Reto Wettach: Introduction

Sebastian Deterding: 9.5 Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Gamification

Frederik Maucksch & Matthias Wolff: The world is your level

Rilla Khaled: Participatory Approaches to Persuasive Technology

Felix Urban: Game aesthetics in audio culture

Listen to the selection of chip-based music that Felix played during the coffee break:

 
 

Ruttikorn Vuttikorn: New role of board game

Linda Breitlauch: Fun by Learning

Timm Kekeritz: EcoChallenge

Marc Hassenzahl: About transformational products or the aesthetic of friction

Game aesthetics in audio culture

Since SID chips introduced the future of audio interfaces in computer technology, there was a high creative potential in composing music within this, so far, limited possibilities. Due to technical aspects, a particular aesthetic in composition as well as a unique sonority was established. The usage of these so called “chiptunes” in early computer games, strongly connect this audio aesthetics to playful and somehow pixelated associations in the visual sphere. They are still used in many ways. Despite that this sounds are simple and range in a low and “bad” quality, there still is a constant scene. Furthermore varying adaptions can be found in contemporary electronic music.

In a short introduction Felix Urban will outline the background of chip-based music production and track some cultural developments. After that, he will be playing a selection of tunes in the long coffee break.

Foehrb – Mistress Revisited (RELEASE COMING SOON) by Foehrb

 
 
Rules

1. ONCE REGISTERED AT MOVEMBER.COM EACH MO BRO MUSTBEGIN THE 1ST OF MOVEMBER WITH A CLEAN SHAVEN FACE.
2. FOR THE ENTIRE MONTH OF MOVEMBER EACH MO BRO MUST GROW AND GROOM A MOUSTACHE.
3. THERE IS TO BE NO JOINING OF THE MO TO YOUR SIDE BURNS.(THAT’S CONSIDERED A BEARD)
4. THERE IS TO BE NO JOINING OF THE HANDLEBARS TO YOUR CHIN.(THAT’S CONSIDERED A GOATEE)
5. EACH MO BRO MUST CONDUCT HIMSELF LIKE A TRUE COUNTRY GENTLEMAN.

There is no event for Germany yet. Instead I recommend you head over to the Irish website.

Exploitationware
I also found an interesting essay, called ‘Persuasive Games: Exploitationware’ that Bogost recently published at gamasutra.com. In the article Bogost writes critically about rhetoric of gamification and suggests a new name for gamification altogether: Exploitationware. It’s an interesting read. I singled out two quotes:

“…because games are systems, they offer a fundamentally different way of characterizing ideas. They can inspire a different kind of deliberation than we find in other forms of media, one that considers the uncertainty of complex systems instead of embracing simple answers. It’s this potential that has inspired me to advocate for the uses of games in areas like learning, politics, journalism, and business.”

and

“Doing real, meaningful things with games is hard and risky, but it offers considerable reward, reward that responds to the underlying shift away from the logic of industrialization that gamification takes for granted.”

Head over to gamasutra.com the read the full article.

 
Abstract:

9.5 Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Gamification

“Gamification” is: hot, hyped, oversold, misunderstood, unavoidable, a buzzword, a question mark, an quick fix, a huge unfulfilled potential. In the past year, the notion of infusing digital products and services with game elements to make them more engaging has been stirring up the digital industries. Multiple vendors have sprung up that sell gamification as a software service, and ‘gamification gurus’ are beginning to litter the online airwaves like ‘social media experts’ in years before. Are points and badges mere indulgences for the faithful flock looking for redemption in loyalty programs? Or is there something deeper underneath, something worth salvaging?

In nine (and a half) theses, this talk will walk you through the precursors and parallels of gameful design, question trends and definitions, point to open questions and venues, and answer the question: What are we as interaction designers and researchers to make of this?

 
Additional Information & Resources:

Sebastian Deterding is a designer and researcher working on user experience, persuasive and gameful design, video games and the governance of new media. He is broadly interested in how code shapes conduct – and how to put that knowledge into practice. He publishes and speaks internationally on gameful design, persuasive technology, and the social contexts of games at venues such as CHI, DiGRA, Google, Gamescom, reboot, or Web Directions. His work has been covered by The Guardian, the LA Times, The New Scientist, and EDGE Magazine among others.

When not designing, Sebastian is a PhD researcher in Communication at the Research Center for Media and Communication, Hamburg University. His thesis looks into the use of game design elements to motivate behaviour in non-game contexts. He is also an affiliated researcher at the Hans Bredow Institute for Media Research in Hamburg, and works as an independent user experience designer.

He lives online at codingconduct.cc.
Below is a video of his talk “Getting Gamification Right”

 
Abstract:

Participatory Approaches to Persuasive Technology

In typical game design contexts, it’s commonplace practice for game designers to be given lots of creative freedom. They set the challenges, and we play them. But when we start considering non-game contexts in which entertainment is no longer the sole focal point, whether we’re talking about gamification, serious games, or persuasive technology more generally, designer-centric design practices stop making sense. In these contexts, if products don’t feel relevant to users, even if they are extremely well-designed, their chances of success – where success may be related to behaviour change, attitude change, education, or simply ongoing use and play – are already reduced. In this talk, I will explore how participatory design, a methodology drawn from human-computer interaction, can inform how we design serious games and gamification. I will also examine some of the challenges of bridging the participatory and game design gap.

 
Additional Information & Resources:

Rilla Khaled is an assistant professor at the IT University of Copenhagen, and has a PhD in Computer Science from the Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. Her research areas include persuasive design, cross-cultural psychology, serious and persuasive game design, and design methods.

