Jonna Koivisto

Does Gamification Work? -- A Literature Review of Empirical Studies on Gamification

This paper reviews peer-reviewed empirical studies on gamification. We create a framework for examining the effects of gamification by drawing from the definitions of gamification and the discussion on motivational affordances. The literature review covers results, independent variables (examined motivational affordances), dependent variables (examined psychological/behavioral outcomes from gamification), the contexts of gamification, and types of studies performed on the gamified systems. The paper examines the state of current research on the topic and points out gaps in existing literature. The review indicates that gamification provides positive effects, however, the effects are greatly dependent on the context in which the gamification is being implemented, as well as on the users using it. The findings of the review provide insight for further studies as well as for the design of gamified systems.

Demographic differences in perceived benefits from gamification

In recent years, ‘‘gamification’’ has been proposed as a solution for engaging people in individually and socially sustainable behaviors, such as exercise, sustainable consumption, and education. This paper studies demographic differences in perceived benefits from gamification in the context of exercise. On the basis of data gathered via an online survey (N = 195) from an exercise gamification service Fitocracy, we examine the effects of gender, age, and time using the service on social, hedonic, and utilitarian benefits and facilitating features of gamifying exercise. The results indicate that perceived enjoyment and usefulness of the gamification decline with use, suggesting that users might experience novelty effects from the service. The findings show that women report greater social benefits from the use of gamification. Further, ease of use of gamification is shown to decline with age. The implications of the findings are discussed.

Do Persuasive Technologies Persuade? - A Review of Empirical Studies

This paper reviews the current body of empirical research on persuasive technologies 95 studies. In recent years, technology has been increasingly harnessed to persuade and motivate people to engage in various behaviors. This phenomenon has also attracted substantial scholarly interest over the last decade. This review examines the results, methods, measured behavioral and psychological outcomes, affordances in implemented persuasive systems, and domains of the studies in the current body of research on persuasive technologies. The reviewed studies have investigated diverse persuasive systems/designs, psychological factors, and behavioral outcomes. The results of the reviewed studies were categorized into fully positive, partially positive, and negative and/or no effects. This review provides an overview of the state of empirical research regarding persuasive technologies. The paper functions as a reference in positioning future research within the research stream of persuasive technologies in terms of the domain, the persuasive stimuli and the psychological and behavioral outcomes.

Measuring flow in gamification

Psychometric properties of the DFS-2 are examined in gamification of exercise.A good model fit for the original DFS-2 structure is found.A respecification of the model is created to reach higher level of goodness-of-fit.The data suggest a division of the components of flow into conditions and outcomes.The study also shows which components of flow are salient in gamification. This paper measures flow in the context of gamification and investigates the psychometric properties of the Dispositional Flow Scale-2 (DFS-2). We employ data gathered from users of an exercise gamification service (N=200). The results show that the original DFS-2 factorial structure does result in a similar model fit as the original work. However, we also present a factorial respecification that satisfies more recent model fit thresholds. Beyond validating the original DFS-2 instrument in the context of gamification, the psychometric analysis and the respecifications suggest that the components of flow divide into highly correlated conditions of flow (which were also found to be more salient in the context of gamification: autotelic experience, balance of skill and challenge, control, clear goals, and feedback) and into possible outcomes (merging action-awareness, concentration, loss of sense of time, and loss of self-consciousness) from achieving flow.

Service quality explains why people use freemium services but not if they go premium

Freemium has become de facto business model for online services.User responses were gathered from freemium games (N=869).Service quality positively predicts intentions to continue using freemium services.Quality of a freemium service is indirectly associated with premium purchases.The effect of quality on premium purchases is mediated by use of freemium. During the last decade, the freemium business model has spread into a variety of services especially online. However, service developers have faced a dilemma of balancing between making the service as high quality as possible but at the same time creating demand for the premium products that augment the core free service. If the service is of enough high quality, augmenting premium products might not offer significant added value over the otherwise free service. In this study we investigate how perceived service quality predicts customers willingness to continue using the freemium services and to purchase premium content. User responses were gathered from freemium services (free-to-play games) (N=869). The results indicate that while expectedly the different dimensions of service quality (assurance, empathy, reliability and responsiveness) positively predict the intentions to continue using the freemium service, they do directly predict why people would be willing to spend more money on premium, i.e. the effect of perceived quality of a freemium service on premium purchases is mediated by use of freemium. These findings indicate that increasing the quality of a freemium service has surprisingly little effect on the demand for additional premium services directly.

