Why do people use gamification services?

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2015.04.006Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Utilitarian, hedonic and social motivations to use gamification are investigated.

  • Utilitarian and social motivations have a positive direct association with attitude.

  • Utilitarian motivations’ association with continued use is mediated by attitude.

  • Hedonic motivations have a positive direct association with continued use.

Abstract

In recent years, technology has been increasingly harnessed for motivating and supporting people toward various individually and collectively beneficial behaviors. One of the most popular developments in this field has been titled gamification. Gamification refers to technologies that attempt to promote intrinsic motivations toward various activities, commonly, by employing design characteristic to games. However, a dearth of empirical evidence still exists regarding why people want to use gamification services. Based on survey data gathered from the users of a gamification service, we examine the relationship between utilitarian, hedonic and social motivations and continued use intention as well as attitude toward gamification. The results suggest that the relationship between utilitarian benefits and use is mediated by the attitude toward the use of gamification, while hedonic aspects have a direct positive relationship with use. Social factors are strongly associated with attitude, but show only a weak further association with the intentions to continue the use of a gamification service.

Introduction

In recent years, technology has been increasingly harnessed for motivating people and providing support toward various individually and collectively beneficial behaviors. Perhaps the most popular development in this area has been gamification, which refers to technologies that attempt to promote intrinsic motivations toward various activities, commonly, by employing design characteristic to games (Deterding et al., 2011, Hamari et al., 2015, Huotari and Hamari, 2012). Typical elements in gamification include, for example, points, leaderboards, achievements, feedback, clear goals and narrative (see Hamari et al., 2014a, Hamari et al., 2014b for reviews of gamification and persuasion mechanics in related research). Gamification has thus far been implemented in a variety of contexts, from exercise (Fitocracy) and overall wellbeing (Mindbloom), to sustainable consumption (Recyclebank) and consumer behavior (Foursquare). Gamification is a manifold socio-technological phenomenon with claimed potential to provide a multitude of benefits (Deterding et al., 2011, Huotari and Hamari, 2012) such as enjoyment as well as social benefits through communities and social interaction. Moreover, as the goal of gamification is often to progress some external utilitarian goal, therefore, gamification also provides utilitarian benefits.

Definitions of gamification (Deterding et al., 2011, Hamari et al., 2015, Huotari and Hamari, 2012) focus on the term “gamefulness”, which implies that the main defining factor of gamification pertains to, in a similar manner as games, the self-purposeful nature of activities. While gamification design, therefore, can be characterized as aiming for self-purposeful and hedonistic use, the ultimate goals of gamification are commonly related to utilitarian ends; i.e. gamification aims to support extrinsic and valuable outcomes outside the gamification system. Moreover, it is common for gamification services to also include strong social features (e.g. Foursquare, Fitocracy) common to various social media (see e.g. Ngai, Tao, and Moon, 2015). Consequently, social factors have also been hypothesized and examined as determinants of the use of gamification (see e.g. Hamari & Koivisto, 2015). Another factor discussed in the works defining the concept (Deterding et al., 2011, Hamari et al., 2015, Huotari and Hamari, 2012) has been whether gamification provides more free-form, playful experiences (paidia) or more structured, rule-driven experiences (ludus) (see Caillois, 1961 for more on the continuum of ludus and paidia).

Although research has started to accumulate on the possible outcomes of gamification (see Section 2 and Hamari, Koivisto, & Sarsa, 2014 for a review), there is still a dearth of empirical evidence regarding which motivations would actually predict why people use gamification services and what determines their attitudes toward them. While obviously relevant from practical and business perspectives, this problem is also connected to the lack of theory and conception around gamification.

Therefore, this paper will focus on exploring what benefits motivate people to use gamification services. The research model and hypotheses are developed as a triangulation of the theories on human motivations (Deci and Ryan, 1985, Lindenberg, 2001, Ryan and Deci, 2000), technology adoption research (Davis, 1989, van der Heijden, 2004, Venkatesh and Davis, 2000, Venkatesh, 1999, Venkatesh, 2000), and previous research on games and gamification (see e.g. Deterding et al., 2011, Hamari et al., 2014b, Huotari and Hamari, 2012, Ryan et al., 2006, Yee, 2006). Based on this theoretical background, there is ample support for investigating three distinct areas to uncover predictors for the adoption of gamification; utility, hedonism and social benefit. On the basis of survey data gathered from users of a gamification service, we examine the relationship between these predictors and continued use intentions as well as attitudes toward gamification. An empirical analysis of survey data using structural equation modeling was performed.

Section snippets

Theory and hypotheses

While gamification has been considered to be a novel IT development, other different forms of information technology have also been employed for persuasive and behavioral change purposes in similar contexts, although potentially differing from gamification in terms of their methods of affecting motivations and behavior (Hamari et al., 2015). For example, systems such as persuasive technologies and behavior change support systems have been used to influence psychological states and behaviors.

Data

The data was gathered via a questionnaire from the users of Fitocracy, an online service that gamifies exercise. The service enables the tracking of one's exercise and the user enters their exercise details into the system. Gamification is further incorporated into the service by rewarding the user with a point value allocated to a given exercise. When a user logs an activity, the system calculates the point value that the user gains with the exercise. The point value is adjusted based on

Results

The path model could account for 71.6% of variance for attitudes toward the gamification service and 56.4% of variance of the intentions to continue using the service. The results indicate that utilitarian benefits are positively associated with attitude and continued use. In particular, the perceived usefulness is positively associated with attitude (β = .513***), as well as indirectly associated with continued use (β = .280***) through attitude. Ease of use was only associated with continued use

Discussion

In this paper, we examined what motivates people to use gamification services. We investigated which benefits (utilitarian, hedonic or social) are associated with attitudes toward gamification and the intentions to continue using gamified services. The findings have several theoretical and practical implications, which are discussed in detail below.

Acknowledgements

The research has been partially supported by individual study grants for both authors from the Finnish Cultural Foundation as well as carried out as part of research projects (40134/13, 40111/14, 40107/14) funded by the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation (TEKES). Both authors have contributed to this article equally.

Juho Hamari (D.Sc. Econ) is a post-doctoral researcher at the Game Research Lab, University of Tampere and at the Aalto University School of Business. His research is focused on the intersection of economic and psychological phenomena in gameful environments. He has authored several seminal empirical and theoretical scholarly articles on gamification and games from perspectives of consumer behavior, human-computer interaction and information technology. Hamari's research has been published in a

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    Juho Hamari (D.Sc. Econ) is a post-doctoral researcher at the Game Research Lab, University of Tampere and at the Aalto University School of Business. His research is focused on the intersection of economic and psychological phenomena in gameful environments. He has authored several seminal empirical and theoretical scholarly articles on gamification and games from perspectives of consumer behavior, human-computer interaction and information technology. Hamari's research has been published in a variety of respected journals such as Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, International Journal of Information Management, Computers in Human Behavior, Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking, Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, Simulation & Gaming as well as in books published by e.g. MIT Press. http://juhohamari.com.

    Jonna Koivisto is a researcher and a doctoral candidate at the Game Research Lab, University of Tampere. Her research concentrates on the use of motivational and gameful elements in various systems. Koivisto's research has been published on venues such as Computers in Human Behavior, European Conference on Information Systems Science and Hawaii International Conference on Systems Sciences. http://jonnakoivisto.com

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