iLearn Part 3 – games, gamification, and meaning

OpenInnoTrain Secondment series

Being an imposter can be delightful. Just in case I haven’t mentioned this already, the University of Vaasa boasts Finland’s largest working retro game collection – certainly the largest at any Finnish university. As with everything, there have been times during which the games have been in danger. This often happens when they are not intensively used. That’s why, putting my ‘imposter hat’ on, I ventured into the role of Vaasa Games Days (VGD) 2023-Enabler with the help of VME, University of Vaasa . Knowing very little these days about games, or the games industry, I recognised the importance of re-activating the games when things looked grim. Since the VGD, we have started a number of initiatives that waltz between e-sports, artificial intelligence (AI) and ethics in gamification, critical game studies, and exploring ways to utilise games across the disciplines (see this Helsinki Times article that tells more). To activate and to grow in the area of games and social-technology in general, requires active, ongoing and out-of-the-box collaboration. Through the OpenInnoTrain Secondment ( 澳大利亚皇家墨尔本理工大学 ) I’ve been able to visit laboratories focusing on the intersection of human-technology interaction, human-centered computing, games, and virtual (digital) consciousness. Here are some thoughts inspired by my visits to the Virtual Experiences Laboratory (RMIT) and the Exertion Games Lab ( 澳大利亚蒙纳士大学 ).

Games (simply, structured forms of play) and gamification (strategies for motivating and influencing behavior, now increasingly associated with persuasive technology) have a huge influence on personal meaning-making. Whether it’s the feeling of accomplishment (yes, many discussions evolve around addiction and bursts in dopamine) when progressing through levels, problem-solving, identification, flow, or pure social engagement, games and gamification often channel our activities towards specific goals. The issue of fun is a discussion in itself. Certainly, virtuality (both analogue and digital), challenge, and simulation are key constructs linked to the concepts.

We see the games, game studies, and game development as crucial components in building the future of the VME Interaction Design Environment. It’s not just about making the space fun. VME is already fun. It’s about advancing our understanding of the holistic nature of human-technology interaction (HTI), and comprehending that both games and gamification will increasingly be embedded within our cybernetic (digital-physical) existence, posing both opportunities and challenges for life quality and the state of humanity in general. Authors such as Yuval Homo Harari are famous for their pro-historical perspectives of the development of the human species into cyborgs. The peak of these discussions evolves around the evolution of the digital divide, seeing the privileged as evolving into a super species due to cognitive enhancement.

Yet, we and scholars such as Andy Clark, already acknowledge, that humans are cyborgs by nature. Cyborgism is what makes humans human. A dual perspective on the human species and stratification that is technologically motivated is nothing new. It’s just been discussed in different terms across the disciplines. Pierre Bourdieu famously described the alternate realities and classifications of human beings through stratification, naming for instance distinctions and habitus as a field of perception that is structured by the schema of the social group or class to which individuals belong.

Led by Dr. Ian Peake and Professor Michelle Spencer, the Virtual Experiences (VX) Laboratory (RMIT) actualises the future of HTI. VX embodies human-robot collaboration, telepresence and environmental VR, with some cool gamified interaction, research and development elements such as motion tracking and projection. VX focuses intensively on education, and the learning of complex phenomena such as chemistry and astrophysics. Saying that, the environment is not limited to the hard-natural sciences, rather may stretch as far as the imagination allows. And, then some more.

The lab also highlights the reality of the tech and its maturity. It is constantly in development, and more than anything, requires human beings to push it forward. Isn’t it ironic that while we easily forget the people behind AI, the systems themselves don’t go anywhere without them? This also makes the space so vital for encounters with young people. My eight-year-old was captivated by Rosie the Robot. She was stubborn though, refusing to conform to my son’s movements and hopes. On the one hand, this annoyed my son. Disillusioned, he explained that the robot doesn’t work properly. Yet, with perseverance, the robot became attuned to his gestures and grudgingly complied over time. This provided my son with a gamified experience of a ‘battle of the wills’ – human versus robot in terms of ‘who will follow who?’.

With this modulised socio-technical lab experience behind us, I ventured over to the Exertion Games Lab at Monash University, to see another perspective towards advancements in HTI and human-centered computing. Led by Professor Florian (Floyd) Mueller, and vice-led by Dr. Nathan Semertzidis (my host for the visit), I was fast immersed into the present and future of codified bodies. The lab is about bodies, technology and play, and hosts an array of mind baffling projects that are well-represented at and in top international conferences (CHI and Designing Interactive Systems [DIS]) and journals (TOCHI, IJHCS etc.).

The projects undertaken by PhD and Postdoc researchers cover everything from edible technology (computing, Jialing Deng), to shoes that detect stress (Dr. Don Samitha Elvitigala), materialising memories (Nathalie Overdevest), collective emotion syncing brain computer interfaces (Nathan Semertzidis), to dream design (Po-Yao [Cosmos] Wang). Yes, dream design. Encouraging, enhancing and directing the content of our vivid dream states. They even have a sensory deprivation tank and climbing wall.

Seriously, as a researcher in HTI, your mind starts buzzing at all the things you could do with those toys. Those scholars are pushing the limits in terms of breaking the external/internal dichotomy towards which we approach the human body. Code is used to blend and stir the physiological and psychological with not simply bits, but also atoms. Their gamified and codified interventions render it possible to ‘play with your food’. Not while it’s on your plate, but as it goes down your digestive system. We can ‘stay in that happy space’ while asleep, as well as while we’re awake. And, we can explore ethical potentialities by creating a dystopia that hopefully never escapes the lab’s entrance.

Once again, thank you OpenInnoTrain for making this learning possible. I looking forward to more interactions like this in the future.