Gamification is an innovative methodology to get people to participate and be motivated and help them achieve goals by applying game design elements and methods into a non-game environment. The library can provide an interesting experience to users by utilizing gamification, and gamification can make the library more fun and engaging.

Utilizing gamification in the library

• Educating library users: Gamification makes users feel entertained and engaged, and they learn about utilizing library resources. The library at North Carolina State University provided a gamified Scavenger Hunt, so students could learn how to use the library by interacting with librarians. Users can understand and utilize the library better through fun games.
• Participating in library resource management: To allow better access to large-scale library resources, users can actively participate in the work through gamification. In the National Library of Finland, the Digitalkoot service provided an interesting game to users. It asked players to edit the text errors input by OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software. Digitalization work that was previously done manually, by crowdsourced volunteers, could be done by more general users. This could contribute to helping more people access the library resources.
• Experiencing personalized information service: Gamification can be utilized to effectively support solutions to individual information problems. For reading activities, especially, gamification elements such as challenges, rewards, and competition, can lead to consistent reading habits and make accessing necessary information more effective. Through gamified reading support service, users can personalize their reading history and interests. They will get information about future reading opportunities. In addition, they can the right level of challenges to enhance the power and motivation to continue to read. For example, Lemontree is a social game-based learning system at the University of Huddersfield, U.K., is a gamification case to effectively increase the learning performance of students by using library data. (Walsh 2014).
• Services to enhance social relationships: Interesting gamified library programs can attract more people to the library. Also, it can effectively provide the experience of making social relationships based on library resources. New York Public Library developed the augmented reality game ‘Find the Future at NYPL’ as part of the celebration of its Centenary. It’s about solving quests related to one hundred historical artifacts hidden in a library building. In the process of solving quests, 500 participants could write down personal stories based on their inspiration from the library collections. Through that process, a co-created book which included future stories was made.

Gamification to increase the public interest in library

Gamification enhances the role of the library as a social place in which everybody can participate and meet. Through gamified programs, users can access library resources more effectively. Gamification can stimulate lively interactions between librarians and users, leading to strengthened social relationships. According to Koivisto & Malik(2021) whose article includes a meta-study of gamified research papers for the aged population, gamification was proven to effectively utilize in-person communication and increase relationship numbers in elderly people. According to this research (Koivisto & Hamari 2019), recognizing the self-efficacy of old people and positively increasing social emotions such as motivation and loneliness are possible through the program of enhancing social relationships by gamification.

How to apply the gamification to the library

The most important thing that gamification must focus on, is effectively increasing access to library resources. Rather than providing unconditional fun and flow, the library should emphasize the original vision and the purpose of the program. The library can be an amazing information environment for users by coordinating its resources and services with adequate gamification. To effectively apply gamification to the library, the following should be considered.

1. Clearly defining the objective and results of the gamified program in accordance with the mission and vision of the library
2. Applying the interesting gamified elements and forms by recognizing the participants’ demands, interests, and preferences
3. Increasing the participants’ motivation by providing feedback, recognition, and rewards in program operation.
4. Ensuring the system evaluates and measures the effects of gamification for library employees and participants
5. Periodically monitoring and improving the operation of gamified programs based on evaluation

The world is changing, and the demand of users is changing along with it. In this changing landscape, gamification can play an important role in revolutionizing and reinventing the library for a new sustainable way of working. I expect that innovation in gamification methods will continue to bring new power to efforts to attract library users, into the future.

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In the age of buying experience, games becomes daily life

Gamification which has been actively utilized as corporate marketing strategy since the year 2010 was re-focused as fun-based motivation for users after growing online business during the COVID-19 pandemic. Technological development accelerated the ‘age of experience’ which means that individual taste in experiences affects decision-making. Gamification, including the elements of flow, accomplishment, and social interaction has become part of daily life in various online and offline areas through direct and indirect experience. According to Hype Cycle, published by Gartner, gamification entered the 5th stage – ‘stabilization’ in 2022, moving in ten years, from the 2nd stage – ‘before popularization’ in 2012. The application and spread of gamification in various real life areas has evolved and become normalized.

Gamification, a tool for solving a city’s problem through being playable and sustainable

Gamification tends to extend to not only corporate marketing and education, but also visitor attraction and entertainment in the local community, and citizen participation. Providing ‘fun’ with gameful elements from the perspective of ‘motivation’, is increasingly an interesting factor for attraction to the local environment.

Locally-used gamification is broadly related to either solving social problems (living lab), or smart cities. The core of local gamification is to provide a platform for civilians to participate in as a fun way (Playable) and to improve the systems operated by the local community or social enterprise (Sustainable). The ‘SmartCity’ platform¹ in Amsterdam, Netherlands is operated as an open platform to solve city problems both online and offline. Group, ‘Play the City’² which seeks policy alternatives to various city problems through City Gaming, is a good example of attracting the participation of public servants, citizens, and professionals, and pursing alternative solutions to local problems.

