Last day! The morning started with a brainstorming breakfast, we divided in three groups and discussed three keywords related to gamification: Play, Social and Creativity. And now Daphne Dragona will deliver the final keynote speech: ‘Counter-Gamification and the dismeasure of art’.

The first day ended with a nice dinner, and now we are ready for an intensive day of presentations and discussions. There have been a few changes in the schedule, but that’s how it shoudl look like:

First session (morning):
Niklas Schrape (Leuphana University): Gamification as Simulatization of the Real
Aleena Chia (Communication and Culture, Indiana University): Game of Life. A Critical Analysis of Work as Play
Felix Raczkowski (Ruhr-Universität Bochum): It’s all fun and games… A_History of Ideas concerning Gamification

Second session (morning):
Paolo Ruffino (Leuphana University): Gamification: New Forms of Engagement in Video Game Culture
Oliver Lerone Schultz(Leuphana University): Öffentlichkeit & Gamification
Fabrizio Poltronieri(University of São Paulo): Gamification, Apparatuses, Language and the Emergence of New Codes. A Flusserian Approach

Third session (afternoon):
Scott Nicholson (Syracuse University – Because Play Matters game lab): Meaningful Gamification
Martin Steinike (HTW Berlin): Lab Report
Kristina Kral (Leuphana University): Gadgified. Invisible Youth in Ghana, Jugaad in India, Arab Spring
Sebastian Deterding (Hans Bredow Institut, Hamburg): Outside the Box. From Gameful Structures to Playful Framing

Each presentation will be followed by Q&A, and then by group sessions in the afternoon/evening.
Stay in touch on Twitter! #rethinking_gamification

Gamification Lab is ready to host the first ‘Rethinking Gamification’ workshop! In a few minutes Götz Bachmann will introduce the Centre for Digital Cultures. Right after, Mathias Fuchs and then Flavio Escribano will deliver the keynote presentations of the day. Mathias will talk about the pre-digital precusors of gamification. Flavio will oppose gamification to ‘ludictatorship’, and then tell us something  about sex games and Russian roulette.
Follow us on Twitter (#rethinking_gamification)!

Smart Gamification, or Gamification 2.0, is a concept promoted by Amy Jo Kim, CEO of Shufflebrain.

In this talk she discusses how to enhance gamification beyond the simple task-and-reward system by thinking more in terms of a comprehensive experience, where players are ‘taken on a journey’. This new form of gamification is explained through seven steps, called the ‘seven core concepts for smart gamification’. Interestingly, there is still a strong background from psychology and behaviourism, which seem to underlie the discourses around gamification (either, so to say, 1.0 or 2.0). Positive emotions can be channelled into a predictable (and addictive) system, and this allegedly is what makes, in Kim’s words, good game design. Another interesting premise is that not being challenged equates to boredom, rather than, for example, freedom to experiment. The Theory of Flow seems to be one of the key models of the promoters of gamification. This, probably not surprisingly, is still used to create platforms where to attract customers. How could we think about gamification outside of these models of user experience and for reasons which are not, strictly speaking, selling something to someone else?

Gamification Lab at Leuphana University / Centre for Digital Cultures present:

Rethinking Gamification

A conference/ workshop about the potential and implications of gamification

15th to 17th May 2013
Lüneburg Germany, Leuphana University
„Alte Post“ Building Sülztorstrasse, Konferenzraum 332

“Gamification” is a buzzword of today’s marketing business, but also an accurate description of a fundamental shift in modern society: the permeation of economical, political and social contexts by game-elements. Rule structures and interfaces, inspired by computer games, are exceedingly used by corporations to manage and control brand-communities and to create value. What is missing up to now, however, is a critical analysis of concrete examples as well as theoretical reasonings about the ethical and political implications of gamification. The objective of our workshop is to change that: gamification might be a buzzword, but it surely is a symptom of an underlying, fundamental trend in our society. In this first workshop at the will gather scholars with the purpose of critically rethinking the concept of gamification.

Introduction by
Götz Bachmann(Leuphana University, CDC)

Keynote talks by
Flavio Escribano, keynote (Universita de Sevilla): Gamification versus Ludictatorship. From Sex Games to Russian Roulette
Daphne Dragona, keynote (Athens): Counter-Gamification
Mathias Fuchs (Leuphana University, Gamification Lab, CDC): Gamification in Digital Cultures and Pre-digital Precursors.

Participants
Niklas Schrape (Leuphana University): Gamification as Simulatization of the Real
Aleena Chia (Communication and Culture, Indiana University): Game of Life. A Critical Analysis of Work as Play
Marco Benoît Carbone (University College London): Making sense of Gamification: industry, gamers, scholars. Towards an overview of social, cultural and technological factors
Felix Raczkowski (Ruhr-Universität Bochum): It’s all fun and games… A_History of Ideas concerning Gamification
Paolo Ruffino (Leuphana University): Gamification: New Forms of Engagement in Video Game Culture
Oliver Lerone Schultz(Leuphana University): Öffentlichkeit & Gamification
Fabrizio Poltronieri(University of São Paulo): Gamification, Apparatuses, Language and the Emergence of New Codes. A Flusserian Approach
Scott Nicholson (Syracuse University – Because Play Matters game lab): Meaningful Gamification
Martin Steinike (HTW Berlin): Lab Report
Kristina Kral (Leuphana University): Gadgified. Invisible Youth in Ghana, Jugaad in India, Arab Spring
Sebastian Deterding (Hans Bredow Institut, Hamburg): Outside the Box. From Gameful Structures to Playful Framing

Gamification Lab is a Research Lab that is part of Leuphana University’s Centre for Digital Cultures (CDC). We research the implications of artistic, non-institutionalised and activist media practices within digital culture.
http://artandcivicmedia.net