Gamification: Overview and

Examples

Savi Maharaj

Computing Science and Mathematics

University of Stirling

Outline

• What is gamification?

• What can gamification be used for?

• Games versus interactive simulations

• Examples (most of the talk)

• Gamification for the Forestry Commission:

next steps

• Questions?

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(A nostalgia trip: Hamurabi)

An inspiration for modern games like Civilization and Sim-City.

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What is gamification?

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Gamification [definition from Google]

/ ,ɡeɪmɪfɪˈkeɪʃ(ə)n/noun

the application of typical elements of game

playing (e.g. point scoring, competition with

others, rules of play) to other areas of activity,

typically as an online marketing technique to

encourage engagement with a product or service.

"gamification is exciting because it promises to

make the hard stuff in life fun"

McGonigal (2012)

What is gamification used for?

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• “online marketing technique to encourage engagement with

a product or service”.

• Related: encouraging behaviour change

• But also: simulations and scenario exploration – e.g. “Serious

games”

• And: crowd sourcing, exploiting “human computation” and

citizen science – “Games with a purpose”

• And: education, social improvement – “Games for Change”

• And: scientific research – “virtual experiments”

• And: publicizing research, outreach

Games vs. interactive simulations

• Simulation (Shannon 1975): The process of designing a

model of a real system and conducting experiments with

this model for the purpose of understanding the behaviour

of the system and/or evaluating various strategies for the

operation of the system

– may allow interactive exploration of effects of changing parameters

• Gaming: starts with a simulation, but adds ‘play’ elements,

such as role-playing, scoring, winning/losing, strategies,

fun…

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Gamification as a marketing tool

Example:

FourSquare

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Gamification as a marketing tool

Example:

Turntable.fm

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Gamification for behaviour change

Example:

Fitocracy

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Gamification for behaviour change

Examples:

Volkswagen’s Fun

Theory; recycling in

Melbourne

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“Serious games” (simulations)

Examples: taxation game

from issy.com; e-health

from santé-digitale;

livestock management

from ForgeFX

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“Serious games” (simulations)

Example: Screenshot from a bio-economic “war game”

model for plant disease in Australia (David Cook et al)

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Serious games for policy exploration:

barge transport game

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Dutch Ministry of Transport project to

research scenario-based future of

barge transportation

Simulation model developed at

GameLab, TU Delft, using detailed

market data.

Multi-user game played by experts

from barge sector, complemented

with discussion sessions

Verbraeck (2014), Social Computer

Simulation and Serious Gaming: What Can

we Learn from Each Other, Social

Simulation Conference, Barcelona

“Games with a purpose”

Relates to: “crowd-sourcing”, “human computation”, “citizen science”. Examples: FoldIt, Phylo, Fraxinus(top), Genes in Space, Cell Slider, Cropland Capture (bottom)

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“Games for change”www.gamesforchange.org

Examples: Reach for the Sun

Stop Disasters!

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Games for Research: NonCropShare

environmental economics game

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NetLogo / HubNet 4-player

experimental game to

investigate how incentives

affect choices to maintain

non-crop habitat or use

pesticides.

Andrew Bell; Zhang, Wei; Bianchi,

Felix; and vander Werf, Wopke

(2013). NonCropShare – a

coordination game for provision of

insect-based ecosystem services.

IFPRI Biosight Program.

Games for research: social distancing study

• Avoiding contact with others so as to reduce the risk of becoming infected.

• Practiced since ancient times (e.g. Boccaccio’s Decameron)

• ... and in modern times (e.g., school closures, cancellation of public events,

individual decisions to avoid public places during epidemics)

Two questions:

• How effective is it? Does the economic cost of losing contact outweigh the

(possible) benefit of reducing the spread of the epidemic?

• And how do real people behave when faced with the threat of infection?

0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0

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efit

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� p = 0.01

p = 0.25

p = 0.51

Results from Agent-based model:Benefit versus risk attitude for different types of disease

• For non-invasive

disease (p = 0.01)

there is no effect.

• For highly infectious

diseases (p >= 0.25),

there is a sharp switch

from positive to

negative benefit as risk

tolerance increases.

• Note that the best

region is very close

to the worst one

risk averse risk tolerant

• Maharaj and Kleczkowski,

Controlling epidemic spread

by social distancing: do it

well or not at all, BMC Public

Health 12(1), 2012.

• Idea: conduct experiments using a simulated epidemic

• Game implemented using participatory simulation

• A multi-agent simulation, in which the player controls one agent

and the others are controlled by computer.

• Created using Java Swing (front end) and NetLogo (back end).

But how do people really behave in epidemics?

ABS with animation: epidemic game

Risk attitude: cautious <–> relaxed

Epidemic

impact

(simulations)

Mean risk attitude of participants

Maharaj, Kleczkowski, Rasmussen, Williams (2013), (2014) in prep.

Aim: to investigate social distancing

responses during an epidemic

Game created using a NetLogo epidemic

simulation (back-end) with a Java Swing

animation (front end), and played by 230

experimental participants.

Epidemic Game V2

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Puzzle:

We found no correlation

between behaviour in the

Epidemic Game and

psychological

characteristics of

participants.

Next version:

Try to induce more realistic

behaviour by adding images

to “prime” subjects to think

of disease

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Screenshots from “Epidemic Upgrade” developed in Unity 3D by Craig Docherty,

University of Stirling, a work in progress

Even more immersive: 3D Epidemic game

Goal: to investigate user valuation of

wild fire management policies such as

prescribed burn.

Game using realistic animations of wild

fires created with GIS data, FARSITE fire

simulation software and SpeedTree

tree rendering software.

Players could “walk” around or take a

“helicopter flight” over landscapes

Valuations compared with those from

standard survey instruments, and

found to be “closer to the truth”.

Fiore et al (2009), Virtual experiments and

environmental policy, J. Environmental Economics

and Management 57.

Games for research: wild fire

management virtual reality game

Games for Research: virtual reality

psychology experiment

• Example: Virtual Time Travel to the Past– Mel Slater, EventLab,

Barcelona

– http://youtu.be/g6gj7D3wsiU

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Oculus Rift 2 Head Mounted Display

Games for outreach: webidemics

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Games for outreach: Slug Trumps

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www.slugwatch.co.uk/

Games for Fun!

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Games for Fun!

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Games for Fun!

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Games for Fun!

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PESTS ?

Questions for the audience

• What should we gamify?

• Who will be the players? How will they be

motivated to play the game.

• Game or simulation? How important is play?

• Multiplayer or single-player? Different roles?

• How much realism/immersion is needed?

• How do we measure effectiveness?

• Timescale? Budget?

• More…?

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Questions from the audience?

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