A Discussion with Students at Leiden University
Last week, I had the pleasure of joining a conference at Lund University that focused on Digital Asia. Among the many excellent conference contribution, one in particular made me think of a course I am currently concluding in Leiden. Ayaka Löschke discussed a case from Japan in which activists had ‘gamified’ their efforts to counter Japan’s far-right. Calling out a ‘ban festival’, Japanese internet users took to YouTube to systematically make use of the site’s terms and conditions, reporting right-wing content so it would be taken down (English news coverage is sparse, but this thread on reddit discusses the activities). According to Löschke, the activists enhanced their efforts through gamification: by awarding each other points and ‘levelling up’, they motivated supporters to join.
The activism seems to have been effective at removing a large amount of hate speech content from YouTube, though Löschke also pointed out that many right-wing content producers felt vindicated by this ‘ban festival’ in their sense of persecution. Whether such activities should be considered successful remains an open question. But for Löschke, the issue raises another important question, and it is the question that also runs through the our grad course on ‘Digital East Asia’ at Leiden University: is gamification a good way to motivate someone? Points, levels, and badges can get people engaged in an activity, but are these motivations then not grounded in external incentives that do not actually generate intrinsic interest in the larger project? Does the ‘fun’ that gamification creates ultimately crowd out the seriousness of the issue, in this case of far-right hate speech on YouTube?
As we conclude our graduate seminar on digital technology and politics in East Asia, I’ve asked our participants to debate the merits and downsides of gamification online. The course itself was gamified, so participants gained ‘XP’ (experience points) to ‘level up’ their grades as they embarked on ‘quests’ and prepared for the ‘final boss fight’ (their research paper). What is it like, going through such a gamified experience? Is the terminology of ‘XP’ and ‘quests’ just window dressing, or does it have an impact on motivation? What, if anything, can this experience in the gamified classroom tell us about gamification elsewhere, for instance in East Asia, where companies, governments, and activists are increasingly trying to leverage the power of game mechanisms in contexts that are not themselves games? And maybe most importantly: if games are complex systems with rules that have to be understood and mastered, can the experience of mastering a gamified system teach us about other complex, rule-bases systems like the information society or digital capitalism?
These are some of the issues we’ll be debating below, in the comment section. Join us to share your thoughts and experiences with gamification.
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