1. The document discusses how increasingly, computer systems and algorithms are ruling our world through automated processes like phone trees, ATMs, and online recommendations. This world of ubiquitous sensors and algorithms is called "code/space."
2. The concept of "gamification" is introduced, where goals, rules and feedback systems from games are applied to reality to motivate and change human behavior regarding health, education, productivity and other areas of life. However, exceptions will always exist that systems cannot foresee, requiring human judgment.
3. As systems become more complex and removed from human oversight, the ability to handle exceptions or override decisions is lost. Rules are also never fully explicit and usually intend the "spirit of the law
Computer vision syndrome is a common eye of the computer users. Its prevalence case are increasing day by day. So, prevention methods are applied to reduce of the computer negative result on our eyes.
Digital Currencies- Block chain, Cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin Sai P Mishra
Digital currency is a money balance recorded electronically on a stored-value card or other devices. It exhibits properties similar to physical currencies, but can allow for instantaneous transactions. Digital Currencies like blockchain, bit coin, etherium are emerging and has great future.
telescope
1. Telescopes
2. Telescopes represent an effective way of producing magnification without changing the working distance. Disadvantages They have a restricted field of view Often used to focus on objects closer than infinity Can be modified to correct for the Px’s refractive error.
3. There are two basic kinds of Telescope. Keplerian or Astronomical
4. Galilean Telescopes
Computer vision syndrome is a common eye of the computer users. Its prevalence case are increasing day by day. So, prevention methods are applied to reduce of the computer negative result on our eyes.
Digital Currencies- Block chain, Cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin Sai P Mishra
Digital currency is a money balance recorded electronically on a stored-value card or other devices. It exhibits properties similar to physical currencies, but can allow for instantaneous transactions. Digital Currencies like blockchain, bit coin, etherium are emerging and has great future.
telescope
1. Telescopes
2. Telescopes represent an effective way of producing magnification without changing the working distance. Disadvantages They have a restricted field of view Often used to focus on objects closer than infinity Can be modified to correct for the Px’s refractive error.
3. There are two basic kinds of Telescope. Keplerian or Astronomical
4. Galilean Telescopes
An ocular prosthesis or artificial eye is a type of craniofacial prosthesis that replaces an absent eye following an enuleatin, evisceration, or orbital exenteration.
Introduction to Bitcoins and CryptocurrencyUtkarsh Gupta
An approach to introduce Bitcoins and Cryptocurrencies which are believed to change the way we are going to transact in terms of money with one another.
During this lecturer, you are going to learn the following:
Definition
Causes
Symptoms & Signs
Pathogenesis
Stages of senile cataract?
DD between immature and mature senile cataract
Management of cataract
Bitcoin is one of the famous and widely used decentralized currency in the world since it's creation. Here is the presentation on Bitcoin will help you understand more about it.
Hope this will help
This include a brief explanation of the clinical refraction methods in the eye examination procedure. In order to get the full video download the ppt. it includes a lot of important things
An ocular prosthesis or artificial eye is a type of craniofacial prosthesis that replaces an absent eye following an enuleatin, evisceration, or orbital exenteration.
Introduction to Bitcoins and CryptocurrencyUtkarsh Gupta
An approach to introduce Bitcoins and Cryptocurrencies which are believed to change the way we are going to transact in terms of money with one another.
During this lecturer, you are going to learn the following:
Definition
Causes
Symptoms & Signs
Pathogenesis
Stages of senile cataract?
DD between immature and mature senile cataract
Management of cataract
Bitcoin is one of the famous and widely used decentralized currency in the world since it's creation. Here is the presentation on Bitcoin will help you understand more about it.
Hope this will help
This include a brief explanation of the clinical refraction methods in the eye examination procedure. In order to get the full video download the ppt. it includes a lot of important things
Designing the Good Life: The Ethics of User Experience DesignSebastian Deterding
“You cannot not communicate,” psychologist and philosopher Paul Watzlawick once famously said. Similarly, whatever we create as user experience designers influences others - even if we don’t intend it. And as software is eating the world, the domain of our responsibility is rapidly becoming all-encompassing. Layer by layer, question by question, this talk invites you to reflect on the moral dimensions of your work. Talk presented May 29 at UX London 2014.
Talk at the 6th International Conference Computers, Privacy, and Data Protection, Brussels, January 23, 2013, as part of the EC JRC/OECD panel "Gamifying Citizenship?"
Paideia as Paidia: From Game-Based Learning to a Life Well-PlayedSebastian Deterding
»Gamification« has sparked the imagination of many for the potential of games in education, but turned away an equal amount within the games and learning community with its disregard for the complexities of design and human motivation.
