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Wikiludology
The document explores the differing motivations that drive participation in online communities like Wikipedia compared to its predecessor, Nupedia, highlighting that enjoyment and motivation are crucial for contribution. It critiques existing motivational theories while proposing the application of game design principles to enhance engagement in non-game platforms. Ultimately, it suggests a need for designing online spaces that stimulate intrinsic motivations and allow for safe failure and iteration.
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Wikiludology
- 1. Are Wikipedians ReallyGamers? A ludological perspective on motivations to participate in social media Brian Keegan Program in Media, Technology, and Society School of Communication Northwestern University
- 2. Do the mechanismsthat make games “fun” also motivate contributions to online communities?
- 3. Munroe, “Duty Calls.”xkcd.org/386/
- 4. Outline • Whydid Nupedia fail, but Wikipedia succeed? • How do existing motivational theories fall short? • Can games inform design of better mechanisms?
- 5. What was Nupedia? • Open-source web encyclopedia founded by Jimbo Wales and Larry Sanger in March 2000 • Strong emphasis on rigorous expert peer-review • 7-step editorial process, 5 distinct roles contingent upon qualifications, content management on listservs & web services • 9 articles after 9 months, 25 articles after 21 months • Atonality, Hydatius, Irish traditional music, SNOBOL 4, polymerase chain reaction, foot-and-mouth disease, Charles S. Pierce, quasispecies model, plasmids • A “wiki-pedia” launched in January 2001 to deal with content drought, generates 600 articles in two weeks • Nupedia folds in March 2002, Wikipedia has over 20,000 articles by then in English alone
- 6. Whither success? •Centralization of project management, elitist emphasis on credentialed expertise, bureaucratic rules all contributed to Nupedia’s failure (Poe 2006, Shirky 2006) • But it probably was not very fun • But why did Wikipedia succeed? • No strong leadership or social identity • Fundamental mission remained same as Nupedia • Preponderance of rules • Pervasive public goods problem • Contributing was more fun?
- 7. Wikipedia paradox •Why does anyone contribute to it? • Does not provide a community for disseminating opinions (Usenet, blogs, etc.) • Does not fulfill imperative for relationship management and interpersonal communication (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) • Does not provide an outlet and community for hobbyists to share their art (Flickr, YouTube, etc.) • Writing encyclopedias was never a popular hobby or social activity • Survey of Wikipedia editors demonstrates “fun” strongest predictor of motivation to contribution and best-correlated with contribution level (Nov 2007)
- 8. Despair? • Howdo we design systems that motivate individuals to have fun? • We make games! • Do non-games have design features that encourage participants to approach it as a game? • If so, can we use ludic mechanisms to design features and motivate contributions to online communities?
- 9. WHERE’S THE FUNIN EXISTING THEORIES?
- 10. Intrinsic & extrinsicmotivations • Intrinsic • Self-acceptance, personal growth, social identity, helpfulness • “I want to do it” • Extrinsic • Success, recognition, image • “I ought to do it”
- 11. Wikipedia culture: extrinsic? • Wikipedians as collectivists • Mutually-assigned identity defined in terms of solidarity, coercision, duties, and reputation strong external motivations • Userboxes, enforcement, WikiProjects, bureaucratic roles
- 12. Wikipedia culture: intrinsic? • Wikipedians as individualists • Volunteers motivated by autonomy, shared interests, curiosity, enjoyment strong internal motivations • Anonymous edits, solo editors, bounded interaction with other hobbyists, no accreditationprofessional barriers, wide audience Because Wikipedia exhibits elements of both individualism and collectivism, the intrinsic-extrinsic distinction omits complex interacting motivations to participate
- 13. Motivational theories ExamplesAntecedents Consequences Shortcomings Well-being Self-determination, flow, uses & gratification Autonomy, congruence of skills & challenges, needs, interest Intrinsic: Happiness, enjoyment, gratification, self-realization Subjective outcomes, individually-determined Knowledge -sharing Management information systems, functionalism Tenure, trust, reciprocity, acceptance, integration Extrinsic: Success, recognition, skill development May not apply to large, decentralized, diverse, volunteer communities Social dilemmas Public goods, commons Limited resources, conflicting incentives, externalities Participatory rule-making, enforcement, dispute resolution Coercive, non-competitive, non-experiential Social identity Common identity, social bonds Categorization, intergroup comparison, interaction, similarity Normative conformity, participation, tolerance, openness, robustness Attention overload, deindividuation, plural interests & identities in large communities Ludic ? Preparation, rules, mechanics, abilities, skill Feedback, sensation, fellowship, discovery, expression, dominion Reductionist, deterministic
- 14.
- 15. Games as conflicts • Games are fundamentally interpersonal (Crawford 1984) • Employing abilities and skill to prevail against an opponent doing the same generates emergent feedback and unique challenges • Intensity of interaction (collaboration or conflict) is well-correlated with gratification • Mastery problem: • Expert players cannot benefit from trivial challenges • Inexpert players must be motivated to continue playing • Fun comes from challenges at margin of ability • Challenges must be persistent, novel, and well-matched to skill • Failure should have a cost, but also motivate iteration rather than abandonment • What’s the central conflict in Wikipedia? • Making your contributions last!
