State-of-the-Art: Semantics Acquisition Games - Semantic Acquisition Games: Harnessing Manpower for Creating Semantics - page 35

As a related term to serious games, the term gamification [ 6 ], should also be
mentioned. It represents a process of inserting game-like features like system of
game-token rewarding or point competition into existingworking schemes to increase
the motivation of workers (e.g., for each completed task, an employee of a company
receives virtual points or badges to compete with colleagues). The term is often
misused for “serious game” because both concepts are meant to make “a work-
like activity” a more pleasurable (entertaining, game-like) experience. However, the
“gamifying” of a workflow does not make it a “game”. On the other hand, the concept
of gamification is often present in non-game crowdsourcing processes [ 23 ].
The gamification truly is what it sounds—an introduction of game elements
(e.g. leaderboards, badges, achievements) into activities that are not games them-
selves. Its aim is to motivate workers to perform more. It is not an universal solution,
it only works in specific circumstances (it must be meaningful for the workers to
perform the task without game, it must look unique, impose challenges and pro-
mote worker skill). The gamification may only improve existing working process—
it cannot “trick” workers doing a task they would not normally do. Despite these
disadvantages it is a today's trend and is pursued by many companies.
There is hypothetically no limit on domain or type of a problem the crowdsourcing
games can solve. Just tomention some, which are not related to semantics acquisition:

￿ Plummings —a game for optimization of FPGA circuits, a known NP-hard prob-

lem (i.e. hard to solve by a machine) [ 19 ]. In this game, the player acts as an
architect and administrator of an artificial city inhabited by characters called Plum-
mings . The Plummings live in special habitats that need to be effectively supplied
with life-keeping substances. The player solves the logistical problems imposed
by the structure of the city: the layout of habitats and supply lines, which he tries
to optimize so his citizens can live. This covers the game story presented to player.
In fact however, the storyline is just a facade. As the “background” of the game
elements lie the real FPGA circuit components and their connections which must
be optimized.

￿ FoldIt —a game for protein layout optimization [ 3 ]. In this game, the player manip-

ulates the layout of virtual molecule models. His task is to layout a molecule so
it fits a certain condition (e.g. to become an effective catalyst in certain reaction).
The molecule has also be stable according to known chemical rules. For complex
molecules this task cannot be automated. Starting with easy samples, the player
gradually becomes capable of designing complex molecules and ultimately, some
useful 1 ones.

Despite of these examples, crowdsourcing games are predominantly utilized for
creation of semantics [ 15 ] (Fig. 3.1 ): resource description (of texts and multimedia)
and domain modeling (entity identification, relationship discovery and naming). The

1 Recently, the players of the FoldIt game have helped in discovering a protein with significant
impact in cancer research.