However, this talk suggests that there is a deeper reason for the negative reaction in the games and learning community: namely, that gamification really provides a distorted mirror that throws into stark relief issues in today's game-based learning at large. Conversely, that best way to advance games for learning today is to look deep into this mirror. Doing so reveals a triple agenda for the field: to expand from deploying games as interventions in systems to the gameful restructuring of systems, and from designing games to the playful reframing of situations; and to shift from the instrumentalization of play and learning to paideia as paidia.
Video: http://goo.gl/oKMFm // Are points and badges mere indulgences for the faithful looking for redemption in loyalty programs? In nine (and a half) theses, this talk will walk you through the history, definition, and issues of “gamification,” and point out what is worth salvaging for designers and researchers.
You can do better: Lessons Learned from Government Meets Social NetworksSebastian Deterding
Keynote I gave on October 16, 2009 at the Berlin in October 2009 E-Democracy Unconference on stuff I learned as project lead of the social networking site du-machst.de how to introduce e-participation and web 2.0 culture in a government context.
1960 brachte Milton Bradley “Das Spiel des Lebens” heraus: Ein feuchter Kapitalistentraum von Brettspiel, bei dem der gewann, der mit viel Glück als Reichster den Ruhestand erreichte. Heute machen “Gamification”-Anbieter Ernst mit dem Lebens-Spiel: Vom Abnehmen bis zur Rettung von Afrika, vom TV-Show-Gucken bis zum DNA-Sequenzabgleich: Keine Tätigkeit, die nicht durch Punkte, Abzeichen und andere Elemente aus Computerspielen spaßiger und motivierender gestaltet werden könnte – so ihr Versprechen.
Dabei ist die Debatte über “Gamification” tief gespalten: Auf der einen Seite stehen feuchte Vermarkter-Träume von der perfekten Kundenbindung, auf der anderen Game Designer, die vor Schlangenölverkäufern und flacher “Punktifzierung” warnen. Wie gestaltet man eine spielerische Erfahrung, die für Nutzer wirklich relevant ist – statt nur flüchtige Neuigkeitsreize zu schaffen? Welche Lektionen halten Spiele für andere Produkte und Anwendungen tatsächlich bereit? Welche Kritik ist gerechtfertigt? Und wie können Designer, die an der “Gamifizierung” einer Anwendung interessiert sind, die gefährlichsten Untiefen umschiffen? Der Vortrag gibt eine Übersicht über die aktuelle “Gamification”-Bewegung und zeigt Potenziale und Prinzipien ebenso wie blinde Flecken und Gefahren auf.
Presentation given at Interaction'12, February 3, 2012, Dublin, Ireland. Interest in persuasive design for behavior change has been growing rapidly in interaction design in the past years. In part thanks to that, we as designers now have ample tools and pattern libraries to inspire us. What we are lacking, however, are focus and guidance in applying them. Usually, we get those from user research. But current research methods and deliverables arguably do not provide ready springboards.
This presentation demonstrates how to use the Motivation Ability Opportunity (MAO) model as a tool to structure user research around a single behavior to be changed, and to guide subsequent design in prioritizing issues to tackle and ideating ways to tackle them.
My grumpy talk on "badge measles" and the confusions, side effects and missing parts of gamification at Playful 2010, September 24, 2010 in London, Conway Hall.
Just add points? What UX can (and cannot) learn from gamesSebastian Deterding
Can game mechanics help us to make applications and websites more fun and engaging? My presentation at the UX Camp Europe 2010 on May 29 and 30 in Berlin attempted a sobering look at what user experience designers can and cannot learn from games.
Re-Publicize this! Web 2.0 oder Die stille Privatisierung der digitalen Grund...Sebastian Deterding
Vortrag im Rahmen der Veranstaltungsreihe "Aktuelle Entwicklungen im Web 2.0" des Hans-Bredow-Instituts für Medienforschung, Universität Hamburg am 20.11.2008
Progress Wars: Idle Games and the Demarcation of "Real Games"Sebastian Deterding
My talk from DiGRA FDG 2016: Analyzing idle games through the theoretical lenses of “game aesthetics” and “boundary work”, I explore how game makers intentionally or unintentionally partake in working the boundaries of “real” games.
My talk from Playful 11 in London where I argue we all might be cyborgs already. I talk about how we cognitively project ourselves to our surroundings and possessions, and why everything will be about software, designed behaviour and superpowers.