You can find a list of Rilla’s publications at rillakhaled.com
Also, have a look at Rilla talking about serious games in the video below:

Rilla Khaled from Innovationlab on Vimeo.

Suits thinks games are the highest intrinsic good and he’s found a light-hearted way of getting to that conclusion – by using arguments and considering counter-examples.

The central character of the book is, in fact, a grasshopper! It’s inspired by a fable about a grasshopper and an ant. The ant works all summer and survives the winter, whereas the grasshopper spends his time dancing and singing, so he has nothing to eat and starves to death. The grasshopper is choosing to die rather than giving up his belief that the thing which has intrinsic value in life is play.

The book puts forward a whole theory about the nature of game playing. Suits argues that playing a game is “the voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles”. Basically there are three features to all games, and for something to be a game it has to meet all these features. Games must have the “pre-lusory goal”, constitutive rules and the “lusory attitude”.

Suits believes that game-playing is the highest good, because in a utopian world where all our other needs are met, he believes human beings would just play games. They’d set themselves obstacles and willingly try to achieve these pre-lusory goals. They wouldn’t need to worry about anything else. If heaven were real, that’s how we would survive in eternity.

 
Read the full interview with Nigel Warburton at thebrowser.com

 
Abstract:

Spaß durch Lernen – effektive mediendidaktische Konzepte für Serious Games

Ein Serious Game kann erwiesenermaßen erfolgreicher sein als andere Lernmaterialien, wenn es die Potenziale des Spiels und die Didaktik des transformativen Lernens miteinander in Einklang bringen kann. Dazu müssen zunächst die Vorteile der interaktiven, audiovisuellen Umgebung genutzt werden. Idealerweise soll das Spiel so gestaltet werden, dass die Zielgruppe und deren Ansprüche
hinsichtlich Zugang und Lernkurve beachtet werden. Schließlich sollte die idealerweise intrinsische Motivation aufrecht erhalten werden, damit der Lernerfolg nachhaltig wirken kann. Eine adäquate Vermittlung der didaktischen Inhalte können durch das Spiel dann vermittelt werden, wenn die Potenziale der Spielprinzipien gezielt darauf abgestimmt werden.

 
Additional Information & Resources:

Linda Breitlauch is professor of game design at the Mediadesign University in Düsseldorf. She has a degree in film and television scriptwriting from the Film & Television Academy (HFF) in Babelsberg and completed a PhD project that explored dramatic composition in computer games. Her research interests include the areas of storytelling, serious games, and dramatic composition.

You can find a list of Linda’s publications at li-bre.de

When we do these computer models, those aren’t the real models; the real models are in the gamer’s head. The computer game is just a compiler for that mental model in the player.

We have this ability as humans to build these fairly elaborate models in our imaginations, and the process of play is the process of pushing against reality, building a model, refining a model by looking at the results of looking at interacting with things.

(via —Magical Nihilism)

 
Also take look at this interview with Will Wright on Spore, SimCity, and the Sims:

 
Abstract:

Transformationale Produkte oder Ästhetik der Reibung

Was wollen wir nicht alles tun! Weniger Fleisch essen (auch wegen der Tiere), weniger mit dem Auto fahren (auch wegen der Umwelt), weniger Arbeiten (auch für die Familie), mehr Lesen (besonders Fachliteratur), häufiger ins Konzert gehen (auch mal etwas Anspruchsvolleres) und häufiger Freunde treffen (besonders die, die wir schon lange nicht mehr gesehen haben). Stattdessen frönen wir der Leberkässemmel (35 Gramm Fett), fahren schwere Autos (meist deutlich mehr als 130 Gramm CO2), arbeiten zu viel (immer diese Überstunden), lesen Krimis, schauen Fern und sind meist zu müde für Freunde (wegen der Arbeit und dem fetten Essen).

All diese Situationen haben eine ähnliche Struktur: es gibt etwas, das wir langfristig für uns persönlich oder für die momentane und zukünftige Gesellschaft für gut und richtig halten, und etwas, das in der momentanen Situation leichter erreichbar ist oder sogar mehr Freude macht (denn wer würde ernsthaft anzweifeln, dass eine Leberkässemmel lecker ist). Es entsteht ein Konflikt zwischen zwei Handlungsalternativen, bei dem häufig die freudvollere Alternative gewinnt – auf Kosten der Umwelt, unserer Gesundheit oder unseres Wohlbefindens. Dementsprechend ist Willenskraft und Selbstkontrolle seit der Antike ein wichtiges Thema.

Interaktive Objekte verwickeln ihre Benutzer in Handlungen, und haben so – zumindest theoretisch – ein erhebliches Potential, Verhalten zu verändern. Aber wie müssen solch transformationale Objekte gestaltet werden? Haben Sie eine eigenes Ästhetik? Der Vortrag führt in das Problem der Selbstkontrolle ein und entwickelt mit Hilfe von Beispielen eine “Ästhetik der Reibung” – eine Gestaltungsphilosophie für Objekte, die Selbstkontrolle fördern und so ihre “Benutzer” verändern.

 
Additional Information & Resources:

Marc Hassenzahl is Professor at the Folkwang University in Essen and research manager at MediaCity, Åbo Akademi University, Vaasa, Finland. He is interested in the positive affective and motivational aspects of interactive technologies – in short: User Experience.

Marc bolgs at http://marc-hassenzahl.de/
To delve further into the topic please have a look here.