Gamified crowdsourcing: Conceptualization, literature review, and future agenda

Abstract

Two parallel phenomena are gaining attention in human-computer interaction research: gamification and crowdsourcing. Because crowdsourcing's success depends on a mass of motivated crowdsourcees, crowdsourcing platforms have increasingly been imbued with motivational design features borrowed from games; a practice often called gamification. While the body of literature and knowledge of the phenomenon have begun to accumulate, we still lack a comprehensive and systematic understanding of conceptual foundations, knowledge of how gamification is used in crowdsourcing, and whether it is effective. We first provide a conceptual framework for gamified crowdsourcing systems in order to understand and conceptualize the key aspects of the phenomenon. The paper's main contributions are derived through a systematic literature review that investigates how gamification has been examined in different types of crowdsourcing in a variety of domains. This meticulous mapping, which focuses on all aspects in our framework, enables us to infer what kinds of gamification efforts are effective in different crowdsourcing approaches as well as to point to a number of research gaps and lay out future research directions for gamified crowdsourcing systems. Overall, the results indicate that gamification has been an effective approach for increasing crowdsourcing participation and the quality of the crowdsourced work; however, differences exist between different types of crowdsourcing: the research conducted in the context of crowdsourcing of homogenous tasks has most commonly used simple gamification implementations, such as points and leaderboards, whereas crowdsourcing implementations that seek diverse and creative contributions employ gamification with a richer set of mechanics.

Is Virtual Citizen Science A Game?

“…Motivated by this debate, Hamari et al analysed 24 empirical studies on gamification and found that, generally, the technique does work, albeit with some caveats that were often to do with positive effects only being found for a particular type of use or user [Hamari et al 2014]. In addition, a review of studies about gamification's use in crowdsourcing found that its use typically leads to an increase in engagement, output quality or other related positive effects [Morschheuser et al 2016], while an extended review supported these findings to show that it increases participation and quality of crowdsourced work [Morschheuser et al 2017]. There is an additional consideration that context may well be key, and that certain systems that rely primarily on rational behaviour are not suited to being gamified [Hamari 2013;Hamari et al 2014].…”

“…Overall, it seems that the attitude towards gamification in citizen science is that it does generally have a positive effect, and as with its use in crowdsourcing, future studies now need to address which specific design choices bring about its success [Morschheuser et al 2017]. As mentioned above, there is an opportunity to further study the introduction of particular game elements to existing projects, following A/B testing or other means, to determine their overall effect on players.…”

“…While there are certain conditions that can ensure that the effect of extrinsic rewards is negated, Deci et al [1999] summarise their review by stating that focusing only on extrinsic rewards can risk a reduction in intrinsic motivation. In crowdsourcing, studies have shown that there a wide range of motivators, both intrinsic and extrinsic, behind why people choose to participate [Morschheuser et al 2017]. In terms of citizen science games, McGonigal argues that the addition of 'meaning', or the sense that by playing the volunteer is belonging to and contributing something significant, is an intrinsic motivator that can make them feel a part of something much bigger than themselves [McGonigal 2011, p. 49-51].…”

The Application of Pricing Model in Self - Service Crowdsourcing Platform

“…Further, optimizing algorithms of task pricing can greatly enhance the public's participation in the crowdsourcing project. Crowdsourcing implementations are seeking diverse and creative contributions and employing optimization with a richer set of mechanics [15]. Therefore, the issue of task pricing deserved to be researched more deeply.…”

Tailoring a Points Scoring Mechanism for Crowd-Based Knowledge Pooling

“…Gamification has become a popular strategic instrument to engage people in a given activity, to influence behavior and increase performance and productivity in various contexts [12,27,28]. It is one of the major instruments for driving users' motivation in crowdsourcing systems [4], i.e "Transforming Homo Economicus into Homo Ludens" [29].…”