TDWI Keynote: Outside In - The Future of Business Intelligence innovationmark madsen
The real future of business intelligence rather than the retro future we've been building, and where to look for inspiration and innovation in the future.
Presented by Stephanie Rieger at Breaking Development in Dallas, April 11 2011 and Mobilism in Amsterdam, May 12, 2011.
Context is often cited as the single most important factor in design for the mobile medium. Mobile devices are of course 'mobile', but they are also small, always on, always with us, and can instantly connect us to the people we love. Mobile services must therefore be simple, social, and well-focussed--enabling us to quickly get things done on even the smallest screens.
This is all well and good, but mobile devices have changed. They may be mobile, but many have already stopped being 'phones'—nor do they resemble what we traditionally think of as computers. This presentation will explore how our use, and perception of mobile devices is changing, and how these changes may impact how we should design for them going forward.
Human-Computer Interaction is a discipline concerned with the design, evaluation and implementation of interactive computing systems for human use and with the study of major phenomena surrounding them” -ACM/IEEE
Shift to the future – the technological disruption of learning and work - cio...Brian Kuhn
We live in unprecedented times... technology is disrupting learning and work as we know it. Machines are taking over more and more jobs and we need to be preparing this generation for a very uncertain unpredictable rapidly changing world. Education needs to shift to a world of abundant knowledge, leveraged through networks, and knowledge engines. CIO's need to be futurists and guides for their organizations to lead them forward into the future.
"If you love your content, set it free" ?Mike Ellis
Traditional business models have scarcity at their core: when something is scarce, it becomes valuable. Online, this notion is challenged: in a world where every one of us can copy and distribute content at the click of a mouse, notions of ‘scarcity’ become more and more distant from reality. Several commentators have suggested that scale – i.e. providing more access to ‘valuable’ content rather than less – is actually a more scalable business model for the online economy. This session will look at ways in which content can be freed, and will also examine some of the issues which follow around control and authority.
Midway through a project, a client of ours recently said "One thing I'm learning is that it's ok to give up on the desktop experience once it stops making sense". This wasn't an isolated incident. In fact, i'm beginning to think desktop web sites stopped making sense quite a while ago. We've just had nothing viable to replace them with. Mobile apps have given us a glimpse, but I think they're merely a glimpse into something bigger.
Mobile isn't merely a new stage in the evolution of the web, it's not even merely a new context, it's the very early stages of an entirely new system. A system that has already started to shape our environment, affect the way we live, how we choose to connect with others, and how we're able to spend our time. A system that is also slowly unravelling our assumptions and causing us to question the very reason we build web sites, why people visit them, and where the true value of the web actually lies.
Presented by Stephanie Rieger at Breaking Development in Orlando, Florida on April 17, 2012.
Gamification in health behaviour change produces muddled results. Why? Because game design elements, behaviour change techniques, etc. are too decontextualised and underspecified to guide design implementation. Talk at the CBC 2018 conference "Behaviour Change for Health: Digital & Beyond", February 21, 2018, London.
City Games: Up and Down and Sideways on the Ladder of AbstractionSebastian Deterding
Like games and everyday life, games and cities have been intersecting in two primary ways: modelling the city in an abstract view from above, with planning games and urban simulations, and transforming people's everyday urban experiences and behaviors with playful interventions on the ground. Neither one, this talk argues, has been particularly successful in creating lasting improvements in citizen's well being. To accomplish this, we need to take game design seriously and look sideways at the messy middle between map and territory, the processes in which one is translated into the other (or not). My keynote at ISAGA 2017 in Delft, NL, July 10, 2017.
Experience design is not about shiny new digital technology - apps, touch screens, games, beacons, the works. It is a different perspective on exhibition and museum design, and a different process as a result. My talk at the Museum Association's 2017 Moving on Up event in Edinburg, February 28, 2017.
It's the Autonomy, Stupid: Autonomy Experiences Between Playful Work and Work...Sebastian Deterding
A core tenet of traditional play theories is that play is voluntary. This view has been troubled by recent empirical phenomena of "instrumental play" and "playbour": instances where play is mandatory, has serious consequences attached or is done as gainful labour, such as goldfarming. Similarly, people are increasingly using game design elements in non-game contexts like work to make them more playful and engaging. This talk suggests that the conceptual troubles of playbour and gamification can be resolved by focusing on autonomy as a psychological state: how much autonomy people experience informs whether they understand and a label an activity as "work(-like)" or "play(ful)". Drawing on a qualitative interview study with participants engaging in instrumental play, the talk will tease out how social and material features of gaming and work situations support and thwart autonomy experience and thus, their understanding as "work" or "play."