1) An online communication portal for government, companies, schools, and local people. Local citizens directly share the projects, and the SmartCity experience labs are operated offline.

2) The ‘City Gaming’ of ‘Play the City’ supports various participations in city planning. Digitalized data based on local data and policy documents is provided through the network, and these data can be used for making games. Subjects included in data are housing, space development, climate change, social change, etc. Projects are conducted through policy-making, participation, structuring, and research, etc. The number of participants in the year 2010 was 4,902. People participated in 185 city games in 20 cities from three continents and nine countries in a total of 42 game sessions of ‘Play the City’. (source: https://www.playthecity.eu/)

From citizen education to local tours. Expansion of local gamification

Social trends surrounding city and space started the new urbanism of the 1980’s, reflecting the uncontrolled city expansion. During the 1990s, sustainability became the worldwide agenda, emphasizing the locals and those people’s participation rather than ‘central urban’ versus ‘rural’. In local policy decision-making, a top-down approach changed into a bottom-up one. Citizen participation became a prerequisite for local planning and administration.

Many models of citizen participation in local areas are based on meetings and participatory workshops and problem-solving, not on unilateral delivery by lecture. Also, game-based citizen education is being developed. In various local development businesses, originally dominated by professionals, local people started offering opinions and content. During this kind of process, gamification for driving participation becomes more important. There are some examples. ‘Eunpyeong Korean Village’ located in Eunpyeong-gu, Seoul covers village history and stories, through the use of an app and local tour. ‘Gohan Wildlife Reasoning’ located in Gohan-eup, Jeongseon-gun, Gangwon province, implements gamification designed to utilize the village resources to promote the region and attract visitors.

Gohan-eup, Jeongseon-gun in Gangwon province was the largest coal mining area in Korea and is now closed and unused. To revitalize the village, an escape game using the setting of side streets was developed for attracting the visitors. (Source : http://www.tournews21.com/)

In addition, gamification is used to seek solutions by assessing various local problems, and utilising the participation of citizens and professionals. Living Lab projects to find and solve local issues, or deriving solutions through workshops, are relevant examples. My company, Ggurim, conducts the planning and operation of local revitalization research and citizen participation programs. We have used educational board games to deliver necessary knowledge and information, and have developed a gamified citizen education curriculum. 

In the local area, gamification and play attracted much more mutual understanding and participation than stereotypical expert explanations. Companies usually use online gamification, but local communities usually use face-to-face gamified interaction by arranging opinions and experiencing the local environment. Through this, local citizens naturally learn the value of ‘together’ in a gamified way. They can easily participate in and exchange opinions between each other through the medium of the game. I have experienced the core of these.

A game is a problem-solving activity approached with a playful attitude

Jesse Schell

The game, as defined by game designer, Jesse Schell makes the meaning of gamification more clear. Play becomes participation, and the result of its participation can be solutions to local problems. In this kind of virtuous circle, I expect the power of gamification is endless.

For more on the use of games and gamification in city planning, and the built environment, please enjoy these other posts from Ludogogy.

Gamifying Social Action towards Thriving Cities from Sofia Kavlin

Making a Small Vibrant City through Gamification also from GamiJournal

Review of ‘Ideas, Arrangements, Effects’

Co-creative Experiences – Serious Games for Spatial Planning from Micael Sousa

The post Making the Value of ‘Together’ Better: Local Gamification first appeared on Ludogogy.

In early 2022, I was asked by various municipalities in Korea to advise on metaverse development. They wanted to make an impression by being at the forefront of the 4^th industrial revolution. Their main question to the advisory board was ‘What is most important to consider in building the metaverse?” My answer was very simple. It’s the establishment of the basic concept that, ‘The Metaverse is the Game’.

However, they wanted to promote ‘usefulness’ by utilizing the metaverse for educational content. They wanted citizens attending classes in virtual classrooms, as avatars, to get the benefits of social education, recruitment and hobby learning. But most educational facilities already provided online lectures during COVID-19 period. Providing educational services through the metaverse maybe shows a lack of understanding of how the metaverse works.

Also, they already provided various services on their webpages, but they expected a metaverse presence to behave like a virtual reception for citizens to visit and interact with, via their metaverse personas.

The elected mayor wanted to give the impression that he had a deep interest in high-tech and AI, and to reflect that in the administration of the municipality – all with an eye on the next election. In the year 2022, ‘high tech’ related to the 4^th industrial revolution, was all about blockchain-based NFT and the metaverse. As I think about the last year, business proposals just didn’t progress unless they mentioned NFT or the metaverse – in both the public or private sectors.

