Coding conduct: Games, Play, and Human Conduct Between Technical Code and Social Framing

coding conduct
Sebastian Deterding (@dingstweets)
Hans Bredow Institute for Media Research
November 5, 2012, ITU Copenhagen

cb

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/grrrl/115642628

HOW ALGORITHMS SHAPE
OUR WORLD

Code is political: It governs conduct

Some actively use code to govern conduct

1. »Human beings act toward things on the basis of
the meanings that the things have for them.«
2. »The meaning of such things is derived from ... the
social interaction that one has with one‘s fellows.«
3. »These meanings are handled in, and modified
through, an interpretive process used by the person in
dealing with the things he/she encounters.«

Herbert Blumer
symbolic interactionism (1969: 2)

No social meaning = inert object

how does code shape conduct,
mediated by social meanings?
(and vice versa)

W OG
OR R
PR

K ES
IN S
frames
social norms & understandings

appropriate, configure, frame
offloaded & stabilized in
cues, facilitates
re-cues, resists

situated conduct
affordances experience

code
material rules, cues, capabilities

Sociotechnical systems
Information ecologies
Situated action
Embodied interaction
Social contextures
...

This is not a new question

»What if we decided to use
everything we know about
game design to fix what‘s
wrong with reality?«

Jane McGonigal
reality is broken (2011: 7)

persuasive technology
Using computing technology to
change attitudes and behaviours

gamification
Using game design elements in
non-game contexts

video game play
The interaction of play as a frame
and digital games as artefacts

»Gamification
is bullshit.«
Ian Bogost
gamification is bullshit (2011)
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4294/persuasive_games_shell_games.php

»By putting game design elements into
non-game contexts, gamification is a
perfect natural experiment to study how
code shapes conduct, mediated by social
meanings (and vice versa) – and thus,
move game design research forward.«

Me
here (now)
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4294/persuasive_games_shell_games.php

two moves forward
1. From games as interventions in systems to
the gameful redesign of systems
2. From designing game artefacts to the
playful (re)framing of situations

1 Gamification is
confused and
unsystemic.

si on
fu 1
Con #

The fun in games is »rewards«

Score: 964,000,000,000,000
(You rock!)

Earn 1,000,000,000,000 points

Extrinsic motivation
http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/diego_rivera/4261964210

Intrinsic motivation
http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/areyoumyrik/308908967

»Fun is just another word
for learning.«

Raph Koster
a theory of fun for game design (2005)

»Fun from games arises out of mastery. It
arises out of comprehension. It is the act
of solving puzzles that makes games fun.
With games, learning is the drug.«

Raph Koster
a theory of fun for game design (2005)

»An understanding of human motivation
requires a consideration of innate
psychological needs for competence,
autonomy, and relatedness.«

Edward Deci, Richard Ryan
the what and why of goal pursuit (2000)

Con(fusion) #1
The fun in playing games
chiefly arises from
intrinsic enjoyment, not
extrinsic incentives.

si on
fu 2
Con #

You can »just add« game elements
http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/apartmentlife/6559123353/

Game Atoms

model/skill goal

actions
rule system

success! / failure!
challenge

feedback
immediate/progress

Fun arises from iteracting with a system

Adding elements changes system dynamics
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8147452@N05/2913356030/sizes/o/

Systems bound the effect of added elements

Con(fusion) #2
»Gaminess« is not a
feature you can »just add«.

2 motivational affordances
How do game design elements
interact with social contexts to afford
intrinsic motivation?

Practice Data
Designer-driven Analytics-driven
Heuristics, methods Tests, predictive models

Taxonomy Theory
Researcher-driven Researcher-driven
Patterns Models (PENS, flow, …)

Practice Data

mostly anecdotal evidence
little explanatory grounding

Taxonomy Theory

Practice Data

trapped in local maxima/
not generative
no explanatory grounding
no learnable understanding

Taxonomy Theory

Practice Data

not granular enough
no actionable form

Taxonomy Theory

Practice Data

either descriptive or
assumption-based, then
prone to post hoc and
success fallacies
no explanatory grounding

Taxonomy Theory

Practice Data

Motivational Affordances
Theoretically grounded, empirical,
granular, actionable game design

Taxonomy Theory

motivational affordances
1. How can we connect design patterns to
psychological research (and generate new)?
2. How do pattern variations empirically
affect experience, motivation, behaviour?
3. How do patterns interact in their effects?
4. How are pattern effects mediated by
frames (and other context factors)?