The Great Escape from the Prison House of Language: Games, Production Studies...Sebastian Deterding
My talk at the DiGRA/FDG 2016 "Why production studies? Why now?" panel, asking how production studies can answer to basic cultural and hermeneutic questions.
Desperately Seeking Theory: Gamification, Theory, and the Promise of a Data/A...Sebastian Deterding
Gamification promises a new, data-driven take at a science of design: establishing what design features cause what psychological and behavioural effects. But to realise this promise, it needs theory.
Are play and work opposites? In this invited keynote at the Control Systems 2016 conference in Stockholm, I argue that we hold three common misconceptions about work, play, and motivation that have us misjudge how work may be made more playful.
Dive into the innovative world of smart garages with our insightful presentation, "Exploring the Future of Smart Garages." This comprehensive guide covers the latest advancements in garage technology, including automated systems, smart security features, energy efficiency solutions, and seamless integration with smart home ecosystems. Learn how these technologies are transforming traditional garages into high-tech, efficient spaces that enhance convenience, safety, and sustainability.
Ideal for homeowners, tech enthusiasts, and industry professionals, this presentation provides valuable insights into the trends, benefits, and future developments in smart garage technology. Stay ahead of the curve with our expert analysis and practical tips on implementing smart garage solutions.
White wonder, Work developed by Eva TschoppMansi Shah
White Wonder by Eva Tschopp
A tale about our culture around the use of fertilizers and pesticides visiting small farms around Ahmedabad in Matar and Shilaj.
7 Alternatives to Bullet Points in PowerPointAlvis Oh
So you tried all the ways to beautify your bullet points on your pitch deck but it just got way uglier. These points are supposed to be memorable and leave a lasting impression on your audience. With these tips, you'll no longer have to spend so much time thinking how you should present your pointers.
Can AI do good? at 'offtheCanvas' India HCI preludeAlan Dix
Invited talk at 'offtheCanvas' IndiaHCI prelude, 29th June 2024.
https://www.alandix.com/academic/talks/offtheCanvas-IndiaHCI2024/
The world is being changed fundamentally by AI and we are constantly faced with newspaper headlines about its harmful effects. However, there is also the potential to both ameliorate theses harms and use the new abilities of AI to transform society for the good. Can you make the difference?
Unleash Your Inner Demon with the "Let's Summon Demons" T-Shirt. Calling all fans of dark humor and edgy fashion! The "Let's Summon Demons" t-shirt is a unique way to express yourself and turn heads.
https://dribbble.com/shots/24253051-Let-s-Summon-Demons-Shirt
Between Filth and Fortune- Urban Cattle Foraging Realities by Devi S Nair, An...Mansi Shah
This study examines cattle rearing in urban and rural settings, focusing on milk production and consumption. By exploring a case in Ahmedabad, it highlights the challenges and processes in dairy farming across different environments, emphasising the need for sustainable practices and the essential role of milk in daily consumption.
You could be a professional graphic designer and still make mistakes. There is always the possibility of human error. On the other hand if you’re not a designer, the chances of making some common graphic design mistakes are even higher. Because you don’t know what you don’t know. That’s where this blog comes in. To make your job easier and help you create better designs, we have put together a list of common graphic design mistakes that you need to avoid.
Hello everyone! I am thrilled to present my latest portfolio on LinkedIn, marking the culmination of my architectural journey thus far. Over the span of five years, I've been fortunate to acquire a wealth of knowledge under the guidance of esteemed professors and industry mentors. From rigorous academic pursuits to practical engagements, each experience has contributed to my growth and refinement as an architecture student. This portfolio not only showcases my projects but also underscores my attention to detail and to innovative architecture as a profession.
3. Let me start with a story – in fact, two stories. In 1906, Friedrich Wilhelm Voigt, a con man, was released from prison.
4. Reformed, he actually wanted to become a good citizen. But he quickly ran into a problem: To get an apartment, he needed to
document that he had a job. To get a job, he needed a work permit. But to get a work permit, he needed to document he had an
apartment. And the Prussian bureaucrats wouldn‘t make an exception for him. They stuck to the rules – a bit like a computer, really. So
Voigt was caught in a loop.
5. So on October 16, 1906, Voigt puts on a Captain‘s uniform, grabs a group of soldiers from the street, marches over to the townhall of
Köpenick, and occupies it ...
6. … and in the course, has his work permit signed and stamped. This stunt immortalized Voigt in German folklore as the »Captain of
Köpenick«.
