influence of the gamification on the news reporting techniques and news delivery structures is still not fully explored. The current study analyzes two games: Pirate Fishing: An Interactive Investigation and #Hacked Syria's Electronic Armies, for the main generic news frames employed within interactive gamified contexts. Drawing on the integrative framing analysis approach, the study employs an innovative qualitative content analysis to investigate the multimodal – structural, textual, and visual – generic frames each game involves. By revisiting a contemporary list of news values, the study provides a further discussion about changing news values in the gamified setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Commission Joint Research Centre's (JRC) Scenario Exploration System (SES) is a foresight gaming system developed to facilitate the application of futures thinking to policy-making. It was originally geared at engaging EU policy-makers with scenarios in a facilitated process with a low learning curve. Specifically, the SES was designed to help participants, in less than three hours, to engage in systemic thinking with a long-term perspective and to explore alternative futures on specific issues and themes. When applied in various contexts, the SES proved to have a broader range of applications, which led to communities of practice emerging around the tool. Successful responses to various requests to apply the tool beyond its original focus demonstrated the versatility of the SES. Specifically, we discovered its ability to accommodate a large array of scenarios to discuss a very diverse range of issues. The experience accumulated through several adaptations of the SES allows the analysis of the various strengths and weaknesses of the tool as a platform for futures thinking and sharing more broadly the know-how for the creation and application of new versions. Ultimately, this article seeks to contribute a series of design suggestions for futures practitioners seeking to develop a playful mode of interaction with scenarios, or those seeking to repurpose the original SES system for use in their own project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Although the effectiveness of game-based learning (GBL) is well-supported, much less is known about the process underlying it. Nevertheless, developing a mental model that matches the game system, which in turn models a real-world system, is a promising proposed process.Aim. This article explores the first steps in model matching: identifying the entities and (complex) relations in a game system.Method. Participants (N = 30) played the analog game DOMINION and completed a multi-step mental model mapping exercise. Categories of entities in mental model maps were inductively identified with grounded theory coding, while complex relations in mental model maps were identified via content analysis.Results. Participants described formal game entities, player actions, sociality, learning processes, and subjective experience in their mental model maps. Participants identified very few complex relations—and no feedback loops—in their mental model maps.Conclusions. Games—and analog games specifically—provide a breadth of resources for model matching and GBL. Through gameplay, learners come to affix conceptual meanings to material objects, a process dubbed lamination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Many learning environments are quickly deserted by learners, even if they are efficient. Gamification of learning environments is a recent approach used to enhance learners’ motivation and participation.Aim. People have various expectations and react differently faced with specific game mechanics. An important goal lies in automatically adapting game mechanics according to player types. In this article, we study the gaming features that can be adapted in learning environments and the player model that can be used for the adaptation process. We propose an approach that aims to predict to which game mechanics a user is responsive, and to adapt the gaming features of the system according to this information.Methodology. An implementation was released, and evaluated through an quasi-experimental study with 59 middle school students, each one using the learning environment during three 45-minutes sessions.Results. The results validate the implementation of the system and show that the users’ activity can help to predict their profile. The adaptation process did not improve learners’ engagement as expected, but it shows a path for future research toward an adaptive approach for learning environment gamification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective chronic disease management is essential to improve positive health outcomes, and incentive strategies are useful in promoting self-care with longevity. Gamification, applied with mHealth (mobile health) applications, has the potential to better facilitate patient self-management. This review article addresses a knowledge gap around the effective use of gamification design principles, or mechanics, in developing mHealth applications. Badges, leaderboards, points and levels, challenges and quests, social engagement loops, and onboarding are mechanics that comprise gamification. These mechanics are defined and explained from a design and development perspective. Health and fitness applications with gamification mechanics include: bant which uses points, levels, and social engagement, mySugr which uses challenges and quests, RunKeeper which uses leaderboards as well as social engagement loops and onboarding, Fitocracy which uses badges, and Mango Health, which uses points and levels. Specific design considerations are explored, an example of the efficacy of a gamified mHealth implementation in facilitating improved self-management is provided, limitations to this work are discussed, a link between the principles of gaming and gamification in health and wellness technologies is provided, and suggestions for future work are made. We conclude that gamification could be leveraged in developing applications with the potential to better facilitate self-management in persons with chronic conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article defines gamification in relation to serious games through the identification of the theoretical commonalities between them using the game attribute taxonomy presented by W. L. Bedwell and colleagues. Topics covered include the definition of gamification in the theory of gamified learning, games with the purpose of affecting learning-related behaviors or attitudes and the development of a psychological theory of gamified learning.