Gamification is essential to build the metaverse successfully 

The Metaverse should be pitched as providing an online gamified playground for users. I want to take an example of a city simulation game and relate it to the municipality use case. City simulation games are already available and well-known like the ‘SimCity’ series developed by Electronic Arts. In this game, players create and develop the city, through a high-level simulation. If the city doesn’t operate well, the (virtual) citizens raise complaints, and even riot, leading to the mayor being kicked out. If an administrator in the role of mayor doesn’t deal well, it’s game-over.

SimCity is a game, but its tasks needs to be managed well, including city administration, welfare, safety, job creation, and environmental issues. If that is done, the city will be eco-friendly and all will be well. The purpose of this game is to make a livable city, increase the population, and manage the balance between development and welfare based on budget, finally working your way up to a large metropolis. The game is deployed in virtual space, but it looks real.

If the municipality develops its own twin in the metaverse, people can participate in city simulation games, which they will find out about through public announcements. The well-developed virtual city has real citizens residing in it as avatars. In the virtual city, avatars can rent a shopping space like in the real world to make commercial transactions. In the cinema or theatre, people can enjoy content through videos. I think that this is the ideal way to use the metaverse. Municipalities can apply the best of the virtual city to the administration of the real city. It’s a positive synergy because citizens can directly participate in city administration.

Our advanced technologies were already experienced at Cyworld, one of the oldest social platforms, about 20 years ago. It’s just a difference of expression. Now the trial period is over, and it’s subject to a fee. In the past, almost all online contents were free. Now, we are gradually paying fees for everything. Billing in chat GPT is the beginning of online billing. And to drive the interest that will encourage users to pay, good gamification is going to be essential.  

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Benefits of Games-Based Learning for languages

Games have the innate ability to make learning enjoyable and immersive. Not only that, but play is the way we all acquired our first language, and the ‘rewards’ we will have received for learning well -social (parental) approval, ‘winning’ over our peers (by having more capability), and increased agency (to communicate), are very similar to well-designed gamification.

By integrating games into language instruction, educators can tap into several benefits. Firstly, games increase student engagement by transforming the learning experience into a dynamic and interactive adventure. Learners become active participants, eagerly exploring linguistic challenges and developing their language skills. Furthermore, games promote motivation by providing clear goals, feedback loops, and a sense of achievement, spurring learners to persist and progress.

For instance, language learning apps like Duolingo and Memrise employ game mechanics to make the process fun and rewarding. These gamified platforms leverage points, levels, and rewards to motivate learners and track their progress. Duolingo’s ‘streak’ mechanic is particularly effective at keeping players on board. There are reported instances of people taking breaks from their own wedding receptions, to ensure they do not spoil their lengthy streak. You can read an analysis of Duolingo’s gamification (albeit from a few years ago) by Dirk van Diepen of Octalysis at https://ludogogy.co.uk/article/duolingo-review-how-to-apply-gamification-smarter/

Gamification Techniques in Language Learning

Platforms like FluentU and Rosetta Stone adopt gamification elements, but are sometimes criticised for relying too heavily on extrinsic motivation, and using simplistic mechanisms like points, badges and leaderboards.

So what does good gamification look like, and how could it be employed beyond digital apps, in say, face-to-face learning settings?  Here are some ideas.

• Quests and Missions: Designing language learning activities as quests or missions, where challenges are represented by milestones or levels, creates a sense of progress and achievement.
• Storytelling and Role-Playing: Integrating narrative elements into language learning, encourages the exercise of creativity, which in turn can give a sense of ownership and relevance to the content
• Collaborative Challenges: Foster collaboration and teamwork by introducing group challenges or competitions. This encourages students to work together, communicate in the target language, and support each other’s learning.
• Immersive Technology (or scenarios): Utilize interactive technology tools to enhance language learning. For instance, virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR) can create immersive language environments, allowing students to virtually explore foreign cities or engage in language-specific scenarios.
• Story-based Progression: Frame language learning as a story-based progression, where students unlock new chapters or levels as they acquire new language skills. Each chapter can present them with challenges or tasks that require the application of their language knowledge. This approach adds a narrative element and keeps learners engaged and motivated.
• Time-based Challenges: Set time-based challenges or competitions where students race against the clock to complete language-related tasks or exercises. This injects an element of urgency and excitement into the learning process, motivating students to think quickly and apply their language skills under pressure.

Remember, when gamifying language learning in the classroom, it’s crucial to align the gamification elements with the curriculum objectives and ensure that they support language acquisition. The beating of ‘the game’ must not get in the way.