3 gameful design
How to (re)structure a system to
facilitate motivation, using game
design as a lens?

»Still feels add-on to me …«
http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/apartmentlife/6559123353/

»These are two types of change: one that
occurs within a given system which itself
remains unchanged, and one whose
occurrence changes the system itself…
Second-order change is thus change of
change.«

Paul Watzlawick et al.
change (1974: 10)

»Mowing the lawn or waiting in a
dentist’s office can become enjoyable
provided one restructures the activity by
providing goals, rules, and the other
elements of enjoyment to be reviewed
below.«

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
flow (1990: 51)

How might we ...
restructure a system to support
intrinsic enjoyment, using
game design as a lens?

Put differently
If this were a game, it what
ways would it be broken?

Games in Undergrad > Undergrad as game

Games in school > School as game

Games in class > Class as game

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/mike52ad/4675696269
How to design a gameful classroom?

The Game Atoms of Classroom Learning

model/skill goal

actions
rule system

success! / failure!
challenge

feedback
immediate/progress

Goals: Intransparent; little choice; no small,
attainable goals

Rules: Often intransparent

Challenge: Not adjusted to individual skill

Feedback: Slow, demotivating decay instead of

building progress towards goals

gameful design
1. What methods are currently in use in
designing games and gameful systems?
2. How can we ground the various methods
and their effects theoretically?
3. What are the effects of the different
methods – for designers and end products?
4. How can we iteratetively amend and test
game and gameful design methods?

4 Gamification is
thinking inside the box.

Game
The Box
A designed artifact

Game
The Box
A designed artifact

Playing
A frame of engagement

debugging
playtesting/reviewing
presenting gameplay
making a machinima
a scientific study
learning (serious games)
sports (e-sports)
work (goldfarming)

»I need to be very routinized;
I mustn’t let myself drift.«
»I hammer it through.«
»Often, you have to force yourself to do it.«
»You’re under real pressure.«
»It’s extremely exhausting.«
»It wears you out.«
»My friends usually cannot comprehend how
stressful this is.«

»Sometimes, you have to
play, you have to get further –
and then, play is work.«

Question
What makes the best game
(elements) tedious work?

»I would call it a game –
but I did not play it.«

Designed artefact

»I would call it a game –
but I did not play it.«

Social frame

A frame is »the definition of a situation«:
»basic frameworks of understanding
available in our society for making sense
out of events (and) … principles of
organization which govern events ... and
our subjective involvement in them.«

Erving Goffman
frame analysis (1974: 8, 10-11)

Are you »using« or »playing« it?

>

Jonas Linderoth
digra nordic (2012)

»The magic circle jerk doesn’t exist.
Nobody really takes the hard line that
everyone wants to criticize. I’m sick of
the magic circle jerk. Let’s bury the
bastard.«

Eric Zimmerman
jerked around by the magic circle (2012)

»This has been a common thread in
criticisms of the magic circle: ... theorists
claim to counter Huizinga, Salen and
Zimmerman by stressing the exact social
nature of the magic circle that Huizinga,
Salen and Zimmerman also stress.«

Jesper Juul
the magic circle and the puzzle piece (2008: 59)

»The magic circle is the boundary that
players negotiate. (…)
Game scholarship should be about
analyzing the conventions of this
boundary, and how and when this
boundary is created and negotiated.«

Jesper Juul
the magic circle and the puzzle piece (2008: 62)

So ...
What about this frame
of video game play?

5 framing video game play
What does the frame of video game
play entail, and how is it co-constructed
by users and artefacts?

e nt
em 1
El #

»First and foremost,
all play is a voluntary
activity.«

Johan Huizinga
homo ludens (1938/1950: 7)

»The key element of an
optimal experience is that
it is an end in itself.«

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
flow (1990: 67)

»An understanding of human motivation
requires a consideration of innate
psychological needs for competence,
autonomy, and relatedness.«

Edward Deci, Richard Ryan
the what and why of goal pursuits (2000)

e nt
em 2
El #

Detached engrossment
http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/paulgorman/1392988135

e nt
em 3
El #

Shared autotelic focus
http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/lucianvenutian/439410200

