Getting it Right or Being Top Rank: Games in Citizen Science

Abstract

The use of games in citizen science is growing, but can create tension as gaming and science can be seen as incompatible areas of activity. For example, the motivations for winning a game and scientific pursuit of knowledge may be seen as contrary. Over a one-year period, we conducted a virtual ethnographic study of the public forums of two online citizen science projects, Foldit and Galazy Zoo, the first a project in which gaming is an explicit design feature and the second in which it is not. The aim was to provide a nuanced view of how participants topicalize and respond to tensions between gaming and science. Thematic analysis of discussion forum posts suggests that participants in the two projects respond differently to the tension. By unpacking participant responses to the tension between games and science, our study highlights that citizen science projects using games are not just about fun. To enroll and retain volunteers, these projects also must recognize and manage the implicit normative scientific ideals that participants bring with them to a project. We further conclude that ideals of science embraced by citizen scientists appear to influence the reasons why they participate, either emphasizing equality, like in Galazy Zoo, or meritocracy, like in Foldit.

Embodied public experiments on sustainable eating: demonstrating alternative proteins in Finnish schools

“…However, the question remains as to what extent play helps people deliberate about and commit to solutions (Glas et al 2019). In our case, the game-like features and structures of the protein demonstrations, such as competition, rules, and time pressure (see Read and Reeves 2009;Ponti et al 2018), enabled us to observe changing modes of interaction compared to only tasting the foods. While the situations created by our demonstrative acts unfolded in a specific way during the game playing, the students were able to encounter the new foods, relate to them, and reflect on their eating through a different register of interaction than merely through the experience of taste.…”

Making Messy Data Work for Conservation

“…Motivations may be context specific; for example, users of two different ''distributed-mind'' projects (foldit and GalaxyZoo, designed to find folding solutions for proteins and to classify images of galaxies, respectively) had contrasting views on the desirability of gamification. 91 The needs of end users also differ; for some applications, such as monitoring trends over time, retention of existing observers who carry out repeat visits to the same sites may be more important than the recruitment of new ones. 87 The incentives required to support retention might be quite different from those enhancing recruitment.…”

“…Overall, knowing what, if any, ll OPEN ACCESS incentives could be offered requires a good understanding of the motivations of participants. 91 If direct questioning of observers is not possible, 93,94 this might be done by analyzing the composition of recorded data in order to determine which external factors drive particular types of participation. 61,95 Designers of messy-data-collection programs should also be aware that incentives can be counterproductive.…”

Improving the Results of Citizen Science Projects Through Reputation Systems: The Case of Wolf’s Number Experiment

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