Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques

Recent years have seen a rapid proliferation of mass-market consumer software that takes inspiration from video games. Usually summarized as "gamification", this trend connects to a sizeable body of existing concepts and research in human-computer interaction and game studies, such as serious games, pervasive games, alternate reality games, or playful design. However, it is not clear how "gamification" relates to these, whether it denotes a novel phenomenon, and how to define it. Thus, in this paper we investigate "gamification" and the historical origins of the term in relation to precursors and similar concepts. It is suggested that "gamified" applications provide insight into novel, gameful phenomena complementary to playful phenomena. Based on our research, we propose a definition of "gamification" as the use of game design elements in non-game contexts.

/pdf/from-game-design-elements-to-gamefulness-defining-1wnas1kptm.pdf

From game design elements to gamefulness: defining "gamification"

From the Publisher: 
A Question of Identity 
Life on the Screen is a fascinating and wide-ranging investigation of the impact of computers and networking on society, peoples' perceptions of themselves, and the individual's relationship to machines. Sherry Turkle, a Professor of the Sociology of Science at MIT and a licensed psychologist, uses Internet MUDs (multi-user domains, or in older gaming parlance multi-user dungeons) as a launching pad for explorations of software design, user interfaces, simulation, artificial intelligence, artificial life, agents, "bots," virtual reality, and "the on-line way of life." 
Turkle's discussion of postmodernism is particularly enlightening. She shows how postmodern concepts in art, architecture, and ethics are related to concrete topics much closer to home, for example AI research (Minsky's "Society of Mind") and even MUDs (exemplified by students with X-window terminals who are doing homework in one window and simultaneously playing out several different roles in the same MUD in other windows). Those of you who have (like me) been turned off by the shallow, pretentious, meaningless paintings and sculptures that litter our museums of modern art may have a different perspective after hearing what Turkle has to say. 
This is a psychoanalytical book, not a technical one. However, software developers and engineers will find it highly accessible because of the depth of the author's technical understanding and credibility. Unlike most other authors in this genre, Turkle does not constantly jar the technically-literate reader with blatant errors or bogus assertions about how things work. Although I personally don't have time or patience for MUDs,view most of AI as snake-oil, and abhor postmodern architecture, I thought the time spent reading this book was an extremely good investment.

스크린 위의 삶 = Life on the screen : identity in the age of the internet

Cooperation is needed for evolution to construct new levels of organization. Genomes, cells, multicellular organisms, social insects, and human society are all based on cooperation. Cooperation means that selfish replicators forgo some of their reproductive potential to help one another. But natural selection implies competition and therefore opposes cooperation unless a specific mechanism is at work. Here I discuss five mechanisms for the evolution of cooperation: kin selection, direct reciprocity, indirect reciprocity, network reciprocity, and group selection. For each mechanism, a simple rule is derived that specifies whether natural selection can lead to cooperation.

/pdf/five-rules-for-the-evolution-of-cooperation-2bpocasc6i.pdf

Five Rules for the Evolution of Cooperation

In 1974 an article appeared in Science magazine with the dry-sounding title “Judgment Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases” by a pair of psychologists who were not well known outside their discipline of decision theory. In it Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman introduced the world to Prospect Theory, which mapped out how humans actually behave when faced with decisions about gains and losses, in contrast to how economists assumed that people behave. Prospect Theory turned Economics on its head by demonstrating through a series of ingenious experiments that people are much more concerned with losses than they are with gains, and that framing a choice from one perspective or the other will result in decisions that are exactly the opposite of each other, even if the outcomes are monetarily the same. Prospect Theory led cognitive psychology in a new direction that began to uncover other human biases in thinking that are probably not learned but are part of our brain’s wiring.

Thinking fast and slow.

