Do points, levels and leaderboards harm intrinsic motivation? An empirical analysis of common gamification elements

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Article in proceedings › Research › peer-review

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Do points, levels and leaderboards harm intrinsic motivation? An empirical analysis of common gamification elements. / Mekler, Elisa D.; Brühlmann, Florian; Opwis, Klaus; Tuch, Alexandre N.

Gamification '13: Proceedings of the First International Conference on Gameful Design, Research, and Applications. Association for Computing Machinery, 2013. p. 66-73.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Article in proceedings › Research › peer-review

Harvard

Mekler, ED, Brühlmann, F, Opwis, K & Tuch, AN 2013, Do points, levels and leaderboards harm intrinsic motivation? An empirical analysis of common gamification elements. in Gamification '13: Proceedings of the First International Conference on Gameful Design, Research, and Applications. Association for Computing Machinery, pp. 66-73, 1st International Conference on Gameful Design, Research, and Applications, Toronto, Canada, 02/10/2013. https://doi.org/10.1145/2583008.2583017

APA

Mekler, E. D., Brühlmann, F., Opwis, K., & Tuch, A. N. (2013). Do points, levels and leaderboards harm intrinsic motivation? An empirical analysis of common gamification elements. In Gamification '13: Proceedings of the First International Conference on Gameful Design, Research, and Applications (pp. 66-73). Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/2583008.2583017

Vancouver

Mekler ED, Brühlmann F, Opwis K, Tuch AN. Do points, levels and leaderboards harm intrinsic motivation? An empirical analysis of common gamification elements. In Gamification '13: Proceedings of the First International Conference on Gameful Design, Research, and Applications. Association for Computing Machinery. 2013. p. 66-73 https://doi.org/10.1145/2583008.2583017

Author

Mekler, Elisa D. ; Brühlmann, Florian ; Opwis, Klaus ; Tuch, Alexandre N. / Do points, levels and leaderboards harm intrinsic motivation? An empirical analysis of common gamification elements. Gamification '13: Proceedings of the First International Conference on Gameful Design, Research, and Applications. Association for Computing Machinery, 2013. pp. 66-73

Bibtex

@inproceedings{0f74f9c81c7f4c08a9c9d4c6d56eeaa4,
title = "Do points, levels and leaderboards harm intrinsic motivation? An empirical analysis of common gamification elements",
abstract = "It is heavily debated within the gamification community whether specific game elements may actually undermine users' intrinsic motivation. This online experiment examined the effects of three commonly employed game design elements - points, leaderboard, levels - on users' performance, intrinsic motivation, perceived autonomy and competence in an image annotation task. Implementation of these game elements significantly increased performance, but did not affect perceived autonomy, competence or intrinsic motivation. Our findings suggest that points, levels and leaderboards by themselves neither make nor break users' intrinsic motivation in non-game contexts. Instead, it is assumed that they act as progress indicators, guiding and enhancing user performance. While more research on the contextual factors that may potentially mediate the effects of game elements on intrinsic motivation is required, it seems that the implementation of points, levels, and leaderboards is a viable means to promote specific user behavior in non-game contexts.",
keywords = "Game design elements, Gameful design, Gamification, Motivation",
author = "Mekler, {Elisa D.} and Florian Br{\"u}hlmann and Klaus Opwis and Tuch, {Alexandre N.}",
year = "2013",
doi = "10.1145/2583008.2583017",
language = "English",
isbn = "978-1-4503-2815-9",
pages = "66--73",
booktitle = "Gamification '13",
publisher = "Association for Computing Machinery",
note = "null ; Conference date: 02-10-2013 Through 04-10-2013",

}

RIS

TY - GEN

T1 - Do points, levels and leaderboards harm intrinsic motivation? An empirical analysis of common gamification elements

AU - Mekler, Elisa D.

AU - Brühlmann, Florian

AU - Opwis, Klaus

AU - Tuch, Alexandre N.

N1 - Conference code: 1

PY - 2013

Y1 - 2013

N2 - It is heavily debated within the gamification community whether specific game elements may actually undermine users' intrinsic motivation. This online experiment examined the effects of three commonly employed game design elements - points, leaderboard, levels - on users' performance, intrinsic motivation, perceived autonomy and competence in an image annotation task. Implementation of these game elements significantly increased performance, but did not affect perceived autonomy, competence or intrinsic motivation. Our findings suggest that points, levels and leaderboards by themselves neither make nor break users' intrinsic motivation in non-game contexts. Instead, it is assumed that they act as progress indicators, guiding and enhancing user performance. While more research on the contextual factors that may potentially mediate the effects of game elements on intrinsic motivation is required, it seems that the implementation of points, levels, and leaderboards is a viable means to promote specific user behavior in non-game contexts.

AB - It is heavily debated within the gamification community whether specific game elements may actually undermine users' intrinsic motivation. This online experiment examined the effects of three commonly employed game design elements - points, leaderboard, levels - on users' performance, intrinsic motivation, perceived autonomy and competence in an image annotation task. Implementation of these game elements significantly increased performance, but did not affect perceived autonomy, competence or intrinsic motivation. Our findings suggest that points, levels and leaderboards by themselves neither make nor break users' intrinsic motivation in non-game contexts. Instead, it is assumed that they act as progress indicators, guiding and enhancing user performance. While more research on the contextual factors that may potentially mediate the effects of game elements on intrinsic motivation is required, it seems that the implementation of points, levels, and leaderboards is a viable means to promote specific user behavior in non-game contexts.

KW - Game design elements

KW - Gameful design

KW - Gamification

KW - Motivation

U2 - 10.1145/2583008.2583017

DO - 10.1145/2583008.2583017

M3 - Article in proceedings

AN - SCOPUS:84905457954

SN - 978-1-4503-2815-9

SP - 66

EP - 73

BT - Gamification '13

PB - Association for Computing Machinery

Y2 - 2 October 2013 through 4 October 2013

ER -

ID: 169436012