7. Fast forward to 2010. I was flying abroad form Germany, with a stopover at Schiphol airport.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/grrrl/115642628
8. For the first time, I tried out one of these new gimmicks – a mobile ticket. All went well, until I switched my phone back on in
Schiphol ...
9. … and found that the QR code did not load – it was stored online. And because of the roaming charges, I wouldn‘t dare switch mit WIFI
on.
10. So I walked over to these ticket machines to print a replacement ticket. But I got none. The ticket machine informed me that the ticket
under my number was already drawn. I was stuck in a loop: The system did not foresee that someone might draw a mobile ticket, but
then need a paper replacement as well.
11. Fortunately, I could walk over to these people, who printed out another ticket for me so I could board in time. But on the plane, I
started to wonder: What if they had not behaved like they did, but more like a Prussian bureaucrat? Like a computer? What if they had
been replaced by a computer, like so many other service people on the airport? And it dawned on me that this question extended way
beyond the airport. Increasingly, we live in a world ruled by computers.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/erussell1984/2443450232
12. You experience this every time you are stuck in an unnerving phone tree ...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/marklarson/426789635
13. … or your ATM does weird things.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dirkstoop/152754356
14. You experience it every time you buy something online and get recommendations what to by (actually, every time you use any web site).
15. Every time you drive on a highway and come by these automated traffic control systems that measure traffic and change speed limits
accordingly.
16. I am of course not the first person to observe this. Matt Webb of BERG calls this „The Robot Readable World“.
17. HOW ALGORITHMS SHAPE
OUR WORLD
In his Lift talk last year, Kevin Slavin tracked „how algorithms shape our world“.
18. HOW ALGORITHMS SHAPE
OUR WORLD
The architects Kitchin and Dodge call this new world „code/space“. And „The new aesthetic“ that James Bridle traces tomorrow is
basically the aesthetic expression of this code/space we live in today.
20. »What if we decided to use
everything we know about
game design to fix what‘s
wrong with reality?«
Jane McGonigal
reality is broken (2011: 7)
This idea that we can put a »game layer« – goals, rules, feedback systems – over reality to »fix it«: to make it more fun, enjoyable,
engaging.
25. Life
Or life itself. If you think about it a bit, gamification is the logical next step of the code/space: It takes this world of ubiquitious sensors
and algorithms we already live in to actively steer and change people‘s behaviour.
26. Now I don‘t know about you, but to me, this sounds like one big 1950s Scifi »What if?« novel turned into a real-life experiment.
27. What if ...
we let computers run
our rule systems and
put humans inside?
What if … we let computers run our rule systems, and then put humans inside? That is the question I‘d like to answer today, or better:
report some preliminary findings.
28. 2 strange loops
The messy art of handling
exceptions
29. The first thing we find are exceptions. If you look at the Captain of Köpenick, or my mobile ticket: Both were exceptions; they were not
foreseen in the rule system.
30. Exceptions are the rule
And if you ever wrote programs yourself, you know that exceptions are not exceptions: They are the rule.
31. The are the rule because the map is never the territory, and complexity can never be reduced: We can never foresee every edge case,
and the more complex we make a model to include edge cases, the more interactions and complexities within our model we create, so
that the model itself starts to produce bugs, errors, exceptions.
32. This is something ecologists discovered when they tried to build ever-more complex models of ecosystems: At a certain point, making
the model more complex and realistic decreased the power and quality of predictions it generated.
33. So what we always needed and always will need is a manual override: A human stepping in, making sense of the situation, and handling
the exception. Which is what I did when I walked from the ticket machine to the service people.
34. Ever-more removed
But that‘s the thing: When we shift these systems into computers, the manual override becomes more and more removed from us. You
already experience that every day when you interact with companies and end up in said phone trees. (Which is why there is a service like
„Get Human“ to make the manual override accessible again.)
35. Ever-more black-boxed
And increasingly, even manual override is inaccessible: I couldn‘t check or fix what business rule kept the ticket machine from giving
me a replacement ticket. And even if I were a programmer and had source code access: The more complex and older these systems
become, the harder they become to fix or override. http://www.flickr.com/photos/target_man_2000/5544736415/
36. Take Cobol: Cobol was the main mainframe language back in the days. According to one estimate, 90% of all global financial
transactions are still processed in Cobol. But all the programmers that ran these systems are retiring, and too few young people are
learning Cobol. So increasingly, our financial transactions are operated by computer programs we cannot fix or override because no-one
understands them anymore, and they are too »mission-critical« to stop, throw away and just start anew.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/target_man_2000/5544736415/
37. 3 of letter & spirit
(No rule is ever explicit)
Not only will rule systems always have exceptions: Rules are also never explicit. Rules always have a meaning, an intention. And for
everyday life to work, we follow that intention – the spirit of the rule, not the letter.