Speaking and Listening Skills through Interactive Scenarios

One powerful application of games-based learning is the improvement of speaking and listening skills. Immersive game scenarios provide learners with authentic contexts to practice their language skills. Through interactive dialogue options, voice recognition, and role-playing, learners can simulate real-life conversations. Language learning games like Lingua.ly (now defunct) and Tell Me More enable learners to engage in virtual conversations with virtual characters, enhancing their speaking and listening abilities. Such interactive game scenarios foster confidence, fluency, and cultural understanding. However, they can sometimes be let down by the technology they use, with some users reporting poor speech recognition among other problems.

Reinforcing Grammar and Vocabulary through Gamified Exercises

Games-based learning and gamification offer innovative ways to reinforce grammar and vocabulary acquisition. Language learners often find grammar exercises dull and monotonous. However, by transforming these exercises into gamified activities, learners can actively engage with language rules and structures. Platforms like Kahoot! employ interactive quizzes, timed challenges, and rewards to make grammar and vocabulary practice enjoyable. Gamified exercises not only consolidate language knowledge but also provide immediate feedback, allowing learners to identify areas for improvement and track their progress.

Cultural Understanding and Language Immersion – Virtual Worlds & Simulations

Language learning is not solely about vocabulary and grammar; it also involves understanding cultures and communities. Virtual worlds and simulations offer immersive environments where learners can explore different cultural contexts while practicing their language skills. Platforms like Second Life got on board early,although it is unclear whether this platform is still used much for language learning and Cambridge International (exam board) among others have designed immersive language learning environments in Minecraft Education Edition. These experiences promote cross-cultural awareness, enhance language comprehension, and facilitate authentic communication. CultureAlley, when it started, took a different approach to immersion, taking its cue for the vocabulary you want to learn from what was written on your Facebook wall. It’s offering now includes live classes, many different games, and is embracing the opportunities of AI.

AI is probably going to be revolutionary in the way it impacts learning in the next months and years.

Some more examples of language learning games

WordBrewery: This game focused (the project has, sadly, closed) on vocabulary acquisition by presenting learners with sentences from real-world sources, such as news articles or literature. Players must identify and understand the meaning of unfamiliar words in context, gradually expanding their vocabulary while enjoying the game’s immersive interface.

Muzzy BBC: Designed for young language learners, Muzzy BBC combines captivating, animated stories with interactive language learning activities. Children can engage with the characters, explore different language environments, and practice vocabulary, listening, and comprehension skills.

Language Guardians: a family card game for all ages, this can be played in whatever language is chosen for a particular session.  Playing a bit like Uno, it works to help language acquisition through repetition and practice and through challenge and social learning.

LingoBee: LingoBee is a mobile app that utilises crowdsourcing and social networking to gather material for ’situated’ language learning from its users. So learners are exposed to curated material, and can comment and rate that material, and learn from each other in relevant contexts.

Language Hunters: This interactive game combines language learning with cultural immersion. Language Hunters employ traditional games and activities to teach (and preserve) indigenous languages, emphasizing oral communication and community engagement. Players learn by actively engaging in conversations, imitating sounds, and playing language-based games.

Limitations and Challenges

While games-based learning and gamification offer exciting opportunities, it’s essential to be aware of potential limitations and challenges. Firstly, selecting appropriate games and gamified elements aligned with learning objectives can be a complex task. Educators must ensure that games facilitate language acquisition rather than distract from it. Additionally, technical limitations, such as the availability of devices or internet connectivity, can pose challenges for implementing games-based learning and gamification, especially in resource-constrained environments. Moreover, measuring the effectiveness of games-based learning can be challenging, as it requires robust assessment methods that go beyond traditional exams or quizzes. Assessing language proficiency and progress within game-based contexts may require innovative evaluation approaches.

Despite these challenges, the benefits of games-based learning and gamification in language teaching are undeniable. They have the potential to transform language learning experiences, engage learners on a deeper level, and foster a love for languages. By embracing these approaches, educators, learning designers, and workplace learning facilitators can create dynamic and interactive language learning environments that resonate with their students.

To Conclude

Games-based learning and gamification provide a fresh and effective approach to language teaching and learning. By harnessing the power of games, educators can captivate learners’ attention, enhance motivation, and promote active participation. Whether through dedicated language learning games or the gamification of traditional language exercises, games offer unique opportunities to reinforce grammar, vocabulary, speaking, listening, and cultural understanding.

The post Play, Learn, Speak: How Games Transform Language Learning first appeared on Ludogogy.

Gamification and Games

What’s the relationship between gamification and games?  Some people think that the term ‘game’ includes gamification. On the other hand, other people think that gamification includes games. From the gamification researchers’ perspective, they generally think that the wider meaning of gamification includes games. I have a slightly different perspective on this. Gamification and game are not mutually inclusive, but are different concepts with some relatedness.

