Ludification of culture:the significance of play and games in everyday practices of the digital era

The article explores the concept of ludification of culture and its application to hermeneutical and empirical research of everyday social practices. It debates the significance of play and games in the digital age, with a special focus on work scenarios. Aware of its limitations, the authors propose to extend the concept with a metaphor of work and play interference, which more accurately describes current social phenomena, interwoven with both qualities. The argumentation unfolds the anthropological consequences of homo ludens in a post-industrial world

Playing pregnancy: the ludification and gamification of expectant motherhood in Smartphone apps

Like other forms of embodiment, pregnancy has increasingly become subject to representation and interpretation via digital technologies. Pregnancy and the unborn entity were largely private, and few people beyond the pregnant women herself had access to the foetus growing within her (Duden). Now pregnant and foetal bodies have become open to public portrayal and display (Lupton The Social Worlds of the Unborn). A plethora of online materials – websites depicting the unborn entity from the moment of conception, amateur YouTube videos of births, social media postings of ultrasounds and self-taken photos (‘selfies’) showing changes in pregnant bellies, and so on – now ensure the documentation of pregnant and unborn bodies in extensive detail, rendering them open to other people’s scrutiny. Other recent digital technologies directed at pregnancy include mobile software applications, or ‘apps’. In this article, we draw on our study involving a critical discourse analysis of a corpus of pregnancy-related apps offered in the two major app stores. In so doing, we discuss the ways in which pregnancy-related apps portray pregnant and unborn bodies. We place a particular focus on the ludification and gamification strategies employed to position pregnancy as a playful, creative and fulfilling experience that is frequently focused on consumption. As we will demonstrate, these strategies have wider implications for concepts of pregnant and foetal embodiment and subjectivity. It is important here to make a distinction between ludification and gamification. Ludification is a broader term than gamification. It is used in the academic literature on gaming (sometimes referred to as ‘ludology’) to refer to elements of games reaching into other aspects of life beyond leisure pursuits (Frissen et al. Playful Identities: The Ludification of Digital Media Cultures; Raessens). Frissen et al. (Frissen et al. "Homo Ludens 2.0: Play, Media and Identity") for example, claim that even serious pursuits such as work, politics, education and warfare have been subjected to ludification. They note that digital technologies in general tend to incorporate ludic dimensions. Gamification has been described as ‘the use of game design elements in non-game contexts’ (Deterding et al. 9). The term originated in the digital media industry to describe the incorporation of features into digital technologies that not explicitly designed as games, such as competition, badges, rewards and fun that engaged and motivated users to make them more enjoyable to use. Gamification is now often used in literatures on marketing strategies, persuasive computing or behaviour modification. It is an important element of ‘nudge’, an approach to behaviour change that involves persuasion over coercion (Jones, Pykett and Whitehead). Gamification thus differs from ludification in that the former involves applying ludic principles for reasons other than the pleasures of enjoying the game for their own sake, often to achieve objectives set by actors and agencies other than the gamer. Indeed, this is why gamification software has been described by Bogost (Bogost) as ‘exploitationware’

Rethinking gamification

Gamification marks a major change to everyday life. It describes the permeation of economic, political, and social contexts by game-elements such as awards, rule structures, and interfaces that are inspired by video games. Sometimes the term is reduced to the implementation of points, badges, and leaderboards as incentives and motivations to be productive. Sometimes it is envisioned as a universal remedy to deeply transform society toward more humane and playful ends. Despite its use by corporations to manage brand communities and personnel, however, gamification is more than just a marketing buzzword. States are beginning to use it as a new tool for governing populations more effectively. It promises to fix what is wrong with reality by making every single one of us fitter, happier, and healthier. Indeed, it seems like all of society is up for being transformed into one massive game.The contributions in this book offer a candid assessment of the gamification hype. They trace back the historical roots of the phenomenon and explore novel design practices and methods. They critically discuss its social implications and even present artistic tactics for resistance. It is time to rethink gamification

Translation as Experimentalism

This Element argues for a perspective on literary translation based around ludification, using concrete poetry as a test case. It questions assumptions about translatability and opens up the discursive space of literary writing to transgressive articulation and multimodal performance. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core

Développement et évaluation d'avatars personnalisés dans un environnement immersif transmédiatique : effets sur l'anxiété et la douleur

