From Game Design Elementsto GamefulnessDefining
“Gamification”S. Deterding, D. Dixon, R. Khaled, L. E. Nacke Mindtrek 2011, Tampere, September 28, 2011

Overview You are here• Introduction • Precursors
and parallels • Defining “gamification” • Situating “gamification” • Open questions 2

“Gamification”? 3

“Gamification”? 4

The industry blueprint Points Badges
Leaderboards Incentives Tracking, Feedback Goal-setting Competition Rewards (And behavioral analytics in the backend) 5

Overview • Introduction You are here• Precursors
and parallels • Defining “gamification” • Situating “gamification” • Open questions 6

Precursors in HCI Man as
machine Man as computer Man as meaning-maker Ergonomics Cognitive sciences Human sciences Precursors Repurposings UX Playfulness Persuasive Tech (1980+) (2001+) (2002+) (2005+) (2006+) Hedonic attributes Game UX Ludic design CSCW (2002+) (2005+) 7 Harrison, S., Tatar, D., and Sengers, P. The Three Paradigms of HCI. Proc. AltCHI 2007, ACM Press (2007).

Precursors in Game Studies Digital
Alternate Reality/ Ludification Serious Games Serious Games Pervasive Games Serious Gaming of culture (1960+) (2001+) (2001+) (2006+) (2006+) Precursors Repurposings UX Playfulness Persuasive Tech (1980+) (2001+) (2002+) (2005+) (2006+) Hedonic attributes Game UX Ludic design CSCW (2002+) (2005+) 8

Overview • Introduction You are here• Precursors
and parallels • Defining “gamification” • Situating “gamification” • Open questions 9

Gamification: A definition “The use
of game design elements in non-game contexts” 10

Gamification: A definition “The use
of game design elements in non-game contexts” 11

game Ludus skill effort ordered
rule-bound play improvisation Paidia tumultuous immoderate 12

Gaming, not playing Gaming Playing
13

Elements, not whole systems er
libert chas yand Dune vigila nce Whole Elements 14

What is a “game element”?
• Most game definitions have multiple necessary conditions, e.g. Juul 2005: 15

What is a “game element”?
• Elements characteristic for games specific to games (empty/too constrained) characteristic for games (with fuzzy boundaries) present in games (boundless/too broad) 16

Game design elements Game-based technology
Controllers, AI, 3D engines, ... Game-based practices Serious Gaming Game-based design Gamification 17

Levels of game design elements
Playcentric design, value conscious gameGame design methods design… Game models MDA, Game design atoms, CEGE, ... Enduring play, clear goals, variety of playGame design principles and heuristics styles, ... Levels, time constraint, limitedGame design patterns and mechanics resources,… Game interface patterns Badge, leaderboard, timer, ... 18

Non-game contexts 19

Non-game contexts • Big issues with
“serious game” being initially reduced to learning as one goal/context, thus • No specific goals (learning, motivation, …) • No specific contexts (g4change, g4health, …) • Not limited to digital/online 20

21

Can you “gamify” a game?
• Only if definition is tied to a set of specific elements (e.g. achievements) • Metagames seen as games, not game elements in literature • Designer view: Hard to distinguish ‘core’ game design from ‘outer’ gamification • User view: Open empirical question whether game/gamified part are perceived as separate 22

Overview • Introduction • Precursors and parallels
You are here• Defining “gamification” • Situating “gamification” • Open questions 23

Gamification: the definition again “The
use of game design elements in non-game contexts” 24

Bringing it together Gaming Whole
Elements Playing 25

Situating the definition 26

Overview • Introduction • Precursors and parallels
• Defining “gamification” You are here• Situating “gamification” • Open questions 27

Social and subjective nature of
play • Playing/gaming as a subjective, shared mode of behavior and mindset • User view: When do they “use”, when “play” an app? (Framing, user-added rules goals, …) • Designer: When intended as product, gameful product, or full game? • Flickering, switching, conflicting modes of engagement within and between users as rich new data source

Gamefulness 29

Elements or qualities? • Playfulness as
a specific quality/mode of user behavior and experience, as well as design goal • Gamefulness as logic complement • Gameful design: less contentious baggage, less definitional complications, hence preferable for academic discourse

Playfulness and Gamefulness Quality of
experience Playfulness Gamefulness and behavior Artifact affording that Playful interactions Gameful interactions quality Designing for that quality Playful design Gameful design 31

Bringing it together... again Gaming
System Quality Playing 32

Thank you Rilla Khaled
Sebastian Deterding Dan Dixon Lennart E. Nacke rikh@itu.dk s.deterding@hans-bredow-institut.de dan@digitaldust.org lennart.nacke@acm.org