The definition of gamification which I use, is that it is a way to improve achievement by changing unamusing or boring things into interesting ones, through applying game formats or elements in non-game settings. The prerequisite in this definition is that it happens in non-game settings. The picture representing this definition is as follows.

From the gamification design perspective, game elements are used. So, a deep relationship with games is required. However, the game industry itself, doesn’t have much need to have a similar and reciprocal relationship with gamification. In terms of expanding games into other areas, it’s positive and encouraged – games are often seen being used in other fields. But currently, games have little to gain from gamification. So, in most cases, it isn’t necessary for game designers and developers to get interested in gamification.

If gamification means adding parts of game formats or elements in non-game settings, it follows that adding game elements into games is not needed. In terms of the definition of gamification, gamification and games are related but separate. In addition, there is a limitation that the relationship is not bidirectional but unidirectional.

For developing gamification, the broad participation of game developers or researchers is necessary. But, I think that this participation is small. The reason why gamification doesn’t get much support from the game industry, is because the gamification side thinks that gamification includes ‘games’ in its broader meaning. From a game industry perspective, it can be viewed as insulting that games are seen as just part of gamification.

So, I think that gamification and games are currently separately considered. But if there will be more cooperative and equivalent stances between gamification and games, the games industry may get more interested in gamification.

Purpose and Fun, Gamification is harder than games

Gamification has to seek both objectives and fun, unlike games. Therefore, in considering my background as a game developer and Ph.D. in games, game development itself is very difficult, but gamification development is even harder than game development. The game just covers pure fun and play characteristics without achieving specific objectives. Gamification aims to make achievement easier, for the end user, by iterating the objectives in a fun way through the addition of game elements. But, for the designer, satisfying both objectives and fun is very hard. I think that’s why there aren’t many successful gamification use-cases.

Although many areas try to seek gamification by applying game elements, the most important thing is the objective that should be achieved. In the education sector, learning effects are the most important ones. In the medical sector, health improvement is paramount. If there aren’t many effects of learning or improvement in health, despite being fun, it’s meaningless. So, game elements in gamification are auxiliary tools to prompt the achievement of objectives and make it easier.

In current situations, it’s hard for the game industry to get attracted to gamification. If many successful gamification cases are made, the game industry may be interested. But, I think that the gamification industry itself has to learn about games deeply. People should learn the game theories, apply them in various fields, and make many successful gamification cases. This is a starting point.

If possible, I want to share various stories as a game researcher in the future. I hope that shared game information will be helpful in making many successful gamification cases.

** The above article may not match the opinion and editorial direction of Ludogogy (or the Gamification Journal). It intends to show various perspectives on gamification in the game industry and its academics in Korea.

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Motivation Theory

Motivation is a basic research area, which is given much importance in many social science fields including psychology. In a complex modern society, the ‘how-to’ of helping people to become immersed in an activity, has to be carefully considered.

In traditional motivation theory, sources of motivation are divided into extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation.

Extrinsic motivation means that the reasons people are driven to make efforts are related to external rewards, recognition, or pressure. So, behaviour is changed, because of things such as monetary payment, praise, recognition, reward, or punishment, or gain or loss of status or level. This is ‘carrot or stick’  motivation, depending on whether it drives towards or away from something.

On the other hand, intrinsic motivation means that people make efforts because of internal drives. These might include value or meaning, passion, curiosity or pleasure, fun, growth, and so on, and seeking these will drive behaviour. The phrase ‘Self-development’, is related to this concept.

The overall consensus of modern motivation theorists is, that in the past, in simple & repeated production / consumption environments,  that ‘carrot and stick’ based on extrinsic motivation was effective in performance improvement. However, in the current environment, where there is a greater requirement for creative results, this will be counter-productive. Enhancing intrinsic motivation will be more effective. This has been shown in psychological experiments.

Gamification

Gamification is composed of ‘game’ and ‘-fication’, meaning that work can be created as gameplay, or that gameplay can be created as work. It’s a convergent concept. The most simple and representative definition of gamification is ‘using the game elements for users’ participation and motivation enhancement in non-game areas’. In other words, game elements such as points, badges, leaderboard, performance graphs, levels, and quest design, avatar, competition, randomness, and story in commercial or public non-game areas can be utilized for enhancing participation and motivation.

Motivation can be enhanced by gamification in what kind of fields?

From my experience, gamification can be applied in almost every ‘work’ field for participation and motivation enhancement. It’s related to learning, problem-solving, participation and flow, change, performance improvement, communication, and so on.

