Playing work, or gamification as stultification

an article by Chris Bateman (University of Bolton, Manchester, UK) published in Information, Communication & Society Volume 21 Issue 9 (2018)

Abstract

The contrast between work and play as activities collapses if play is seen, following anthropologist Thomas Malaby, as a disposition towards the indeterminate. Once play is positioned as a state of mind, activities that constitute work need not be disjunct from playful behavior.

Yet for most workers, work is rarely if ever playful, and attempts to import play behavior into the workplace (‘gamification’) do not result in greater playfulness. Part of this problem results from specific aesthetic values for games having dominated both work and play.

As Roger Caillois warned half a century ago, sport-like values have increasingly saturated the culture of the overdeveloped world. Meanwhile, gamification processes have only been able to export task-focussed reward structures from the domain of play – practices that descend from Dungeons & Dragons, but that have been denuded of their playful qualities.

In parallel to the gamification of work has been the gamification of games, namely an increasing emphasis on tasks to structure video game play (e.g., achievements), and thus make them more compelling yet less playful. In so much as this entails forcing particular patterns of understanding onto both players and workers, this makes gamification a parallel to Jacques Rancière's stultification in education: a binding of wills instead of an emancipation.

If we want a world where work could be more playful, we must begin by breaking the cultural dominance of sport-like and task-like aesthetics of play, and endeavour to overcome the underlying fears that prevent work from being played.

The use of computer games in classroom environment

an article by Stamatios Papadakis (University of Crete, Greece) published in International Journal of Teaching and Case Studies Volume 9 Number 1 (2018)

Abstract

As part of the educational use of ICT, digital games can be learning tools, motivators and generators of curiosity and as a result an effective means of optimising student learning and performance in daily educational practice.

The positive relationship between learning and students’ engagement while using digital games has been confirmed by various independent studies over the years. Thus, the integration of digital games at different levels of education for teaching multiple learning objects comes as no surprise.

Despite the many studies on the learning and motivational effects of digital games, teaching with digital games is not yet widespread in secondary education. Current research emphasises that most of these factors appear to stem from difficulties with the implementation of games in classroom settings.

Problems with technology, the cost/expense of games/equipment, the lack of technical support are defined as some of the barriers to the addition of games and simulations in education.

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Why Do Some People Become Addicted to Digital Games More Easily? A Study of Digital Game Addiction from a Psychosocial Health Perspective

an article by Eui Jun Jeong (Konkuk University, Seoul, South Korea), Dan J. Kim (University of North Texas, Denton, USA) and Dong Min Lee (Namseoul University, Seoul, South Korea) published in International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction Volume 33 Issue 3 (2017)

Abstract

Exploring digital game addiction from a psychosocial perspective has gained much attention because digital game addiction is a serious social computing issue related to public health. A number of studies have empirically tested the effects of depression and loneliness on aggression, but few studies have explored the relationships among the psychosocial constructs (i.e., depression, loneliness, and aggression) and their effects on game addiction.

In addition, the mediating role of aggression in digital game addiction has neither been proposed nor empirically tested. Moreover, although the psychological constructs related to game addiction have been proposed as multidimensional concepts and digital game addiction itself has been suggested as a multidimensional construct, few studies have been proposed and conducted using multidimensional constructs.

This study sought to fill these gaps by proposing an integrated model of digital game addiction from a psychosocial health perspective.

In particular, this study had three objectives:

1. to propose a second-order game addiction model addressing the relationships among loneliness, depression, aggression, and game addiction as multidimensional constructs and presenting aggression as a mediator between other psychosocial constructs and game addiction;
2. to empirically validate the proposed model using survey data obtained from actual online game users; and
3. to provide new insights for game policymakers in dealing with the digital game addiction issues.

Based on the empirical findings, the theoretical contributions and practical implications are discussed herein.

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