Gamification/ Ludification

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During the seminar, we will read a few texts that all deal with the phenomenon known as gamification (or ludification). The first three texts are frequently quoted seminal texts by

(1) Sebastian Deterding, Dan Dixon, Rilla Khaled & Lennart Nacke
Deterding, Dixon et al.: From Game Design Elements to Gamefulness: Defining "Gamification" (2011),
(2) Joost Raessens Raessens:_homoludens 2.0 (2010) and
(3) Ian Bogost Bogost: Gamification is Bullshit (2011).

Joost Raessen's notion of what he calls ludification (slightly different to gamification) can be traced back to an earlier publication of his in 2006. The hype following Deterding's 20011 announcement of gamification as "game design elements in non-game contexts" was first supported enthusiastically by authors like Zichermann and Werbach, then questioned on a theoretical and an empirical basis, e.g. by Finnish researchers Hamari, Sarsa and Koivisto.

Hamari et al.: Does Gamification Work? (2014)
Koivisto & Hamari: Demographic differences in perceived benefits from gamification (2014)

Following Ian Bogost in his critique of gamification, Jennifer de Winter, Carly Kocurek and Randall Nichols analysed gamification as "capitalist appropriation of play" with a look at the history of scientific management.
DeWinter, Kocurek &_Nichols:Taylorism 2.0 (2014)

The very same publication, Number 2, Volume 6 of the "Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds", that contains DeWinter et al.'s critique, contains an attempt to understand gamification as ideology in the sense of Althusser's or Sohn-Rethel's thinking on "socially necessary false consciousness" by Mathias Fuchs.
Fuchs: Gamification as 21st Century Ideology (2014)

Bogost has also been criticised by Tae Wan Kim in regard to the former's terminological suggestion that gamification should properly be called "exploitationware". Tae Wan Kim suggests that Marx's understanding of exploitation does not match the phenomena flaged up by Bogost.
Tae Wan Kim: Gamification of Labor and the Charge of Exploitation (2016)

There are further authors that provide interesting accounts of gamification in relation to quantification, the entrepreneurial self, or 18th century's game-craze. The fothcoming articl by Steffen Roth deals with an interesting philosophical-logical problem of Serious Games and Gamification.
Maturo (2015), Kirkpatrick (2015), Fuchs (2014), Roth (2017).

Finally, here is a download link to the Gamification Reader. This is an uncommented compilation of popular texts on various issues like health sector gamification, gamification to save water, gamification against depression, gamification to enhance the joy of learning, etc.
Gamification Reader (2016 - 19.1 MB !)

Every student is expected to:

- Pick a concept from one of the abovementioned articles and explain to his/her peer students how the author develops his/her argument.
- Students are also asked to lay out a counter argument, if they think that the author is wrong. 
- Present the concept and a counter argument.
These presentations should take 15 minutes maximum, followed by 30 minutes discussion in class. Required reading:

These three short texts have to be read by every student:

(1) Deterding,_Dixon et al.:_From Game Design Elements to Gamefulness: Defining "Gamification" (2011)
(2) Raessens:_homoludens 2.0 (2010) and
(3) Bogost: Gamification is Bullshit (2011).