• Learning –School education curriculum, Adult education
• Problem-solving – Solving chronic (social) issues, Creative ideas
• Participation and flow – Participation/feedback, flow
• Change – Change of thought and behavior, Continuity of changed behavior
• Performance improvement –Productivity, Speed, Quality of product or service
• Communication – Internal communication, External PR/Advertisement

Gamification from the perspective of motivation theory

If gamification is added in these kinds of non-game areas, ‘work’ is made into something fun and people are motivated. However, there is no guarantee that this will lead to sustained, and sustainable, passion and flow to the extent that we want, because we become easily accustomed to ‘fun’ and ultimately feel bored. Because of this, we have to think about gamification in terms of enhancing the ‘intrinsic motivation’ which will maintain passion. This is what the motivation theorists put forward.

Gamification considerations for enhancing intrinsic motivation

Any game elements which bring about fun and provide stimulus can be used in gamification  But for sustainable passion and flow, the following design factors have to be deeply considered.

• Meaningful value and mission: Clarifying the value that is found in the individual and the team and in the mission of carrying out the (target) gamified job well.
• Story: Creating the appropriate narrative structure for the real-life or game-world story, as well as the gamified struction for the task or mission.
• Objective and challenge: Allowing individuals and teams to set their own performance targets, which will be appropriately challenging, including competition between players.
• Feedback: Sufficient feedback and encouragement for intrinsic passion and meaning.
• Comprehensive approach in change management: Structuring the gamified work for supporting and enhancing the real environment. Design which complements the real work and activity process (out-of-game) and the principles of the organization and its operation.
• End-game: Designing the process of continuous improvement and development after the game.

In conclusion, if the approaches from the second box are carefully designed in addition to approaches from the first box, gamification motivation will be much more complete.

The post Motivation and Gamification first appeared on Ludogogy.

Game Mechanics and why they are employed (2018) can be read in full at ResearchGate

An archive of all currently available infographics can be found in the Research Infographics page.

The post Learning Online through Gamification first appeared on Ludogogy.

Prologue

Why did Steve Jobs say that he would trade all of his technology for an afternoon with Socrates?  Also, in presenting the i-Pad and iPhone4, what was his real intention about his comment, “In Apple’s DNA, it’s technology married with liberal arts.”  Although he was famous for laying down the law to employees, what’s the real meaning of liberal arts to him?

After the announcement of the Fourth Industrial Revolution by Klaus Schwab at the Davos Forum in 2016, there has been new-normal chaos, mixed with the game between AlphaGo and Lee Sedol, COVID-19, and the wave of liberal arts, making our predictions for the future more blurry. In the world, many countries which have suffered economic downturns started shutting down because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but Korean entertainment phenomena such as K-Pop or professional e-sports games have seen growth. Why is that?

This article aims to review the reasoning in many fundamental areas of human life, which has led to the  foundation of the ‘liberal arts’, and to figure out why, following the release of the personal computer during the ‘information revolution’, games have been increasingly applied in many areas, beyond simple play, including economics, business, human resources and administration.

This will be expected to contribute to gamification literacy in the fourth industrial revolution following COVID-19, which should narrow the generational discrepancies in detail and increase the mass understanding of gamification as a potential future catalyst of change.

Disintegrating life

Until the agricultural revolution, work, learning, and play were united in human life. Fathers and sons hunted outside the cave to get food, to learn the method, and play with some fun and tension.

In agricultural societies, people sang a song of labor when working and learning. This period was one which combined work, learning, play, and self-sustaining clothes, food, and shelter.

Men were able to harvest and manage all the agricultural matters, and women were also able to make clothes and food. At that period, producers and consumers were the same. In this labor-centric era, there were many children who were more diligent or lazier. But they still stayed in the house without being kicked out. There wasn’t a separation between employment and unemployment.

The industrial revolution and the advent of machines changed every lifestyle. The highest value sought in industrial society was commodification to create mass consumption for mass production. Rapid industrialization and urbanization focused the population on factories and schools. The 3S principles – Simplification, Standardization, and Specialization fully led to the Scale of the Economy. Productivity enhancement, including Taylorism, Fordism, Time Study, and Motion Study naturally excluded the area of play. Afterwards, recreation became just a sub-sector or sub-concept for production.

So, through the process of productivity increase by mass production during the industrial era, life was just divided into work and learning. And, learning was a tool to work, and work was labor which people did not to want to do. The play was missing. After missing the play and dividing into production/consumption and employment/unemployment, the natural environment was damaged. The value of existence for human beings was collapsed. An unknown mass population was deprived of each identity, and the endless division of labor was not just a loss of value but a loss of life. We killed as we divided.

Recently, the reason why extreme selfishness and anti-humanity harm have been spread out has been related to these changes. On the opposite side, liberal arts started emerging slowly.

