Gaming in Australia and Gamification - Essay Example

Game Proposal Gaming in Australia is growing to be a million dollar business in Australia and it is growing at a superb rate every day. Gamification which is a term coined from the word gaming. It is the addition of game-like dynamics or mechanics into an application, service, campaign, website, etc. to improve loyalty, involvement and participation in these activities . Another definition states gamification as driving behavior by using rewards and levels . For example in angel investing, gamification has proved to be quite successful in helping the investors make their investment decisions. Here, the investors request for proposals then the owners of the ideas are asked to create a team of say six people then together they are given challenges, tasks and other activities so that those whose teams appear the best have a chance at winning the investment. If there are suppose 100 teams, by the end of these activities, the investors can narrow down to just 5 or even 3 ideas based on the strength of the teams which represents the effort, commitment, wisdom and viability of the team members and their idea. From this reduced number of ideas, the investors will find it easier to then critically analyze the ideas and make their minds on whom to provide the investment sum . Roger Caillois sees that there are many “structures in society as elaborate forms of games and many behaviors as forms of play” and this may be what has led to the rapid development in the gaming world . Another great scholar, Johan Huizinga emphasizes a lot about competition in game play and that there are six key distinct characteristics that best describe play. These are that it is free, separate from the boring habits of life, that it is unclear so that it is impossible to predetermine the results, that it is futile in that it creates no money and it ends as it began, that gameplay is done by certain predefined rules and lastly that it involves a kind of fantasy that is set against real life but is distinct from reality . Caillois (2001:71) goes on to state that there are four major forms of play and two types of play. The four forms of play are agon which is competition play such as chess, alea or opportunity play such as ludo, mimesis which is basically role playing and ilinx which is a vertigo game in the sense of changing perception such as roller coasters. The two types of play according to Caillois (2001:53) are ludus and paidia. Ludus is the name that is used to refer to the mode of play where there are well defined rules while paidia refers to the mode of play that is unwritten and amorphous . These forms of game play mentioned earlier can be combined in different games. For example poker is a combination of alea and agon where it has both randomization in form of shuffling cards and then making critical decisions of throwing cards and placing bets. Dancing on the other hands is an activity that can be considered to be ilinx. However, it can be combined with mimesis where the dancers try to emulate their role models or agon especially in dancing competitions. Huizinga and Caillois both similarly write about the human nature of ruining the values of play and charging play in the social systems. All the forms of play can be seen in a cultural and structured form and there is a area in which each can be corrupted. For example, agon in a cultural form is a sport, in an institutional form, it is an commercial competition and it can be corrupted when violence and deceit arise. Alea in a cultural form is seen in casinos and other lotteries, as an institution, it is seen in the stock market and it can be corrupted by use of astrology, black magic and superstition. Mimesis in it cultural form is seen in theatre and carnivals, in an institutional form is seen in ceremonies and uniforms and its corruption comes in the form of alienation. The last kind of play, ilinx in it cultural form is seen in skiing and climbing, as an institution is seen in professionals having control of vertigo and its corruption can be seen in the use of drugs such as alcohol. The game proposal I would like to present is for a game that I would like to call “Investocity” which is a portmanteau of investment and city. As its name suggests, the game is about investing in a city. The game is built in a mix of mimesis and agon. Mimesis comes where the players are playing in the roles of business moguls and agon can be seen where the players are competing among their friends. In a nutshell, it is a game which is a kind of extension of the current Monopoly and Cityville games that are quite popular. The game will be built to operate on online gaming platforms such as Facebook and Google+ games and have a social network integration to make game play interactive. The game will be played in the ludus mode meaning that it has a predefined set of rules that the players must follow. The aim of the game is to teach players important aspects of investment. At the beginning of the game, all the players have $5,000 and the players are ranked based on the much that they have both in property and other assets and resources. Each stage of the game is built upon the previous one and there are different goals to be achieved in every stage. Players are ranked by how fast they are able to complete each level and by the amount of wealth they gather in each stage that will help them in the next stage. When a player starts a new game, they have $5,000 in their virtual bank account. They also have a city in which they can invest their money in and become moguls. The players can call the city as they please. In the city, there are ten reserved spots in which their friends can build their businesses and try to take over the player’s empire. However, the player will not be able to identify which spots are reserved for friends since this will be randomly generated by the system. At the beginning of the game, a player cannot invest in another friend’s city until they attain a rating of 5 by having a net worth of about $100,000 in cash and valuables. The maximum