Gamification -- the use of game design elements in non-game contexts -- is touted by many as the solution of how to make applications and processes more engaging to people that may have little or no motivation to engage with them otherwise. Based upon a literature review, the paper argues for guidelines concerning two aspects of gamifying an activity: ensuring that a continued focus on the main activities can be preserved and considering designing for playfulness. Furthermore, the relation between gamification and play is discussed, and some possible issues with gamification are presented.

https://ph.au.dk/fileadmin/ph/Idraet/EVINN/Knaving_Bjoerk_-_Designing_for_Fun_and_Play_-_EVINN.pdf

Designing for fun and play: exploring possibilities in design for gamification

We are exploring the design space of wearable computers by designing "public" wearable computer displays. This paper describes our first prototype, the BubbleBadge. By effectively turning the wearer's private display "inside out", the BubbleBadge transforms the wearable computing concept by making digital information public rather than private. User tests showed that the device introduces a new way to interact with information-providing devices, suggesting that it would be valuable to explore the concept further.

The BubbleBadge: a wearable public display

Computer games have grown during recent years into a popular entertainment form with a wide variety of game types and a large consumer group spread across the world. An increasing number of people are playing electronic games, placing them among other favorite leisure activities. When surveyed on the most fun entertainment activities in the year 2000, 35 percent of all Americans identified computer and video games, where watching television fell second at 18 percent, followed by surfing the internet (15%), reading books (13 %) and going to the movies (11%) [8]. On-line gaming has offered people new means of having social interaction with people in faraway locations and let them access and play out fantasy-driven identities they are unable to manifest in the real world [12]. In 2002, the percentage of frequent game players that play games online rose to 31 percent up from 24 percent the year before [8]. Within the games, or through the use of websites based around the games, dedicated and long-lived communities have formed which have created new content, sometimes leading to commercial ventures. Electronic game play, however, is not limited to home use. Game parlors and LAN parties are becoming a popular means to play online games. Also, 37 percent of Americans who own game consoles (or computers used to play games), report that they also play games on mobile devices such as PDAs and mobile phones [8]. The popularity of computer games has thus not only made them important carriers of culture and trends but also a financially interesting area. They also function as a vehicle for the development and deployment of new hardware, software and user interface techniques. According to Interactive Digital Software Association (www.idsa.com), the computer and video game software industry in the US generated $6.35 billon in sales from 225 million units in 2001 (up 7.9% and 4.5% from 2000 respectively). In the same year in the US, movie box office grosses were $8.41 billion [8]. In the UK in the year 2000, the entertainment software industries grossed £300 million more than the UK cinema box offices and almost double that of home video rentals [3]. The world entertainment software market is estimated to be almost $18 billion and to grow to $26.7 billion by the year 2005 [3]. Computer games are some of the applications available to the general public that have the very highest demands on ease-of-use, engagement, and aesthetical appearance. These demands have made developers of computer games use the latest techniques within artificial intelligence, multimedia, computer graphics, computer simulation, and human-computer interaction to be competitive against other games developers. For example, recently IBM, Sony, and Toshiba have partnered on creation of the ‘Cell’. The Cell is a unique type of computer processor that contains several types of computing cores that are optimized for one type of task (e.g. communications, video processing). These processing cells can be interconnected to optimize a specific task [11]. This exciting research has not been driven for use in supercomputers, or high-end business PCs, but for use in the Playstation, a gaming console.

Special Issue on Ubiquitous Games

We present a structural framework to describe games in terms of components. The components are divided into four major areas: meta-structure, bounding, narrative and objective. The framework is developed to be used in conjunction with game design patterns, descriptions of patterns of interaction relevant to game play. We describe the development of the framework and how it relates to patterns.

/pdf/describing-games-an-interaction-centric-structural-framework-2lgvghsahu.pdf

Describing Games - An Interaction-Centric Structural Framework

This paper aims to give a systematic account of focus+context visualization techniques, i.e. visualizations which aim to give users integrated visual access to details and context in a data set. We introduce the notion that there are different orders of information visualization with focus+context being a second-order visualization and provide a formal framework for describing and constructing focus+context visualizations.

/pdf/a-framework-for-focus-context-visualization-3db2p5tpjn.pdf

Staffan Björk

Papers

Designing for fun and play: exploring possibilities in design for gamification

The BubbleBadge: a wearable public display

Special Issue on Ubiquitous Games

Describing Games - An Interaction-Centric Structural Framework

A framework for focus+context visualization