Gamified crowdsourcing: Conceptualization, literature review, and future agenda

Abstract Two parallel phenomena are gaining attention in human–computer interaction research: gamification and crowdsourcing. Because crowdsourcings success depends on a mass of motivated crowdsourcees, crowdsourcing platforms have increasingly been imbued with motivational design features borrowed from games; a practice often called gamification. While the body of literature and knowledge of the phenomenon have begun to accumulate, we still lack a comprehensive and systematic understanding of conceptual foundations, knowledge of how gamification is used in crowdsourcing, and whether it is effective. We first provide a conceptual framework for gamified crowdsourcing systems in order to understand and conceptualize the key aspects of the phenomenon. The papers main contributions are derived through a systematic literature review that investigates how gamification has been examined in different types of crowdsourcing in a variety of domains. This meticulous mapping, which focuses on all aspects in our framework, enables us to infer what kinds of gamification efforts are effective in different crowdsourcing approaches as well as to point to a number of research gaps and lay out future research directions for gamified crowdsourcing systems. Overall, the results indicate that gamification has been an effective approach for increasing crowdsourcing participation and the quality of the crowdsourced work; however, differences exist between different types of crowdsourcing: the research conducted in the context of crowdsourcing of homogenous tasks has most commonly used simple gamification implementations, such as points and leaderboards, whereas crowdsourcing implementations that seek diverse and creative contributions employ gamification with a richer set of mechanics.

Why do players buy in-game content? An empirical study on concrete purchase motivations

Selling in-game content has become a popular revenue model for game publishers. While prior research has investigated latent motivations as determinants of in-game content purchases, the prior literature has not focused on more concrete reasons to purchase in-game content that stem from how the games are being designed. We form an inventory of reasons (19) to buy in-game content via triangulating from analyses of top-grossing free-to-play games, from a review of existing research, and from industry expert input. These reasons were operationalized into a survey (N=519). Firstly, we explored how these motivations converged into categories. The results indicated that the purchasing reasons converged into six dimensions: 1) Unobstructed play, 2) Social interaction, 3) Competition, 4) Economical rationale, 5) Indulging the children, and 6) Unlocking content. Secondly, we investigated the relationship between these factors and how much players spend money on in-game content. The results revealed that the purchase motivations of unobstructed play, social interaction, and economical rationale were positively associated with how much money players spend on in-game content. The results imply that the way designers implement artificial limitations and obstacles as well as social interaction affects how much players spend money on in-game content. Inventory/questionnaire of in-game purchase motivations (19) was formed.Motivational dimensions of in-game purchases were investigated via survey (N=519).Nineteen motivations converged onto six main dimensions:Unobstructing, Social, Competition, Economical, Children, and Unlocking content.Unobstructing, Social and Economical motivations predicted in-game purchases.

How Effective Is “Exergamification”? A Systematic Review on the Effectiveness of Gamification Features in Exergames

Physical activity is very important to public health and exergames represent one potential way to enact it. The promotion of physical activity through gamification and enhanced anticipated affect also holds promise to aid in exercise adherence beyond more traditional educational and social cognitive approaches. This paper reviews empirical studies on gamified systems and serious games for exercising. In order to gain a better understanding of these systems, this review examines the types and aims (e.g. controlling body weight, enjoying indoor jogging…) of the corresponding studies as well as their psychological and physical outcomes. This paper particularly reviews the deployed motivational affordances and the effectiveness of incorporating gamification features in exergames. The review shows overall positive psychological outcomes (e.g. enjoying exercise) as well as behavioral ones (e.g. decreasing sedentariness) about exergames. Its findings inform about the current state of the research on the topic, based on which, suggestions for further research are outlined.