What is the status and the challange of of eParticipation? It seems the engagement rate has not been increased and the challanges are to activate and engage the people to long-term participation. Gamification can encourage and increase the usage of different systems. Different groups can be attracted through gamification, like young or less interested people. But do we want to gamifiy democracy? The critique is, that it is not a bridge builder for everybody. The clue is to have different strategies e.g. challanges, incentives and point systems to increase eParticipation. Even if game aspects are not "reaching" everybody they can serve as additional motivatians.

1. A Review of Introducing Game
Elements to e-Participation
E-Democracy and E-Participation Session
Sarah-Kristin Thiel
Technology Experience, Innovation Systems, AIT

2. … and many more

3. Status of e-Participation
 Low impact (?)
 Despite many diverse efforts in e-participation, the overall (political)
engagement rate has not been inrecreased (yet)
 Many possible reasons, among them:
 Mistrust
 Perceived low efficacy
 Digital Divide
 Ignorance
 Lack of motivation
 …
318.05.2016

4. Challenges of e-Participation
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Activation Engaging dialogue
Long-term
participation

5. Challenges of e-Participation
518.05.2016
Activation Engaging dialogue
Long-term
participation
? Motivation ?

6. Challenges of e-Participation
618.05.2016
Activation Engaging dialogue
Long-term
participation
? Motivation ?
Hypothesis
“Introducing game elements in e-participation platforms encourages
citizens to contribute to decision-making processes.”

7. Gamification
Definition, distinction, game elements

8. Gamification
 Definition
 “use of game design elements in non-game contexts” (Deterding et al, 2011)
 Goal
 Encourage a desired type of behaviour (Flatla et al, 2011)
 Increase the usage of systems (Zichermann & Cunningham, 2011)
 Application areas
 Education
 Business
 Transport
 Sustainability
 Research
 …
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9. Examples of game elements
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Classifier Game elements
Achievement e.g., badges, points
Status e.g., levels
Expression e.g., spaces for open creativity
Feedback e.g., notifications
Personalization e.g., profiles, avatars
Challenge e.g., missions, quests
Competition e.g., leaderboards, highscore
Scarcity e.g., time contraint

10. Gamified Participation
Definition, points of discussion, examples

11. Gamified Participation
 Definition
 The use of game-inspired elements in public engagement tools with the objective
to increase the level of participation
 Need for gamified participation
 in participatory processes only the usual suspects engage:
• intrinsically interested
• Higher-educated
• Middle-aged
 Games (or aspects of those) can encourage other groups
• Young people
• Less interested
 Curiosity or/and game affinity as bridge-builder
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12. Gamified Participation
Critique
 Not a bridge-builder for all citizens
 Some might be alienated by incorporated game aspects
 Do we put off the same amount of people that we gain?
 Is it appropriate to gamify democracy?
 Incentives & public participation / democracy  an Oxymoron?
 Should public participation be incentivized?
 Is it ethical to offer rewards (in this context)?
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13. Gamified Participation
Definition, points of discussion, examples
Examples of commercial systems

14. http://hunchbuzz.com/
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15. http://hunchbuzz.com/
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Game aspects: Challenge, Incentives, Competition

16. 18/05/2016
https://communityplanit.org/

17. 18/05/2016
https://communityplanit.org/
Game aspects: Challenge, Incentives, Point system

18. http://www.nextsuisse.ch/
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19. http://www.nextsuisse.ch/
1918/05/2016
Game aspects: Expression

20. Challenge
Incentives
Point system
Competition
Expression
Challenge
Incentives
Point system
Competition
Expression
Challenge
Incentives
Point system
Competition
Expression
Challenge
Incentives
Point system
Competition
Expression
based on the MDA framework by Hunicke et al.,2004
2018/05/2016
Game-related elements used

21. Gamified Participation
Definition, points of discussion, examples
Academic examples

22. Love your city! (Stembert et al., 2013)
 Mobile interactive platform to propose and shape plans utilizing virtual reality
 Aims to help establish a more direct communication between citizens and
authority
 Three participation paths:
 addressing
 co-creation
 organisation
 Used game-elements:
 Emotions
 Fading date
 Heart points
 Profile
 Statistics
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23. B3- Design your marketplace! (Poplin, 2014)
 Reflects a real-world case (Hamburg, Germany)
 Category: serious game
 Aims to provide a „playful“ digital environment for urban planning
 Game elements used:
 Marketplace configurator
 Design ranking
 Top designs
 Little helper
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 Findings:
 Young participants appriciated
game elements, elderly
participants did not reflect on
them in detail

24. Täsä (Thiel & Lehner, 2015)
 mobile participation platform
 Based on the participatory sourcing approach
 Allows citizens to propose ideas, point out issues and
discuss topics among each other and with city officials
 Game elements used:
 Missions
 Points
 Progress
 Leaderboard
 Reputation
 Lifetime
 Profile
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25. Conclusion
 Existing approaches focus on reward-based gamification (i.e. badges,
leaderboards, achievements) thus building on comparison and competition
as motivating mechanism
 No in-depth analyses of the effects of gamification on participation so far
 Game elements accepted in related domains (e.g., citizen science)
 Some users appreciate the inclusion of game elements
 Preliminary insights
 Game aspects may serve as additional (initial) motivation
 Long-term effects remain to be investigated
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26. http://www.incognito.com/blog/the-carrot-and-stick-approach-to-ott-content/

27. AIT Austrian Institute of Technology
your ingenious partner
Sarah-Kristin Thiel
sarah-kristin.thiel@ait.ac.at