38. In fact, this is essential for rule systems to work in real life. Take a phenomenon like »work to rule«: People strike by sticking to the
letter of their work regulations – like Austrian postal workers who one weighed every single piece of mail to ensure that proper postage
was affixed, bringing the whole system to a screeching halt.
39. But if you put a rule system into a program, the program will follow it to the letter – it cannot bend or overstep it toward »the spirit«.
Take foursquare, for example: The system only knows the hard rule of not checking in more often than so-and-so-many times per hour.
40. So what you get are these fine people at the Playful conference in London 2010, holding a public voting of London foursquare players to
determine which kind of foursquare checkins are in the spirit of the game: Checking in at home? Using auto-checkin? Checking in at
buses? http://www.flickr.com/photos/37996583811@N01/5020671427
41. 4 intentions matter
Or: Computer‘s can‘t give credit
And not only do rules have intentions. To us as humans, it makes a huge difference whether something is done by a person with
intention or not.
42. In a recent self-experiment for the magazine Popular Science, the journalist Matthew Shear tried to »gamify« all parts of his existence
for a week, including »becoming a better fiancé«, where he would gets points for washing dishes or taking the dog out. On the evening
of day five, when he and his girlfriend went to bed, he said: http://www.flickr.com/photos/beigeinside/50122570/
43. »You look
especially lovely
tonight.«
To which she replied:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/beigeinside/50122570/
44. »Now I feel
»You look like
you’re just doing
especially lovely
it for the
tonight.«points.«
We care whether people do something to follow a rule, or because they get an incentive for it, or because they genuinely mean it (like
apologizing, or paying a compliment).
http://www.flickr.com/photos/beigeinside/50122570/
45. Computers, however, can‘t do things and mean them, and this does make a difference to us. This was recently demonstrated in a nice
scientific study with school kids using Scratch. If you don‘t know it, Scratch is a gorgeous software that allows kids to program video
games with a very visual code editor, thus learning the principles of programming in the course.
46. A core part of Scratch is the online community that enables people to remix and improve the games of other designers.
47. To support that, there‘s an automated feature that shows if someone copied another person‘s project.
48. In addition, users established the practice of thanking the original creator in the project notes. And in interviews, it came out that this
personal, intentional note was much more important and engaging than the automated one. Indeed, many users felt it was even undue
plagiarism if you didn‘t explicitly state in the notes which project you copied – even if the automatic attribution did it.
49. 5 campbell‘s law
How Rules Beget Gamers
So much for what happens when we let computers run our rule system. Now what happens when we put humans into these systems?
The short answer: They become gamers. They game the system.
50. »The more a quantitative social indicator
is used for social decision-making, the
more subject it will be to corruption
pressures and the more apt it will be to
distort and corrupt the social processes it
is intended to monitor.«
Donald T. Campbell
assessing the impact of planned social change (1976)
This is not a new observation. Already in the 1970s, the sociologist Donald T. Campbell stated his famous laws. What he was describing
were things like schools evaluated by how students performed on certain tests, where school directors would fudge the numbers: They
asked low-performing students to drop out of school, or reclassified them as »disabled«, because then they wouldn‘t be counted in.
51. system intention
But the observation is a general one: All social systems serve a purpose, an intention.
52. formal rules,
quantified goals,
something at stake
system intention
And whenever you turn such a system into something game-like – with formal rules, quantified goals, and something at stake ...
53. formal rules,
quantified goals,
something at stake
system intention
… weird things start to happen with the relation of system and intention.
54. y pe
T 1
#
system intention
»The Munchkin«
The first thing that happens is something we often observe in regular games: For some people, the system becomes its own end.
People pursue the stated goal of the game and become blind to everything outside that. Among gamers, we even have a word for such
people. We call them »Munchkins«.
55. the rule of
irrelevance
Now to a certain extent, this focus is desired: We want people to want to win the game – otherwise it‘s no fun to play. Likewise, we want
people to focus on the game itself. This is what sociologist Erving Goffman called »the rule of irrelevance«.
56. Take strategy war games. Some of them, like Warhammer, are played on lush miniature landscapes with beautifully hand-painted
figures costing hundreds of Euro. But to a certain extent, while you‘re playing, that price and that beauty are irrelevant.
