cultivating ludusthe rhetorics of gamification

Sebastian DeterdingMAGIC Lab, Rochester Institute of Technology

Gamification 2013, October 4, 2013

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<1>fight!

a heated discourse, still

Gabe Zichermann

»Gamification presents the best tools humanity has ever invented to create and sustain engagement in people. [...] It’s a proven approach using breakthroughs in design and technology to vastly improve the world as we know it – and deliver the organizational success you desire.«

the gamification revolution (2012: xvii)

Ian Bogost

»Gamification is bullshit.«

gamification is bullshit (2011)http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4294/persuasive_games_shell_games.php

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thebigdurian/2188050654/sizes/o/in/set-72157603736067356/

fending off the colonizers

Story

ludification of culture

gamesplay

cultivation of ludus

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thebigdurian/2188050654/sizes/o/in/set-72157603736067356/

social regulation

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thebigdurian/2188050654/sizes/o/in/set-72157603736067356/

taxation

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thebigdurian/2188050654/sizes/o/in/set-72157603736067356/

instrumentalization

Johan Huizinga

»Summing up the formal characteristics of play we might call it a free activity standing quite consciously outside ‘ordinary’ life as being ‘not serious’, but at the same time absorbing the player intensely and utterly. It is an activity connected with no material interest, and no profit can be gained by it.«

homo ludens (1949: 13)

Roger Cailloisman, play, and games (2001)

»Play is an occasion of pure waste: waste of time, energy, ingenuity, skill, and often of money«

Roger Cailloisman, play, and games (2001: 6)

»There is also no doubt that play must be defined as a free and voluntary activity […]. A game which one would be forced to play would at once cease being play.«

PJ Rey

»Gamification is a mechanism for de-coupling alienation from capitalist production […]. By masking work as play, capitalist production moves exploitation out of the work places and infiltrates our leisure time. Play loses its innocence. It is no longer an escape from the system, it is just another branch of it. Waste is no longer wasted. Playbor is part of capitalism’s effort to colonize every last moment in the waking day.«

gamification, playbour & exploitation (2012)

Ian Bogost

»More specifically, gamification is marketing bullshit, invented by consultants as a means to capture the wild, coveted beast that is videogames and to domesticate it for use in the grey, hopeless wasteland of big business. [...] it takes games – a mysterious, magical, powerful medium that has captured the attention of millions of people – and it makes them accessible in the context of contemporary business.«

gamification is bullshit (2011)http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4294/persuasive_games_shell_games.php

strategic training

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jean-Leon_Gerome_Pollice_Verso.jpg

symbolic politics

planning & simulation

countercultre

What is the proper place of games in society?

<2>the ambiguity

of gamification

brian sutton-smith

»It is the intent of the present work to bring some coherence to the ambiguous field of play theory by suggesting that some of the chaos to be found there is due to the lack of clarity about the popular cultural rhetorics that underlie the various play theories and play terms.«

the ambiguity of play (1997: 7–8)

brian sutton-smith

»The word rhetoric is used here in its modern sense, as being a persuasive discourse, or an implicit narrative, wittingly or unwittingly adopted by members of a particular affiliation to persuade others of the veracity and worthwhileness of their beliefs.«

the ambiguity of play (1997: 8)

brian sutton-smith

»As the term is used here, the rhetorics of play express the way play is placed in context within broader value systems […] The popular rhetorics are large-scale cultural ‘ways of thought’ in which most of us participate in one way or another, although some specific groups will be more strongly advocates for this or that particular rhetoric.«

the ambiguity of play (1997: 8)

a clash of rhetorics

gamification rhetorics

• A community of practice and main application area

• A supporting academic discipline with main theories and main proponents

• Reference non-game analogues & game genres

• A conception of games & game design

• A moral politics of play

Roger Cailloisman, play, and games (2001)