rating that is achievable in the game is 25 where the player will have a net worth of over $10 million. The land of the city will have a distinctive plan and in this situation, the player will be required to use the $5,000 that they have to buy land. There are designated areas for agriculture, forestry, housing, industrial areas, etc. There are independent investment channels that the investor can choose. These include factories, farms and real estate. If the player decides to buy land in the industrial area and build a factory, they have to build two factories. One to produce the good and the other to which they will supply the good. In both cases, the player must contract the privately owned construction company to construct the houses or factories. The construction company will charge a standard rate for supply of materials and labor. If the player decides to go into industrial production, they have different chains to follow. For example, in the case of a bakery, they need to have a grain farm, grain mill, dairy farm, dairy processing plant and a bakery. They also need a shopping mall to sell the produce. The shopping mall must be located in a residential area with residents without whom the bread will go bad and result in loses for the player. The player must manage production at each stage. In the bakery, 1 loaf of bread feeds 1 person and to produce 20 loaves of bread which will be the minimum amount that the bakery can produce to maximize efficiency, the player needs 1 cow and 1 acre of grain. They also need 1 dairy processing plant and 1 grain mill. As the city expands, the player can buy more processing machines for the dairy processing plants and grain mill, buy more cows and plant more grain. The second production chain available is that of appliances. For appliances, the player must have a gold mine to feed the gold processing plant, steel mill, microchip factory fed by the gold processing plant and steel mill, oil derrick and recycling plant to feed the plastic factory, appliance factory fed by the microchip factory and plastic factory and lastly, a shopping mall. To produce recycled goods, the player must have some houses that have occupants then have a dumpster to collect refuse from these houses and deliver them to the recycling plant which then produces recycled produce. If the player has another mall already built, they do not need to build a new mall since one mall can be sufficient. However, they will be required to upgrade the mall so that it can accept more good. Otherwise, trucks that try to deliver goods to a lower level shopping mall will receive a fine which will be subtracted from the player’s bank account and the goods returned to the factory. The last production chain available is that of cars. Here, the player needs to have a steel mill and plastic factory to feed the tire factory and car body factory, cotton farm and wool farm to feed the fabric factory, and car factory which is fed by the tire factory, fabric factory and car body factory. Like in the case of bread discussed earlier, all production chains must be managed since the goods have expiry dates except appliances and cars. Although if more of these produce is produced than needed, it may lead to losses since the value at which the products will be sold at the shopping mall will reduce and it will take longer to turn a profit on the sales. In this way, the game represents the factors of supply and demand which influence business in the real world. For cars, the player should produce a maximum of 2 cars per house. For appliances, it is a maximum of 15 appliances per house. As the player can construct more houses, they can continue production of this produce to sustain the growing population. Another channel for the player to make money is to construct bus stations and purchase buses to transport people to the shopping malls. Interactivity and social networking in this game comes where the player’s friends can construct their own supply chains to bring competition in the city. There being ten spots for friends, once a friend constructs a factory in the person’s city, the player must purchase from this plastic factory and cannot construct their own. However, if the player has an oil derrick and recycling plant, the friend must source these materials from the player this bring in revenue for the player. My game proposal is inspired by works of different authors. Harper (2009:129-130) states that play is very useful in reality and can even be used in politics . From the authors work, I was able to come up with a way to integrate play into investment. The technology to be used to design the game is Flash scripts and flash animation and PHP scripting. During gameplay, the player would get extra cash and be able to unlock rewards when they network with friends. For example by inviting friends, they get $100 for each friend who starts their game. The player also gets rewards such as medals and trophies as their friends continue playing and achieve milestones. My idea does represent a long heartfelt desire for this game since I’ve always felt that it would be fun to have a game that brings the reality of investment into the gaming world. References CAILLOIS, R. & BARASH, M. 2001. Man, play, and games, Champaign, Illinois, University of Illinois Press. CASTRONOVA, E. 2005. Synthetic worlds: the business and culture of online games, Chicago, Illinois, University of Chicago Press. HARPER, T. 2009. The Smooth Spaces of Play: Deleuze and the Emancipative Potential of Games. symplokē, 17, 129-142 HUIZINGA, J. 1955. Homo ludens; a study of the play-element in culture, Boston, Beacon Press. HUNTER 2011. The Gamification Handbook - Everything You Need to Know about Gamification, Brisbane, Emereo Pty Limited. SALEN, K. & ZIMMERMAN, E. 2003. Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals, Cambridge, Massachusetts, MIT Press. ZICHERMANN, G. & CUNNINGHAM, C. 2011. Gamification by Design: Implementing Game Mechanics in Web and Mobile Apps, Sebastopol, California, O'Reilly Media.  Read More

 

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