57. For the purposes of the game, those figures and landscapes might as well be represented with some cardboard counters on a simple
map. The only thing that counts are the game-internal values of the units – how much damage do they do? How far away does one unit
stand from another, and how does that affect my probability of scoring a hit? http://boardgamegeek.com/image/1209336/advanced-squad-leader?size=original
58. So in a certain sense, when you put humans into a game, they can become »rational actors« – strategic decision-makers myopically
focused on maximising their outcomes, the kind of strange creature that otherwise only lives in the Prisoner Dilemmas of mathematic
game theory and economics. The become like computers, really. http://www.rasmusen.org/x/images/pd.jpg
59. But in real games, every gamer knows there‘s a limit: If you go too far, you become a Munchkin. To quote from Wikipedia, »a munchkin
seeks within the context of the game to amass the greatest power, score the most 'kills', and grab the most loot, no matter how
deleterious their actions are to the other players' fun". In other words, the Munchkin forgets that the purpose of playing a game is to
have fun together. He forgets that he is not only a a rational actor, but also a social actor enmeshed in messy world where the beauty of
the pieces and their worth and his friends and fair play and fun – where everything counts.
60. And Munchkindom is pervasive. BMW recently tested a location-based game prototype to motivate fuel-efficient driving. The game
challenged you to beat the amount of fuel used by other drivers for the route you entered into the navigation system. The prototype
worked well – on average, test drivers used 0,4l/100km less fuel. In fact, the game was so motivating ...
61. So you also played
EcoChallengeTM?
… that in order to safe fuel, the test drivers engaged in not-so-safe driving practices, like dashing over a reddish light because stopping
and restarting would use more fuel. In the US, »hypermiling« is the newly-minted word for this new emergent consumer behaviour.
Again generalising, once you add incentives or goals to anything, it can motivate all kinds of unintented behaviours. (Source)
62. After the recent financial crisis, many critics have traced its origins back to Munchkindom: The market had become self-referential. In
his recent book „Fixing the Game“, Robert Martin observed that tying incentives to stakeholder value has turned CEOs into Munchkins
focused solely on stock market price, destroying companies in the course, as they ignored that the stock market is a means to the end
of funding sustainable growth of the company.
63. <Insert Dilbert
cartoon here>
Similarly, the management consultant observed James Rieley observed that in every large organisation, people start to focus on the
internal game of meeting their KPIs and targets and lose sight of whether these are helpful for the thriving of the organisation itself. In a
word, they become office politics Munchkins. And I am sure you can think of many examples yourself.
64. »negative
externalities«
Economists have their own word for this: negative externalities. Bad things happening as a consequence of an economic exchange that
don‘t effect the exchange because they are external: They are not counted in. Again, we can generalise this: Create a rule system and
targets, and everything not »counted in« tends to become an unaccounted negative externality.
65. In a certain sense, Brenda Brathwaite‘s board game Train is a reflection on how we as humans are prone to become Munchkins. On the
surface, Train is a transportation game with the goal to move as many people as quickly as possible from start to finish. So you have to
move fast and stack people efficiently. But when the first player‘s train reaches the destination, he has to draw a „Terminus“ card, which
reveals his destination. And on those cards, the player reads words like Auschwitz. Or Bergen-Belsen.
66. »Just
following
orders«
He discovers that he has become an Adolf Eichmann, »just following orders«. That he never questioned the goal he was given, or the
intention of the system he was operating in.
67. y pe
T 2
#
personal
gain
system intention
»The Exploiter«
The second type of gamer is someone who knows the intention of the system full well, but doesn‘t care. Instead, he maliciously uses
the rules for his own purposes.
68. Take this story from Australian Economist Joshua Grant who tried to raise his daughter with economic laws. She should be potty-
trained, so good economist that he was, he introduced an incentive – Skittles – that she would get every time she went to the potty. So
what would our smart gaming daughter do?
69. She somehow managed to discipline herself so that she would go to the potty every twenty minutes – and eat herself sick with Skittles.
And it gets even better.
70. When her little brother should be potty-trained, her father wanted to make it a social thing – so she would earn Skittles every time he
went to the potty. And what did the clever lady do? She added water to the equation – that is, to her little brother. Lots and lots of water.
(Source)
71. Again, this behaviour is pervasive everywhere you have a rule system and something at stake. Think of filibustering in the US Senate,
where Republican senators in 2010 stopped a law to disclose sponsors of political ads by using their right to speak as long as they wish,
and their majority to stop the Democrats from voting a »cloture« to end it, until the Democrats gave in and abandoned the law.
