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.

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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