»It is through a community of people
who care more about fun than winning
that the Well-Played game happens.«

Bernie de Koven
the well-played game (1978: 5)

e nt
em 4
El #

»Gamesmanship«
http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/paulgorman/1392988135

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/jlatimer/5173242541

e nt
em 5
El #

As-if

Chinese Gold Farming?
http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/juliandibbell/234192868/sizes/o/in/set-72157594279649151/

Keyings are »conventions by which a
given activity, ... meaningful in terms of
some primary framework, is transformed
into something patterned on this activity
but seen by the participants to be
something quite else.«

Erving Goffman
frame analysis (1974: 43-44)

For instance: A »rehearsal«
http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/900hp/3961828112/sizes/o/

leisurely game play keyings

E-Sports
Goldfarming
Modes/
Review play
creative agendas
Analytic play
...


E-Sports
Goldfarming
Modes/
Review play
creative agendas
Analytic play
...

autonomous in-autonomous
autotelic focus instrumental focus
gamesmanship professional norms
detached engrossment professional distance
as-if gearing into the world factual-material gearing


E-Sports
Goldfarming
Modes/
Review play
creative agendas
Analytic play
...

little norming high norming

autonomous in-autonomous
autotelic focus instrumental focus
gamesmanship professional norms
detached engrossment professional distance
as-if gearing into the world factual-material gearing

Modes of play
• Manifold, acquired in video game socialisation, historically
and culturally divergent
• Bind »motivational relevancies«, social setup, game genre
• Govern
• Inhabitable roles
• (Displayed) attentive engrossment
• (Displayed) emotion and attitude
• Values, norms, rules, cues for behaviour
• Transformation rules: Gearing into the world

Situated

A necessary amendment

perceived as thwarts

controlling autonomy

–
feedback motivation

+
perceived as supports

informing competence

Autonomy: Instrumental, not autotelic; little
meaningful choice, little connection to personal
goals and needs, often controlling feedback

Shared focus: Demonstrating proficiency,
avoiding failure, following rules, maximizing
grades

Gearing into the world: High factual stakes

6 gaming the system
How does implementing explicit rule
systems affect framings?

http://boardgamegeek.com/image/1209336/advanced-squad-leader?size=original

Reframing as ﬆrategic inﬆrumental action
http://www.rasmusen.org/x/images/pd.jpg

In short: a ludic framing

Paidia Ludus
play game
improvisation skill, effort
exploration strategizing
tumultuous ordered
immoderate rule-bound

Roger Caillois
man, play, and games (1958)

<Insert Dilbert
cartoon here>

… fixates thinking inside the system, ...

… blends out = creates »externalities«, ...

So you also played
EcoChallengeTM?

… crowds out communal ethics ...

… and encourages »gaming the system«
http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/5tein/2347819903

»The more a quantitative social indicator
is used for social decision-making, the
more subject it will be to corruption
pressures and the more apt it will be to
distort and corrupt the social processes it
is intended to monitor.«

Donald T. Campbell
assessing the impact of planned social change (1976)

gaming the system
1. What are the forms, causes, and effects of
gaming the system across social domains?
2. How does the design and social context of
systems invite a »ludic« framing?
3. How can we design socio-technical
systems to avoid and/or alleviate »gaming
the system«?

7 Playful design
How can we design to invite a playful
framing and thus, playful conduct?

What we usually design

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrlerone/405730185/sizes/o/

Who decides whether this is play

(or playing is allowed)

»How can I design a rigid
structure that facilitates
spontaneous behaviour?«

Sylvan Steenhuis
evoking playfulness in public space (2012: 6)

playful design
1. What characterises a playful frame?
2. What are effective methods, strategies,
patterns for inviting a playful (re)framing?
3. How do the standing frames of different
contexts impact playful reframing, and how
to take them into account?

in summary
1. How can we (re)structure socio-technical
systems to afford intrinsic enjoyment?
2. What are the frames of (video game) play,
and how are they situationally produced?
3. How do we design socio-technical systems
to alleviate gaming the system?
4. How do we design to invite playful
(re)framing and thus, playful conduct?

Thank you.
@dingstweets

sebastian@codingconduct.cc

codingconduct.cc

Coding conduct: Games, Play, and Human Conduct Between Technical Code and Social Framing

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Coding conduct: Games, Play, and Human Conduct Between Technical Code and Social Framing