La gestion de l’anxiété et de la douleur est un enjeu important dans les services d’hémato-oncologie pédiatriques. Les outils développés et les ressources actuellement disponibles ne sont pas suffisants pour offrir aux patients et à leur famille une gestion optimale de l’anxiété et de la douleur. Les nouvelles technologies, telles que la réalité virtuelle et les contenus vidéoludiques, permettent de créer des outils de distraction thérapeutique adaptés au contexte hospitalier et personnalisés en fonction de la condition des patients. Bien que leur efficacité ait été démontrée, le processus de conception et de développement de ces outils est souvent omis, ce qui rend difficile d’évaluer ces projets dans leur ensemble. L’objectif de cette thèse était tout d’abord de développer et de tester une application multiplateforme basée sur un avatar personnalisé, dans le but de réduire l’anxiété et la douleur chronique chez des enfants hospitalisés dans un service d’hémato-oncologie pédiatrique. Ce projet de recherche visait à étudier et évaluer la faisabilité et l’acceptabilité d’une telle intervention, à comprendre ses effets sur la douleur et l’anxiété des patients, ainsi qu‘à évaluer la satisfaction des patients, de leurs parents et des professionnels de la santé impliqués dans leurs soins. Dans cette perspective, une application multi-plateforme, disponible sur mobile et en réalité virtuelle, a été développée en utilisant un processus de Design Thinking (processus de création centré sur l’utilisateur). À la suite du prototypage et grâce à une approche Co-design, un atelier de dessin a été réalisé avec chaque enfant participant (n=5) afin de créer un avatar personnalisé intégré à chaque application. Par la suite, une approche qualitative recherche-action a été suivie afin de comprendre les effets de notre intervention et ses enjeux logistiques et sociaux auprès des enfants, de leurs parents et des professionnels de la santé. Cette étude a été réalisée grâce à des entrevues parents-enfants, la tenue d’un journal d’utilisation, un questionnaire ouvert pour les professionnels de la santé, ainsi que des questionnaires de satisfaction pour les trois groupes de participants. Les résultats démontrent un effet positif sur l’anxiété et la douleur, mais également sur l’isolement social et l’humeur des enfants. Plusieurs pistes d’améliorations logistiques et vidéoludiques ont été identifiées

Apport de la ludification et autres solutions digitales dans l'amélioration de la santé chez l’homme. Perspectives chez l'animal

Le numérique est devenu omniprésent dans le quotidien de chaque individu jusqu’à le rendre indispensable pour beaucoup. L’émergence de la ludification en est une résultante directe et permet de traiter des problématiques classiques de manière innovante en y ajoutant une composante ludique. Dans le secteur de la santé, le manque de compréhension et d’implication des patients se traduisent par des défauts d’observance et une mauvaise appréhension de la médecine préventive. Le numérique via ses différentes expressions, permet déjà de répondre à ces problématique et la ludification offre de nouvelles perspectives. Cette dernière repose sur des principes psychologiques éprouvés et sur une méthodologie définie. En s’appuyant sur cela, il est possible de construire des outils impliquant positivement les individus sur la prise en charge de leur santé ou de celles de leur animal de compagnie

Gamification as a Promoting Tool of Motivation for Creating Sustainable Higher Education Institutions

Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) are responsible for creating healthy and sustainable environments for students and teachers through diverse educational paradigms such as gamification. In this sense, the Healthy People 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals indicated the imperative to provide inclusive and equitable quality education to promote a healthy environment and life. The principal objective was to analyse the impact of gamification on health development in HEIs, highlighting their positive and negative effects. To achieve such an objective, a bibliometric analysis was carried out. The 257 documents showed no significant increasing trend in the last decade (p > 0.05) related to the pandemic. Most of the publications were conferences (45%), and the few published articles were the documents with more citations (p < 0.001). According to their index in Journal Citation Reports, there were significant differences between the citations of articles published in journals (p < 0.001). The analysis of journal co-citations showed that the leading journals (such as Computers in Human Behavior) had a significant part in the clusters formed (p < 0.001), conditioning also the keywords, especially the term “motivation”. These findings were discussed, concluding that the experimental studies focused on the teachers’ adverse effects are yet to come

Gamification – A Novel Phenomenon or a New Wrapping for Existing Concepts?

Adding game elements to products and services has become a popular approach for enhancing users’ experiences. Accordingly, gamification is widely considered an important method for intrinsically motivating users toward a preferred behavior. But what exactly about gamification is actually novel? In a broad literature review, we compare and contrast gamification to similar concepts such as hedonic, persuasive and intrinsically motivating information systems. By decomposing and classifying game elements found in the literature, we distinguish between already existing elements and ones that can be considered new. In order to drive this area of research forward, we develop an extended framework for gamification, identify gaps in the literature, and propose future avenues for research