LudusPaidiaplay

improvisationexplorationtumultuousimmoderate

gameskill, effortstrategizing

orderedrule-bound

elements of A gamification rhetoric

• A community of practice and main application area

• A supporting academic discipline with main theories and main proponents

• Reference non-game analogues & game genres

• A conception of games & game design

• A moral politics of play

What is the proper place of games in society?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thebigdurian/2188050654/sizes/o/in/set-72157603736067356/

rituals

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thebigdurian/2188050654/sizes/o/in/set-72157603736067356/

Passage rites

»limen«Latin: border, threshold

Victor Turner

»In liminality people play with the elements of the familiar and defamiliarize them. [… I]t is the analysis of culture into elements and their free or ludic recombination in any and every possible pattern.«

from ritual to theatre (1982: 27–8)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/aaroncorey/38954571/sizes/o/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/aaroncorey/38954571/sizes/o/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/aaroncorey/38954571/sizes/o/http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrccos/14440106

liminalpremodern

natural rhythmsreligiouscollectiveobligatory

instrumentalreproduces orderimproves means

liminoidmodern

decoupledsecular

individualoptionalautotelic

changes orderquestions ends

Premodern liminal modern liminoid

»More specifically, gamification is marketing bullshit, invented by consultants as a means to capture the wild, coveted beast that is videogames and to domesticate it for use in the grey, hopeless wasteland of big business. [...] it takes games – a mysterious, magical, powerful medium that has captured the attention of millions of people – and it makes them accessible in the context of contemporary business.«

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4294/persuasive_games_shell_games.php

the (old) modern liminoid

»Gamification presents the best tools humanity has ever invented to create and sustain engagement in people. [...] It’s a proven approach using breakthroughs in design and technology to vastly improve the world as we know it – and deliver the organizational success you desire.«

the (new) liminal

Story

paid

ialudus

(new) liminal

liminoid

<3>the rhetorics

of gamification

the rhetoric of feedback

Aza Raskin

»The one secret to changing human behavior?Feedback loops.«

the behavior change checklist (2011)

the rhetoric of nudging

the rhetoric of exploitation

The rhetorics of status

the rhetoric of reinforcement

the rhetoric of performance

the rhetoric of wellbeing

the rhetoric of pleasure

the rhetoric of learning systems

the rhetoric of expressive systems

the rhetoric of cultural form

the rhetoric of playfulness

<4>conclusions

Story

paid

ialudus

(new) liminal

liminoid

Feedback

Nudging

Reinforcement

Cultural form

IndustrialPlayfulness

Expressive systems

Learningsystems

Status

Exploitation

Performance

Free playfulness

Pleasure

Well-being

challengesof the new liminal

Implicit theory of social changeResponsibilization of the self

issue

#1

When discipline is reinforced, revolution cannot fail!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sustainable-business/small-painless-behaviour-change

Johan Huizinga

»First and foremost, all play is a voluntary activity.«

homo ludens (1938/1950: 7)

Cf. Caillois 2001, Suits 2005, Pellegrini 2009, Burghardt 2005

issue#2

Lopez 2011

Heeter et al. 2011, Mollick & Rothbard 2013

Edward Deci, Richard Ryan

»An understanding of human motivation requires a consideration of innate psychological needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness.«

the what and why of goal pursuits (2000)

challengesof the liminoid

Theodor W. Adorno

»Amusement is the extension of work in late capitalism. It is sought out by him who wants to escape the mechanised process of work only to become fit for it anew.«

dialectics of enlightenment (1969)

issue

#1

empowerment and self-determination

issue

#2

Technologies of the self ...

Help me focus

Help me meditate

… are technologies of control

sebastian@codingconduct.cc

@dingstweets

codingconduct.cc

Thank you.

A blind spot

the rhetoric of fate

Jane McGonigal

»Reality doesn’t motivate us effectively. Reality isn’t engineered to maximise our potential. Reality wasn’t designed from the bottom up to make us happy. Reality, compared to games, is broken.«

reality is broken (2011)

»What if we decided to use everything we know about game design to fix what’s wrong with reality?«

Jane McGonigalreality is broken (2011)

Let’s fix this!

the ludic fallacy

the ludic megalomania

the solutionist samsara

sebastian@codingconduct.cc

@dingstweets

codingconduct.cc

Thank you.