- 16. Wikipedia’s ludic aesthetics • Games assume many possible aesthetic goals that constitute “fun” (Hunicke, LeBlanc, Zubec) • Sensation: changes can be immediate and drastic • Fantasy: Imagine themselves as encyclopedists, good samaritans, etc. • Narrative: Appealing to precedent and consensus to justify contributions • Challenge: Ensuring a contribution will remain permanent or opinion will prevail • Fellowship: Disputes and discussion resolved by consensus-formation rally the troops! • Discovery: Random article walks and serendipitous encounters • Expression: Writing something on website viewed by millions! • Submission: Develop reputation and dominion based on your own mundane interests
- 17. Ludic aesthetics NupediaWikipedia Sensation (stimulating) - + Fantasy (make-believe) --- + Narrative (drama) + Challenge (obstacles) +++ ++ Fellowship (interpersonal) +++ Discovery (exploration) -- ++ Expression (fulfillment) + +++ Submission (dominion) +++ +
- 18. Implications • Encouragecuriosity • Permit plural motivations and rewards • Maintain openness and ambiguity • Support social engagement and interaction • Discourage exclusive control
- 19. Ludic concepts •“Ludemes” are basic units of gameplay (Koster & Wright 2004) • Preparation: multiple possible moves, physical training, etc. • Space: game board, pitch, etc. • Fundamental mechanic: move pieces, put ball in net, etc. • Challenges: pieces move certain ways, someone guarding net • Abilities to solve challenges: piece moves capture other pieces, passing ball to multiple players, etc. • Skill required to use abilities: foresight, dexterity, etc. • Complex and emergent feedback: opponents alter tactics and strategies in response • How did Wikipedia’s ludemes differ from Nupedia’s ludemes?
- 20. Ludemes in Nupedia& Wikipedia Nupedia Wikipedia Preparation Accredited knowledge Experiential knowledge Space Boundaries of website Boundaries of website Mechanics Submitting complete articles Contributing incremental edits Challenges Gaining editorial sanction Ensuring contribution stability Abilities Appeals to rules, precedents, expertise Appeals to rules, precedents, consensus Skill All of: researching, writing, editing, convincing Any of: researching, writing, editing, convincing Feedback Publication, acknowledgement Publication, acknowledgement, iteration
- 21. Implications • Encouragecuriosity • Permit plural motivations and rewards • Maintain openness and ambiguity • Support social engagement and interaction • Discourage exclusive control • Lower barriers to participation • Provide immediate feedback • Failure cannot be fatal (Gaver et al. 2004)
- 22. HOW CAN WEDESIGN IT?
- 23. Designing online communities • All online communities embody technical and social choices influencing how visitors and members interact with information and community (Ren, Kraut, Kiesler 2007) • Architecture, features, interactions, organizational structures, policies: off-topic discussions, size of community, etc. • Successful “real world” communities facing social dilemmas allow members to participate in rule-making, enforcement, and resolution (Ostrom 1991)
- 24. Ludic prescriptions •Promote curiosity, exploration, and reflection as means of generating emergent play types • Reward intrinsic motivations that support social engagement and interaction • Maintain openness and ambiguity to generate tension and challenges • Challenges must promote feedback and outcomes that are discrete and non-trivial • Also allow parties to challenges to fail safely and iterate
- 25.
- 26. Broader implications •Wikis being used by vital social actors without accurate representations of users’ motivations to contribute • Defense community, intelligence agencies, scientific collaborators, journalists, and other vital civic/social actors • Scholars need to abandon monolithic conceptions of “fun” and “enjoyment” and describe particular mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics (Hunicke, LeBlanc, Zubek)
- 27.
- 28. Wikipedia is anMMORPG (!) a sequel to the game Nupedia, an encyclopedia-themed MMORPG in a hack and slash and "article roaming" style … Players can accumulate EXP (edits), allowing them to advance to higher levels (Wikipedians by edits). Players develop a unique distribution of stats (edit counts), and can choose between a number of classes (user access levels & metaphors for users’ editing behavior) …most players prefer to accumulate different types of stars (featured articles and barnstars) and various icons (WP:DYK and good articles) which other players can award them. Players can take on quests (WikiProjects), fight boss battles (featured article candidates), enter battle arenas (administrator intervention against vandalism), and even take class change trials to become Game Masters (administrators). It is possible to stumble upon random encounters (speedy deletion) and defeat such monsters.” “
- 29. THANK YOU &GAME ON! [email protected] @bkeegan
Editor's Notes
- #11 Higher levels of well-being associated with less emphasis on extrinsic goals and more emphasis on intrinsic goals (Sheldon, Kasser, Ryan)
- #12 English Wikipedia has existed for over 8 years now, what does superficial observation of resulting culture reveal?
- #18 Aesthetics describes the desirable emotional responses evoked in the player, when she interacts with the game system.
- #24 Koh, J., Kim, Y.-G., Butler, B., & Bock, G.-W. (2007). Encouraging participation in virtual communities. Commun. ACM, 50(2), 68-73. Kollock, P. and Smith, M. Managing the virtual commons: Cooperation and conflict in computer communities. PRAGMATICS AND BEYOND NEW SERIES. 109-128. Lakhani, K.R. and von Hippel, E. How open source software works: "free" user-to-user assistance. Research Policy, 32 (6). 923-943. Ostrom, E. Governing the commons: The evolution of institutions for collective action. Cambridge Univ Pr, 1991.
- #25 Gaver, W., Bowers, J., Boucher, A., Gellerson, H., Pennington, S., Schmidt, A., et al. (2004). The drift table: designing for ludic engagement. Koster, R., & Wright, W. (2004). A theory of fun for game design: Paraglyph press.
- #29 Wikipedia as the most self-reflexive community on earth they do the heavy lifting, I just come here to get the credit for framing and reporting it