Article written by Yuxin Du

According to the definition from Dr. Zac Fitz-Walter, who is a master in gamification design, gamification is “the application of game-design elements and game principles in non-game contexts. It can also be defined as a set of activities and processes to solve problems by using or applying the characteristics of game elements.” Classical game elements include points, badges, rankings, and other related factors. 

The definition requires some clarification about the terms “game” and “play.” As Tobias Brockmann pointed out in his conference paper, “A play is a freer form with improvisational aspects, whereas a game is structured by rules and competitive strife towards a goal. Therefore, games have a desired outcome.” Brockmann also explained the “non-game context” in detail: “Gamification uses game mechanisms where they are usually not expected. This expectation depends on social, historical and cultural aspects. Consequently, there is not the non-game context, but—depending on the target group—players will expect game elements or not.”

After closely analyzing the concept, I think that gamification needs to be used effectively and appropriately as a tool. Gamification can lead to short-term motivation, but it may not last long. It is important to put user-centered design elements in the design process, which means “a game has to give experiences of competence, autonomy and relatedness to the players.” These game design elements should make sense to the user and cause positive changes in players’ minds. These elements must be attached to an activity or an experience. Winning points is not the purpose; education is. Just like what Ed Rodley wrote in his blog, “At the heart of every good game is the dynamic we’re already looking for in museum exhibits; people interacting with a situation and learning how to master it, because…learning is fun and intrinsically motivating to humans…And badges and points and contrived dynamics won’t get you there.”

Before talking about the reasons behind having gamification in museums, I want to first introduce the concept of the experience economy. B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore first used this term in their article in 1998. They stated that not only the physical products, but also the memory with the experience itself was becoming the valuable “product.” This suggests that organizations should arrange activities in order to create memories for their customers. The experience economy is an applicable idea in museums because a museum is a place that displays visual art pieces and offers educational, artistic, and enjoyable experiences to audiences. A museum is an ideal place to generate economic benefit through offering a great experience. Meanwhile, more and more consumers desire a creative and interactive experience during their visits. Gamification is a wonderful strategy that creates and shares the cultural content in more interactive ways. The advantages of gamification are increasing audience engagement, improving knowledge absorption and retention, cultivating interest in learning, making the experience more personal, etc. Therefore, gamification is one way for museums to provide visitors more immersive and engaging experiences.

Engagement & Gamification in Practice

Interactive Exhibits at Petrosains

Many museums around the world have put gamification into practice. Petrosains is a museum presenting stories of the science and technology of the petroleum industry in a fun way and is located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian. Its mission is “to be a STEM learning center that inspires future talents through immersive and imaginative experiences.” It creates visitor experiences that resemble amusement parks, which is a great example for some cultural organizations that target youth or kids.

The life-size offshore oil platform is one of the highlights at Petrosains. Audiences can walk on its two-level platform and operate the apparatus. Museum employees’ role playing is the most interesting part. People operate the equipment wearing overalls and safety helmets. Walking through the time tunnel to go back to the ancient world 200 million years ago is another engaging experience. After walking across a wooden bridge, visitors get a view of a primitive forest with dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures. People see the detailed volcanic landscape and learn more about the oil formation process from fossils and minerals.

The Louvre and Nintendo

The Louvre Museum in Paris collaborated with Nintendo to create a 3DS audio guide game, which is an example in partnerships between a museum and an entertainment company. In 2012, Nintendo and the Louvre created the Nintendo DS Louvre Guide, including a GPS and 3D imaging designed specifically for the museum. The guide featured more than “700 photographs, 30+ hours of audio commentary, and high-resolution images, 3D models and video commentaries.” Users can zoom, rotate, or spin art pieces for details. The guide is educational and informative because it contains works’ background stories, fun facts, and an explanation of the values. People get a great visualized and intuitional view through the 3DS guide because it perfectly replicates the spatial relationships in reality. One visitor, Peter Tieryas, described his experience as “more manageable,” and “it made the whole Louvre resemble a Zeldaesque labyrinth ready to be explored.” Actually, this guide game enabled 3DS users to visit the Louvre from anywhere in the world and makes the art in the Louvre more accessible. People can have a virtual Louvre tour from their homes, without crowds of tourists and the exhaustion of walking through rooms after rooms.

Figure 3: Images of the Nintendo 3DS being used at the Louvre. Source: Tor.com.

The virtual tour is not only about vision, but also having “gameplay, design, and sound as well, all working in conjunction to create a unique experience.” The Louvre takes advantage of data that the guide collects from users. By analyzing visitors’ interests and journeys, the museum acquires feedback which can be used in its improvement and optimization.

Gamification with Limited Technology: Jamtli and the Diefenbunker Museum

There are other gamification examples using augmented reality and virtual reality as tools, but not all gamification involves technology. Engaging experiences can also be created without technology. 

Jamtli is a unique regional open-air museum located among Jämtland and Härjedalen in Östersund, Sweden. It consists of an open-air museum with outdoor reconstructed wooden historical buildings and an indoor museum featuring Christian European Viking relics. Visitors learn the folkloric Swedish history through participation in various role-playing games. Participates are given a “Jamtli time-traveling passport.” Because it is an open air museum with a lot of space, the Jamtli divides different areas into different time periods. Therefore, visitors can experience how people lived in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries by walking around the place. People always meet actors who wear corresponding costumes and tell visitors stories from that time period. By collecting stamps of at least five time periods, participants are qualified to enter the jackpot. Activities and games are prepared for people in order to get the stamps.

Other kinds of gamification that have less technology involved are adventure games (like scavenger hunts) and escape games. 

Diefenbunker Museum is a museum that has the world's largest escape room. The place used to be a Canadian military facility, but it reopened as Canada's Cold War Museum in 1998. The mission of Diefenbunker is “to increase throughout Canada and the world, interest in and a critical understanding of the Cold War, by preserving the Diefenbunker as a national historic site, and operating a Cold War Museum.” The Cold War is the escape background and the museum pretends to be the enemy spy center. Participants have to find their way out in an hour. The escape room was very popular before Covid, but it is temporarily closed. 

Remote Gamification: The Great Gotham Challenge

The Great Gotham Challenge (GGC) transferred its offline gamification to an online version. GGC is not like traditional museum experience. Instead, it is a large-scale immersive puzzle adventure in New York City. This may seem like a deviation from gamification in museums, but there are many effective design ideas that can be used in gamification in museums. In GGC, participating teams take the mission from the “Clue Master” and race against each other to find and decode a series of interactive clues that engage rich culture and history. The tasks relate to language, music, history, art, puzzles, and code deciphering.

Conclusion

The pandemic changed the art ecosystem, including the gamification usage in museums and other art experiences. It is likely that forms of online gamification, like the 3DS audio guide game and the Great Gotham Challenge will be more widely applied in the future. Additionally, gamification will likely combine more with high technology, such as AR and VR, to create more immersive experiences in the future. After all, gamification is a strategy that serves the artistic experience and is about creating positive feelings for the audience. With gamification, the museum experience expands beyond the memory of looking at art or artifacts to the feelings of enjoyment that a game or activity evokes.