Towards the Archetype

Following the Asian financial crisis at the end of 90’s, why hasn’t the unemployment rate improved?  The opportunities for full-time jobs have decreased, but the gig economy has been more popular. The wage gap between full-time and part-time jobs has been higher, so it has revealed some fairness issues and social conflicts in Korea. Also, in the economic downturn, the agenda about basic income and flexible working has been continuously discussed. Misunderstandings around how the sharing economy works  e.g. Uber or Airbnb, have gradually disappeared.

What’s the meaning of these changes?  And where will they end?  The meaning emerges from the Archetype, an attempt to recover the value of life before the industrial revolution. The global population (about 8 billion) cannot accommodate hunting or agricultural life in 8 thousand or 0.8 billion population. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic over two years, the sky with 1% of normal flights  looked like the autumn weather in the year 1960~1970. Despite the forced stop, the contemplation based on social distance reminds us of the missing memory and value.

I am glad that there is still a generation with the memory of agricultural society. In vague memory, there are still values like neighborhood, relationships, sharing, and thoughtful consideration. This memory disappeared by the division of labor and decomposition through the industrial society, so it’s a missing piece.

In the latter part of industrial society, integration, convergence, and consilience are technically possible. It’s a network effect. Like social work and village community, there seems to be social cohesion. Relationship recovery is linked to sharing and thoughtful consideration. Sympathy, sharing, and fairness are frequently discussed. In addition, the appearance of prosumers which weakens the separation between production and consumption, and the gig economy mixing employment and unemployment have proliferated. Despite the earlier appearance of COVID-19, remote work and learning concentrate on one place – home. During this, play becomes gamification.

Likewise, organizing the network is recovered, and efforts to recover the identity of specialized individuals from many unknown people are increasing. Recent relevant books cover this kind of demassification. An analog lifestyle can be transformed into a digital one. Artificial intelligence, robot, and big data technology in the fourth industrial revolution can process more than if work depended on human memory and hand. If the fifth and sixth industrial revolutions will be expected in the future, a lifestyle system with 10 billion population may be returned to that with 0.1 billion population. The problem is whether the original value of life, order, thoughtful consideration, and caring will be recovered. Apparently, there is a hope of a liberal arts rennaisance in our current chaotic real life.

The GDP per capita of Korea was over USD 30,000 a few years ago. As Easterlin’s Paradox indicates, it’s still early for us to share meaningful empathy with neighborhoods. However, as Northern European countries show, there are still big gaps among countries and continents. Finally, the possibility of recovering towards the archetype by sharing social value is effected by a small starting wave of liberal arts.

Through the second and third industrial revolutions, worklife gradually changed to include occupation, employment, and starting a business. The evolution and implementation of concepts such as learning being variously, life-long, remote, self-driven, and virtual become clearer because of the social shock of COVID-19 and the fourth industrial revolution. It’s a recovering force towards the archetype. Surely, that archetype means a well-mixed life with work, learning, and play. This is why gamification is necessary.

Epilogue

A middle school student (Age 15, third grade) and a retired professor (Age 67) took a gamified hiring assessment. created by Benchmark.games (Hungary) and published in the Korean market. This gamified solution is to assess the qualification of a potential organization member regarding leadership, motivation, communication, conflict management, etc. The result was that a middle school student who didn’t understand any company business, did better than the professor, who had  20 years of business experience and 20 years of marketing lecturing in every assessment field. For sure, the manual in this assessment mentions that the score is not important, but there is that must be reflected on considering the current period of digital transformation we are experiencing.

Gamification includes the transformational process into a game, or procedural meaning. As mentioned before, society after the fourth industrial revolution seeks the recovery towards the archetype. Highly civilized development and rapidly increasing population cannot reproduce the past life in agricultural or primitive societies. However, our way of life seeks concurrent value. For adequately mixing work and learning in this process, including play as a catalyst is critical.

Regarding what the result of the gamified test between the young student and old professor means, that inclusive point is coincidentally the diverging point between analog and digital. This is the colliding point between the addictive young generation and the old-fashioned parents’ generation. Artificial intelligence, robot, and big data technology will be expected to exceed human artistry and creativity. However, in the strong artificial intelligence era, humanism as human’s unique characteristics has a priority. Gamification already has been spread out in economics, business, administration, the education sector, etc. As a part of life, the value and status of play has been recovered through gamification. To make gamification a justified recovering force towards the archetype, the value of liberal arts focusing on human value is important. Probably, I think that this is why Steve Jobs missed Socrates.

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This is available to read in full at https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3474663

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We should be honest about the game. The game is surely fun, but addictive. People can have pleasure and satisfaction after the game but also regret the time they have spent on it. So, human beings can feel very ambivalent about games.

