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“You just Earned 10 Points!” : Gaming and Grinding in Academia

Butler, Nick LU and Spoelstra, Sverre LU (2023) In Organization
Abstract
This short paper explores the gamification of an online academic conference. At the conference, digital gamification was meant to stimulate increased levels of participation among attendees. Instead, it resulted in a series of unintended consequences. Precisely because it was all too easy to score points and ascend the virtual leaderboard by means of machine-like grinding, the “Conference Challenge” posed a moral dilemma for its players: each participant had to determine for themselves where the border lay between playing the game and gaming the system. We use this case to raise questions about the ethics of game-playing in an academic context. In particular, we suggest that the Conference Challenge is a distorted reflection of what’s... (More)
This short paper explores the gamification of an online academic conference. At the conference, digital gamification was meant to stimulate increased levels of participation among attendees. Instead, it resulted in a series of unintended consequences. Precisely because it was all too easy to score points and ascend the virtual leaderboard by means of machine-like grinding, the “Conference Challenge” posed a moral dilemma for its players: each participant had to determine for themselves where the border lay between playing the game and gaming the system. We use this case to raise questions about the ethics of game-playing in an academic context. In particular, we suggest that the Conference Challenge is a distorted reflection of what’s already happening in the broader “publication game” in the university. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
epub
subject
keywords
Academic conference, game-playing, gamification, publishing ethics
in
Organization
publisher
SAGE Publications
external identifiers
  • scopus:85145926313
ISSN
1350-5084
DOI
10.1177/13505084221145589
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
f27247e5-24ab-4e30-9d5d-2af45790b773
date added to LUP
2023-06-18 22:36:40
date last changed
2023-06-19 08:27:46
@article{f27247e5-24ab-4e30-9d5d-2af45790b773,
  abstract     = {{This short paper explores the gamification of an online academic conference. At the conference, digital gamification was meant to stimulate increased levels of participation among attendees. Instead, it resulted in a series of unintended consequences. Precisely because it was all too easy to score points and ascend the virtual leaderboard by means of machine-like grinding, the “Conference Challenge” posed a moral dilemma for its players: each participant had to determine for themselves where the border lay between playing the game and gaming the system. We use this case to raise questions about the ethics of game-playing in an academic context. In particular, we suggest that the Conference Challenge is a distorted reflection of what’s already happening in the broader “publication game” in the university.}},
  author       = {{Butler, Nick and Spoelstra, Sverre}},
  issn         = {{1350-5084}},
  keywords     = {{Academic conference; game-playing; gamification; publishing ethics}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{SAGE Publications}},
  series       = {{Organization}},
  title        = {{“You just Earned 10 Points!” : Gaming and Grinding in Academia}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/13505084221145589}},
  doi          = {{10.1177/13505084221145589}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}