72. Think of online media: Buying facebook or twitter followers, black-hat SEO, ... or this Kindle stand that got a whopping 310 five-star
reviews out of a total 335 on Amazon. Some people got curious and found that the company selling them packed a little note to the first
stands it sent out. The note asked people to write an Amazon review, if they liked the product. So far, so good. But there was also this
little sentence:
73. »In return for writing the
review, we will refund your
order, so you will have
received the product for free.«
74. pe
Ty 3
#
system intention
»The Player«
The third kind of gaming the system happens when people are more interested in exploring the possibilities the rule system holds than
producing a pragmatic effect. In a sense, they are the benign counterpart to the Munchkin – ignoring the original intention of the
system, but not out of forgetfulness, but out of curiosity.
75. This leads to things like people using Amazon reviews to write poetry on products.
77. Or tracking the most deleted, rather than the most listened, tunes. In short, exploring what effects and experiences are possible within a
given system.
78. pe
Ty 4
#
system effect intention
»The Hacker«
The fourth kind of gaming the system happens when people find the system itself to be broken. When the system serves a certain end
that is not what the system originally was intended for – people will hack it.
79. Health care is a good example: It is heavily ruled and regulated to reduce costs. But for doctors, the point of health care is not costs,
but healing patients. So when the system gets in the way of their patients, they game it: If a health insurance doesn‘t pay preventive
screening in an MRI, say, they diagnose a patient as »having a brain tumor« instead of »screening for possible tumor«, to make sure
people get the treatment that is best for them.
80. And when our captain here did not get his work permit – well, you know the story.
81. 6 Plus ça change ...
Whose rules? What game?
I would like to end with a simple question: Who builds these rule systems? Whose intentions do they support? What kind of „fixing
reality“ do they propose? The answer takes us back into the 1970s.
82. Technologies of power
Back then, the philosopher Michel Foucault coined a useful term: Technologies of power. What he meant were all the rules, procedures,
machines, discourses that a society uses to control its individuals – to rule the world. And if we look at today‘s »code/spaces« and
gamified applications, I'd argue they fit that bill.
83. Stay in the game. Move on.
They are designed by companies and governments to make you fit into the rules they devised: Fitter, happier, more productive – for
their purposes.
85. … are technologies of the self
You see, technologies of power can also be used as technologies of the self. Technologies with which we are ruled, but also
technologies we can use to rule ourselves, reflect on ourselves, transform ourselves – and in the course, lift ourselves out of the rules of
society.
86. »What I mean ... are those intentional and
voluntary actions by which men not only
set themselves rules of conduct, but also
seek to transform themselves, ... and to
make their life into an oeuvre«.
Michel Foucault
the use of pleasure (1985)
87. And if that sounds a bit abstract, here‘s an example. In 1971, Luke Rhineheart wrote this thinly veiled autobiographical novel about a
psychoanalyst named Luke Rhineheart who is utterly bored with his life – stuck in a rut. So one day, he sets himself one rule: Every
decision he will make will be made by the throw of a die. He will write out six options and then let the die decide. As you would expect
from a pulpy 1970s »cult classic«, the ensuing events are full of gratuitous sex (especially sex), violence, drugs, madness, and other
social deviance. But I think the main point stands valid: We can use self-chosen rules to liberate, to grow, to empower yourself.
88. And if you prefer more recent examples, there‘s Fred Stutzman‘s »Freedom«, which allows you to rule yourself out of internet
connectivity.
89. Or Buster Benson‘s »Health Month«, which allows you to set yourself rules to transform yourself.
90. »How do you use technology
to generate more of those
serendipitous encounters?«
Even foursquare, in its original intention, was all about this: To use data collected about you and your friends to push you out of your
rut into exploring your city, as co-founder Dennis Crowley explains.
91. »I realized that I‘m surrounded by
opportunities in life that I‘m not aware of.«
And apparently, even game designer Will Wright is after this in his most recent venture »HiveMind«: Using recommendation engines
to push us out of the trodden paths – and paradoxically into yet another comfort zone.
92. But I think that Crowley and Wright miss a central insight of »The Dice Man«: Self-transformation is not about fancy technology. The
»Dice Man« used the oldest and simplest game technology available: A die; dice go back before recorded history. In the end, what
makes a rule system a technology of the self – or a technology of power – is how we, as human beings, relate to it. Whether we actively
decide to make use of them.
93. Whether we make sense of the rules in the situation at hand, and handle the exceptions.
94. Whether we humans imbue them with meaning and intention.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/beigeinside/50122570/
95. Whether we live by their spirit, and not just their letter.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/37996583811@N01/5020671427