On the use and abuse of gamification as a design strategy for geospatial applications

Florian Prinz
2020 unpublished
This thesis focuses on the analysis of the potential and problems of gamification as a design strategy for applications in the area of cartography and GIScience. Besides discussing the relevant definitions and demarcations to other related concepts like "serious games", "edutainment" and "games with a purpose", an attempt is made to not only outline theoretical underpinnings and presumptions legitimating the utilization of gamification and frameworks used for designing and implementing
more » ... ion, but also to demonstrate empirical findings regarding the effectiveness of the concept. Apart from a general discussion, areas of application of gamification and related concepts within the domain of cartography and GIScience are analyzed and the quality of theoretical ties as well as the use of established frameworks is examined. It can be shown, that not only the findings of a major literature review — diagnosing a gap between theory and action in gamification research — could be confirmed, but a duplexity of limitations regarding the use of gamification in the domain of cartography and GIScience is prevalent. Contributing in the overcoming of the duplexity of limitations regarding application scenarios and the used "reward-based" or "pointsified" gamification strategy as well as bridging the gap between theory and action, an analysis of the theoretical compatibility of gamification to specific concepts and research fields within the domain of cartography and GIScience is conducted in order to argue for the potential of gamification in these respective fields and possibly inspire new application scenarios. Additionally, with the help of an extended framework for the design of gamified geo-applications, not only an instrument for a theoretically guided selection and justification of game design elements is provided, but the framework is also applied to inform and guide the design of a gamified web-based mapping application, the "Atlas of Philosophical History".
doi:10.25365/thesis.62909 fatcat:tibcxrhxcrhk3jo3eecquevbzq