When we first met to discuss our theme we quickly realized its higher level of abstraction comparing to other subjects and during the first coordination meeting we realized our proposal was mainly gravitating around theoretical notions within areas of research dealing with the sharing economy, societal behavior and macro-economic systems.
Daniel and Malin helped us in finding a concrete trajectory to funnel our first findings and we decided that a good way to achieve greater involvement and deeper motivation was the gamification of the sharing economy system.
We decided to play around with a dystopian scenario in order to engage by providing them with constant feedback on how their everyday actions affect the world and their lives on a local-to-global base and make gradually possible the utopia they shape.
Beside gathering theoretical and research sources, we sketched several game designs and the biggest challenge has been try to fit them with the multiple acceptations and meanings which the sharing economy is manifested into.
Moreover we focused on how to make this platform alluring not only to gamers and tech enthusiasts, but also to the most average user-consumer-citizen, and yet being financially viable.
The main goal for the future meetings will be designing the interaction process and sketch a more detailed and viable business model in order to involve organizations, institutions and companies and provide substantial value both on the user and on the business side.
We summarized our concept (or manifesto) in these lines:
"Why are we so good at solving the most impossible missions and dare the odds in virtual worlds when the world we are living in is facing threats?
While gaming are given tasks, levels, missions that make us feel closer to the achievement and step by step we realize we are capable of things that only yesterday were unknown.
The world is growing greater and faster.
Though our resources, our time and our planet can't keep the pace of this growth.
This is why generally people value time and money more and more nowadays and the environmental cause is often neglected. Probably we are scared of what will happen to our planet, we lost faith in a possible change, we simply don't think we can make it happen.
The end is close and the scenario we will provide is very likely to happen if we don’t act now, together!
We want to provide a “gaming” platform in which users are given direct feedbacks on how their everyday actions are saving (or wasting) their time, money and natural resources affecting their lives and the environment in which they are living in.
The platform will provide them with missions to be accomplished, levels to achieve and prizes to acquire according to their involvement and efforts, everything under the heading of sharing, sustainable and collaborative tools.
In this way users will be trained and educated on how to enjoy the comforts of the modern living standards through the access and not the ownership of resources which are time, economic and environmental efficient."
I really like your idea and concept. There are already many games out there that try to educate about sustainability etc. but most of them, if not all, are just simulations. If you actually perform any of these actions that you learned in real-life is just a big question mark. That's why I like your approach. You guys are trying to make sharing that happens every day more fun but more important: encourage people to participate. Rewards are the key to mainstream participation, and I'm glad you didn't choose pure money as a reward but rather prizes that will empower people to have a certain standing in the community and discounts to facilitate the sharing economy. But one question: (How) will you track/include actions that are not taking place on platforms like AirBnB or Uber but certainly have an impact on the sharing economy? Looking forward to your next post!
ReplyDeleteCiao Simon, I'm glad you gave us a feedback and yours is a very good question.
DeleteObviously keeping track of actions not occurring online is a big challenge, we are not aiming at that. Instead we provide a "pedagogic" tool to raise awareness among people about the impact certain choices have. But alongside the daily feedback we are planing to give users we could include a "tricks and tips" section: "While enjoying your carpooling ride, why don't you deliver a packet with the collaborative service Pick&Drop? By doing this bla bla bla [...]". Thanks!
You know what? We are assuming that Trustify™ (or something alike) will be the standard in the future so we will be able to record and keep track of online and offline actions ;)
DeleteI think it looks good. Keep up the good work!
ReplyDelete