Lude et labora. Notes on gamification at work

Abstract

Although the relationship between play and work goes back to the origin of civilization, the recent development of gamification shows the extent to which hybridization processes are occurring today between these two elements, which were earlier considered antithetical. The use of elements of game design in the workplace not only implies the search for greater engagement and fun, but it aims to restructure the daily activities through a framework that is supposed to be engaging, fair and efficient. Under the pressure for theatricalization, labour is shaped as a performance. The so-called ‘playbour’ (Kücklich 2005) highlights deep cultural changes, and shows how both work and play are being transformed in contemporary Western societies.

This paper will first introduce the cultural context of the recent changes in the relationship between the spheres of labour and game. Second, it will discuss the rise of game design as a universal framework for interpreting human activities. Subsequently, it will analyse the consequences of this development, describing how the game design values of engagement, fairness and effectiveness are being applied, and what outcomes and changes they bring forth. Finally, some remarks will be drawn on the current state of gamification and the ludification of culture.

Notes

1 The gameful world is defined by the authors as the present phase of Western society, characterized by the increasing importance of ludicity and playfulness.

2 Virtual currencies are fictive currencies used in games, sometimes exchangeable with real-world money; in-app purchases let users pay with real money for benefits (for example special items, power-ups or game currency); gold farming is the practice of playing a game to acquire in-game currency to exchange for real-world money; and grinding dynamics are processes that force players to repeat over and over the same tasks in exchange for extrinsic rewards, such as experience points or virtual currency.

3 Quantified self is centred on self-tracking technologies and solutions as a tool for self-improving (mainly in health and wellness). It believes that the access to precise and continuous data about ourselves is the first key to making people adopt more correct habits.

4 ‘Flow’ is a mental state in which individuals feel fully immersed, involved and absorbed in what they are doing. They are completely engaged, focused and motivated. Typical flow-driving experiences are musical improvisations, crucial moments in sports, religious rituals and gaming.

5 Defined by the author as an attempt to ‘rehearse a general theory of performance’, Improve or Else states that modern emergence and diffusion of the concept of performance in different domains is not casual, but a result of a univocal pressure to perform in contemporary society. This pressure permeates cultural (arts and culture), organizational (work, corporations) and technological (research, technology) domains, issuing challenges for more ‘efficacy, efficiency and effectiveness’. As a result, performance can be considered the XXst century counterpart of Foucaultian disciplinary dispositives: an ontohistorical formation of knowledge and power, centred on expression and multiplication instead of repression and limitation.

6 Lesage interprets Negri and Hardt’s philosophical work (2004) stating that not only immaterial labour, but material labour as well can be considered a performance; moreover, labour as such (together with ordinary life) can be considered part of a general regime of ‘permanent performance’ in contemporary society.

7 This is a social policy grounded on the possibility to affect the behaviour of individuals while granting at the same time freedom of choice, by mildly encouraging ‘correct’ actions through nudging.

8 Depicting gamification as a business-centred activity, based on a limited knowledge of game design.