Following these developments, our reality and lives are increasingly game-like, not only because video games have become a pervasive part of our lives, but perhaps most prominently because activities, systems and services that are not traditionally perceived as game-like are increasingly gamified. Gamification refers to designing products, services and organizational practices to afford similar experiences to games, and consequently, to attempt to create value and affect people’s behaviour. In recent years, the popularity of gamification has skyrocketed and is manifested in growing numbers of gamified applications, as well as a rapidly increasing amount of research. Healthcare, educational and organizational contexts have been especially prominent fields for gamification interventions and solutions. Gameful restructuring of activities has been perceived as a potentially effective way of increasing motivation and participation in such contexts. Research in the given contexts has seemed to support the idea that gamification can indeed be beneficial for increasing engagement and commitment in, for example, healthy habits and exercise, learning, and work.
Beyond intentional gamification, gamification also refers to the general ludic transformation of our reality, culture and everyday lives. For example, recently we have witnessed the popular emergence of augmented reality games and virtual reality technologies that enable a more seamless integration of games into our physical reality. The media ecosystem has also experienced a degree of ludic transformation, with user generated content becoming an important competitor for large media corporations. This transformation has led to the development of several emerging phenomena such as streaming and esports, that have penetrated the cultural membrane allowing games to seep into domains hitherto dominated by traditional media.
We welcome submission empirical, theoretical and review articles that are focused on the combined area on these topics and the scope of Electronic Commerce Research and Applications.
Topics.
- Users: e.g. Engagement, experience, motivations, user/player types
- Education: e.g. Serious games, game-based learning, simulation games
- Media: e.g. eSports, streaming
- Commerce: e.g. Business models, free-to-play, gamification as marketing, adoption
- Work: e.g. Organizational gamification, gameful work, gamification in leadership
- Technology: e.g. VR, AR, MR, Internet of Things
- Health: e.g. Quantified self, games for health, health benefits
- Theories/concepts/methods: Contributions to science around gamification