Page 36 - AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report 2014

AC/E digital culture ANNUAL REPORT 2014to send photographs of scenes they found elsewhere in which there were indications that Batman had been there.And all this in order to be able to unlock and view one of the film’s trailers and viralise it via the Internet before the premiere.In this way the creation of game experiences can be used to create settings for interaction that contribute to user participation in order to enhance the impact of film premieres.MAIN CHALLENGES FOR GAMIFICATIONDespite the fact that highly participative applications are being achieved and gamification may become a tool to encourage the participation of audiences in the cultural sector, certain challenges remain in the use of this kind of technique.One of the obstacles remaining to be resolved in gamification is that some of the challenges of participation, such as going to the cinema or to museums on a regular basis, do not tend to have, or must not have, an ending.In a game the long‐term aims are generally clear. Players know that, having achieved these aims they have fulfilled their task in the game, such as rescuing a princess, winning a war or becoming a Formula 1 world champion. At any given moment players know that the experience of the game has a final objective and that they must overcome all the obstacles in their way to achieve that objective.In contrast with this, in the cultural world, and with the exception of certain settings such as a grand launch campaign or the reading of books, the aim is to maintain the users’ long‐term commitment in the absence of a foreseen ending or a clear final aim.Maintaining the player’s concentration and tension or recourse to a made‐to‐measure content strategyAC/Emay be key ways of bolstering gamification’s effectiveness in our proposals.On the other hand, and despite the fact that play is something innate in human beings, it is true that there are certain people who show a measure of apathy when faced with a fictitious environment generated by game mechanics.In general, and for most of the applications, the percentage of such people is small, but it must be borne in mind because we are not interested in these people failing to participate because they can see that it is only a game and that there is no extrinsic high‐value recompense in it for them.That is why game‐based experiences should be created that bear in mind the future player’s scope and profile in function of the application’s setting. Consequently, it would not be the same to use this kind of technique to capture new segments of the public as it would be to promote a more adult public’s commitment to visit museums.WHERE WE ARE HEADING: DIGITAL TRENDS IN THE WORLD OF CULTURETHEME 3: GAMIFICATION, GENERATING COMMITMENT TO CULTURESome largeprojects withinthis newdisciplineprovide userswith optionsthat deactivatethis layer ofgame throughout the whole process, making it an optional extra and they have done so with spectacular results.In the cultural environment, maintaining the players’ concentration and tension is key for attaining their long‐term commitmentTrial and error in this kind of project, above all at the present time when the discipline is taking shape, is something that must be accepted. Finding the solution or magic potion for a cultural proposal will not be the result of investing large quantities of money in the conception or modelling of these game experiences, but of introducing the minimum amount of gamification that can feasibly produce results, from which point there will be a process of evaluation and continuous improvement. CURRENT PAGE...36