I think that gamification in the education field can be understood and explained by the educational philosophy of John Dewey. At first, philosophy starts with definitions of concepts. Human beings think through language. Defining the meaning of words in detail can be the foundation to share and expand thoughts with others.

So, Why John Dewey? Dewey created the basic framework of modern education. His concepts are familiar to Korean people, through many books and thoughts related to the concept of educational philosophy. His representative book, ‘Democracy and Education’, illustrates educational concepts including interaction, continuity, interest, growth, and experience. All of these concepts can be considered part of what we call gamification.

Continuity

Continuity is an important principle of gamification. Human life is based on continuity. As we live our lives, many things change, but many things also remain the same. Human beings live through the flow of time and are subject to the influence of continuity.

Many games seek to facilitate continuity. Games on Nintendo or PlayStation, for example, allow you to save your progress and reload after a break in playing. These functions maintain continuity, which encourages the player to keep playing. If a game is a short-term and one-time experience, the effects of the game on human beings are not great or lasting. A game which one plays for a long time, has a much greater impact. Each game has its own objective, but some games have continuity as an objective. These games continue without ending or have finite but long-term objectives. This characteristic is one of the gamification principles, and has an important role in creating the fun of the game.

Interaction

Interaction is a very old philosophical concept, and includes all activities concerning moving and reacting with others, and external objects. Movies, cartoons, or works of art don’t interact with us. On the other hand, a game is a complex thing with interaction. By clicking, touching, or choosing in the game, the player receives constant feedback. This interaction can make the player immersed in the game.

Human beings live through communication. We continuously interact with others. This is fundamental to our existence, and good and free interaction makes life abundant and interesting. One important principle of gamification is well-designed interaction. Dewey himself mentioned that education is interaction, and this is the core of gamification. Every life is not being alone but interacting with others.

Interest

Dewey explained ‘Interest’ through the story of bystanders and actors in his book ‘Democracy and Education’. In some events, a bystander with no interest and an actor will differ greatly in the results they achieve. Interest is not just in short-term reward and stimulus but in continuous self-will. Continuous interest makes human life abundant and is empowering. If there is no interest, a person loses power (to act) and doesn’t develop. This is the loss of desire to act. Gamification can stimulate human desire to act by stimulating interest. Therefore, interest is one concept which can separate games from other works. Normally, the reason why people play games is to have ‘fun’. The necessary concept in gamification, which occasions this is ‘interest’.

Growth

In Dewey’s perspective, education is the activity of seeking growth. If there is no growth through education, education is no longer required. Education can be the core for growth. Not just the growth of the physical body but internal growth and maturity is the key to education. Dewey thought that growth is a process towards completion. Games also have this process of progress from easy levels to more difficult ones. The principle of growth is applied. In the past, the Tamagotchi game in the past consisted of activities to grow and develop virtual animals. The reason why many people love this is the growth of characters in the game. If there is no growth, there is no life, and it is no longer fun for humans.

Growth is also very important in gamification. Particularly if it is used for educational purposes, growth should be more focused on development. Growth through games can be a process of seeking ‘the truth’ or developing (in-game) skills, or gaining information and knowledge. This is education. A game for learning or study has steps, and a process which leads the player’s learning. If it leads to growth, it can be named as education, in which case, there is a blurring of the purposes of the game and the learning.

Experience

Experience can be defined as an ‘overall ending achieved’. This ending includes all ‘Beginning – Development – Achievement’ processes that have been part of the experience. For example, every detailed story in a game includes background music and background story, historical facts, and many other ideas.

The main characters in the game are constructed from many historical, and cconceptual materials, such as the languages used, the type of speech is used, their relationships, the clothes and foods depicted, etc, not just their (game) objectives. For players who see, hear, and experience it, the process itself can be an educational experience. The education experience is a complete with continuous interaction, interests, and growth.

When we see research about immersion related to gamification, we can see that gamification helps to create better educational experience. Immersion is very important for learning, and games can give bigger immersion than other activities. Immersion into games by children allows tremendous depth of experience. Immersion means that a human deeply dives into some activities, and that their current experience can be felt as optimal. These immersive experiences can also be educational experiences. For immersion, ‘Objective, Competition, Interaction’ is required.

Human live their lives through experience, and life is the continuous process of many experiences. In addition, the educational experience is meaningful. If games are used to present ethical and artistic experiences, gamification can be extended into really meaningful areas of human life. If this kind of educational experience is continued, it can become a life habit. And it can be accessible for all. As requirement to learn and access educational experiences grow, the requirement for gamification will grow too. These experiences will lead to making human life abundant. The principles of gamification meet the major concepts of educational philosophy.

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