Cautionary tale about rewards and achievements and rankings, using the story of a WoW raid group and their implosion. :) Presentation for Canadian Communication Association 2013

1. DEATH BY
CHOCOLATE-
COVERED
BROCCOLI:
A CASE WHERE
GAMIFICATION
KILLED GAMING
PRACTICE
CANADIAN
COMMUNICATION
ASSOCIATION 2013
MARK CHEN
@MCDANGER
G:MARKDANGERCHEN
COMMUNICATING THE
DIVERSE DEBATES AND
DIVISIONS WITHIN
GAME STUDIES
KELLY BERGSTROM
FLORENCE CHEE
THORSTEN BUSCH
CHRIS PAUL

2. GAMIFICATION?
• Provide incentives to non-game activity
• Why do people love games?
• Fun and challenging: Exploration of interesting constraints
• Social and culturally rich
• Rewarding

3. GAMIFICATION?
• Provide incentives to non-game activity
• Why do people love games?
• Fun and challenging: Exploration of interesting constraints
• Social and culturally rich
• Rewarding
Let’s just do this part!
The other stuff’s too hard.

4. GAMIFICATION?
• Provide incentives to non-game activity
• Why do people love games?
• Fun and challenging: Exploration of interesting constraints
• Social and culturally rich
• Rewarding

5. GAMIFICATION?
• Provide incentives to non-game activity
• Why do people love games?
• Fun and challenging: Exploration of interesting constraints
• Social and culturally rich
• Rewarding
For more: Deterding’s keynote and
Nicholson’s Meaningful Gamification
talk (both GLS 2012)
Why problematic?

6. EMERGENT PRACTICE IN
WORLD OF WARCRAFT
Raiding with “The 7/10 Split”
• 10-month ethnography
• 60-person group
• Fall 2005-Summer 2006
• Role-play server
• Early days of WoW

7. EMERGENT PRACTICE IN
WORLD OF WARCRAFT
Raiding with “The 7/10 Split”
• 10-month ethnography
• 60-person group
• Fall 2005-Summer 2006
• Role-play server
• Early days of WoW

8. EMERGENT PRACTICE IN
WORLD OF WARCRAFT
A play space = a “mangle” (Pickering; Steinkuehler)
• constant renegotiation of agendas and roles
dynamic and emergent activity
Expertise development is socialization into expert
groups, learning to do what experts do (Collins & Evans)
Emergent practice -> emergent values, motivations
• For The 7/10 Split: Friendship, hanging out, and having fun!

11. Initial meltdown prevented by
realignment / reiteration of group values
HANGING OUT AND
HAVING FUN

12. I love our raid. I know we are all going to get
burned out at times and frustrated and upset
and disagree with one another. It is part of
being human. We are like brothers and sisters
really. Stuff like this is going to happen.
Initial meltdown prevented by
realignment / reiteration of group values
HANGING OUT AND
HAVING FUN

13. New tools from WoW community
distributed cognition (Hutchins)
EXPERTISE DEVELOPMENT:
KENCO’S THREAT METER

14. EXPERTISE DEVELOPMENT:
RATING PERFORMANCE
New, smarter ways to play:
• Improving
efficiency
• keeping track
of progress

15. EXPERTISE DEVELOPMENT:
SOCIOMATERIAL PRACTICE
New, smarter ways to play:
• Improving
efficiency
• keeping track
of progress

16. VICTORY!

17. VICTORY!

18. NORMALIZATION OF PRACTICE
Learning underlying system turned into:
• focusing more on efficiency
• emphasizing progress and surveillance
Official ways to rate / reward progress:
• guild rankings based solely on raid content
• Later: gearscore, achievements

19. New emphasis in contention with initial values
Massive Meltdown*
DISSOLUTION
*but actually only partly responsible. Other factors:
changing schedules, frustration over recent failures, etc.

20. New emphasis in contention with initial values
Massive Meltdown*
DISSOLUTION
I thought of you as a friend, and now you treat me like
this? Insult me to my face? I don’t understand it.
*but actually only partly responsible. Other factors:
changing schedules, frustration over recent failures, etc.

21. GAMIFICATION KILLED
GAMING
Gamification normalizes legitimate play.
Rewarding certain forms of play marginalizes
other forms of play.
WoW focused more
and more on efficient
boss fights and loot
acquisition, killing
The 7/10 Split raid.

22. RECLAIMING
GAMIFICATION
Sebastian Deterding
Gameful design
http://codingconduct.cc/
Scott Nicholson
Meaningful gamification
http://www.scottnicholson.com/

23. DEATH BY
CHOCOLATE-
COVERED
BROCCOLI:
A CASE WHERE
GAMIFICATION
KILLED GAMING
PRACTICE
CANADIAN
COMMUNICATION
ASSOCIATION 2013
MARK CHEN
@MCDANGER
G:MARKDANGERCHEN
COMMUNICATING THE
DIVERSE DEBATES AND
DIVISIONS WITHIN
GAME STUDIES
KELLY BERGSTROM
FLORENCE CHEE
THORSTEN BUSCH
CHRIS PAUL

24. Tripartite roles: tank, healer, DPS

25. Tripartite roles: tank, healer, DPS

26. Tripartite roles: tank, healer, DPS
Yo, over here!
!

27. Tripartite roles: tank, healer, DPS
rogue (DPS)
warrior
(tank)
priest (healer)
mage (DPS)
Yeah, hit me!

28. Tripartite roles: tank, healer, DPS
rogue (DPS)
warrior
(tank)
priest (healer)
mage (DPS)
pew pew!
Yeah, hit me!
+300
+120

29. Tripartite roles: tank, healer, DPS
rogue (DPS)
warrior
(tank)
priest (healer)
mage (DPS)
pew pew!
Yeah, hit me!
+300
+120
Has the most threat and
monster “aggro”

30. Threat and aggro
Time 1
Player Ability Activated Threat Generated
(hypothetical)
Existing
Threat
Total Threat
(hypothetical)
Wendy (tank) Sunder 260 780 1040
Rand (DPS) Sinister Strike 140 560 700
Shaun (healer) L. Healing Wave 400 400 800
Mandy (DPS) Frostbolt 500 0 500
Time 2
Player Ability Activated Threat Generated
(hypothetical)
Existing
Threat
Total Threat
(hypothetical)
Wendy (tank) Sunder 260 1040 1300
Rand (DPS) Sinister Strike 140 700 840
Shaun (healer) L. Healing Wave 400 800 1200
Mandy (DPS) Frostbolt 500 500 1000
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