editor's comment(s)

Gamification as a means to "tuning human behavior"

Anton Eliens & Timen Olthof

The abstract / proposal by Olthof and Eliens is of high quality and a delight to read. A serious effort is made to critically position every crucial notion which relates to the virtual-physical in-between. As such this precision will be a test to all other contributions, and the wording that will be used there. The authors distinguish not so much the physical-virtual or the natural-digital divide but everyday life versus games. They position this divide rather convincingly, though our interest would be a specific kind of framing of both worlds: conventions to which we are responsive in our behaviour and actions. And the moment these conventions result in collective behaviour there is a kind of governance emerging. And if these conventions guide our behaviour in the way we use space and place. Both authors have clear perspective on space and place, and place being space with identity. They present a realist, a relationalist and a relative perspective to space and place we perceive as physically ʽrealʼ and ʽvirtualʼ. Through this they point towards a desired alternative, an idealist perspective of an imagined world that could be considered to become ʽrealʼ. And this ʽcould beʼ refers to institutional design and the making of choices, decisions and policy.

In its abstraction this narrative is superb. Here we invite both authors to explore linkages with cases or examples (regarding use, giving identity to, the development of, and collective desires within space and place) to bridge the abstract and the concrete world, in support of the argument. We are wondering about commonalities and differences between conventions within material and virtual space and the in-between. And we are eager to hear more about institutional design through which conventions emerge and are being tested, renewed, altered, or allowed to co-evolve along with evolving material-virtual developments.

We suggest to go for UK English.

We are looking forward to reading the full version of the article. Please, feel free to contact us in case our suggestions are not clear to you.