How Game Features Give Rise to Altruism and Collective Action? Implications for Cultivating Cooperation by Gamification

Abstract

Due to the general gamification of our culture and society as well as the proliferation of games in our everyday activities, people are increasingly looking at games and gamification as a source for cooperation and other prosocial behaviors. However, not all game features lead to increased cohesion, cooperation or collaboration between people. While some games indeed are geared for cooperation, majority of games also aim toward competition or just non-social activity. Therefore, a prominent research problem exists in understanding how different game and gamification design may lead to altruistic sentiment and collective action. In this study, we investigated how the engagement with cooperative game features relates to the emergence of altruism and whether altruism leads to the formation of we-intentions in a gaming context. We employed data gathered among players of the augmented reality game Ingress (N=206) and analyzed the data using PLS-SEM. The results show that game features can give rise to altruism and that altruism can invoke we-intentions via cooperative goal structures (we-goals) of individuals. In addition to providing important insights regarding how cooperation emerges within games, this study provides implications for cultivating cooperation by gamification.

Location-Based Games and the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Analysis of Responses from Game Developers and Players

“…The COVID-19 pandemic does not seem to have a significant effect on the raiding activity, even though it might be possible that as spring arrived in the observed municipality, the better outdoor weather had an opposing impact to the self-isolation recommendation related to COVID-19, and increased players' motivation to play. As we are concerned in particular with how government-issued restrictions impacted raiding activity, we focus on the time period of five days before (12)(13)(14)(15)(16) the Finnish government's intervention and five days afterwards (18)(19)(20)(21)(22). In the time period, five days before the limitations were issued there were 79 raids with seven containing more than 10 people, and in the time period five days after we recorded 70 raids with eight containing more than 10 people.…”

“…While Riar et al [21] found a correlation between engaging with cooperative game features and altruism, this finding can also be explained by the fact that, in Ingress, players face a strong opposing force, other human players, making cooperation necessary for individual and the team's success [25]. Furthermore, LBG teams have been shown to impact players' language adaption [25], proving the impact of social influence on player behaviour.…”

“…First, LBGs typically increase physical activity [2,12,13] and reduce sedentary behaviour [17], based on some studies even permanently outside the gaming context [18]. Second, LBGs have implications on social well-being [1,19], increasing players' altruistic behaviour and we-intentions [20,21]. Third, playing LBGs impacts real-world movement patterns and propensity [10].…”

“…We-intention Gameplay with cooperative features can encourage et al [21] Altruism altruistic behaviour and we-intentions.…”

The Use of Augmented Reality in Retail: A Review of Literature

“…6, 32] and in numerous leisure applications, perhaps most prominently in games [e.g. 17,29,30,37,43]. Due to the now seemingly extensive familiarity with the technology, perhaps we have reached a stage in which we need to reconsider what novelty stands for in AR and on the basis of what technological virtues or alternative proficiencies we operationalize novelty in future AR-based research.…”