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can also be exploited to promote long-term usage of enterprise systems. In fact, since
2010, the application of thesemethods and principles, also referred to as gamification,
is a trending topic for marketing- and business-oriented services. Deterding et al. [
6
]
define gamification as “the use of game design elements in non-game contexts”.
A rather benefit-oriented definition was provided by Huotari and Hamari [
15
]who
define it as “a process of enhancing a service with affordances for gameful experi-
ences in order to support user's overall value creation”. In today's online world, one
stumbles upon gamification elements on various sites. Stackoverflow
1
uses a rep-
utation leaderboard where users get points for helpful answers. Dropbox
2
rewards
users who spread the word with more space and LinkedIn
3
is motivating users to
complete their profiles by presenting progress bars. Not only on the Web, but also in
the biochemistry [
18
] and education domains [
21
], using game elements becomes a
non-neglectable part.
A common objective of gamification is to enhance motivation. In an enterprise
setting, for example, the goal is to motivate employees to participate in a certain task.
If, for example, a project requires constant documentation of project activities which
is not a very popular task, gamifying the documentation process should address this
lack of motivation. Finding the right means to increase motivation is a nontrivial
task though since motivation is mainly driven by human-centric factors. For some
people, being on top of a leaderboard can be motivating, but what about people who
are not in the top
N
? Are these people really motivated to rise up on the leaderboard?
Also, what does their position on the leaderboard say about their work performance?
Does it show that they are not working enough and do they have to fear negative
consequences by the management? These questions indicate that especially in an
enterprise scenario, it is of uttermost importance to measure challenges and risks
that occur due to these differences before introducing gamification methods. On the
one hand, we expect gamification to increase user participation within an enterprise.
On the other hand, the visibility of user interaction (or lack thereof), e.g., the position
of the employee on a leaderboard can increase the stress level of employees or even
cause fear that their activities on a gamified system will be used as an indicator of
their engagement with the company. Gamification could have some negative side
effects (negative manipulation, denunciation, blaming) but while it could also have
positive effects the implications need to be carefully investigated.
We argue that user-specific gamification design could reduce participation
inequality. We aim to show that better knowledge on how to motivate each user
by which game design elements can increase chances for converting a lurker into
an active, regularly participating user. Furthermore, we reason that a user-specific
application of game design elements can also prevent cross-cultural problems since
automatic user type determination can address cross-cultural habits. More specifi-
cally, with this chapter and future studies we intend to answer the following research
questions:
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