rethinking gamification how to win foursquare

8/10/2019 Rethinking Gamification How to Win Foursquare

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RETHINKINGGAMIFICATION

Edited byMathias Fuchs, Sonia Fizek,

Paolo Ruffino, Niklas Schrape


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IMPRINT

A collaboration between the Gamication Lab and the Hybrid Publishing Labat Leuphana University o Lneburg, Germany http://cdc.leuphana.com/structure/gamication-lab/http://cdc.leuphana.com/structure/hybrid-publishing-lab/

Editors Sonia Fizek, Mathias Fuchs, Paolo Ruffino, Niklas SchrapeEditorial Assistance and Project Management Fabian LehmannProofreading and Editorial Assistance Jacob WatsonLayout, Design, and Artwork Laleh orabimeson press Mercedes Bunz, Marcus Burkhardt, Andreas Kirchner

Bibliographical Information of the German National Library Te German National Library lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliograe(German National Bibliography); detailed bibliographic in ormation is available online athttp://dnb.d-nb.de.

Published by meson press, Hybrid Publishing Lab, Leuphana University o Lneburg, Germany www.meson-press.com

Te paperback edition o this book is printed by Lightning Source, Milton Keynes,United Kingdom.Te digital editions can be downloaded reely at www.meson-press.com.

ISBN (Print): 978-3-95796-000-9ISBN (PDF): 978-3-95796-001-6ISBN (EPUB): 978-3-95796-002-3

Tis publication is licensed under the CC-BY-SA 4.0 (Creative Commons AttributionShareAlike 4.0 Unported) license.o view a copy o this license, visit: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/.

Funded by the EU major project Innovation Incubator Lneburg


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CONTENTS

Introduction ........................................................................................................ 7

RESETTING BEHAVIOUR

Niklas SchrapeGamication and Governmentality ............................................................... 21Paolo RuffinoFrom Engagement to Li e, or: How to Do Tings with Gamication? ..... 47Maxwell FoxmanHow to Win Foursquare: Body and Space in a Gamied World ............... 71Joost RaessensTe Ludication o Culture ............................................................................. 91

REPLAYING HISTORY

Mathias FuchsPredigital Precursors o Gamication ......................................................... 119Felix RaczkowskiMaking Points the Point: owards a History o Ideas o Gamication .... 141

REFRAMING CONTEXT

Fabrizio PoltronieriCommunicology, Apparatus, and Post-History: Vilm FlussersConcepts Applied to Videogames and Gamication ................................. 165Tibault PhilippetteGamication: Rethinking Playing the Game with Jacques Henriot ...... 187Gabriele Ferrio Play Against: Describing Competition in Gamication ...................... 201


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RECLAIMING OPPOSITION

Daphne DragonaCounter-Gamication: Emerging actics and Practices Against the Ruleo Numbers ...................................................................................................... 227Matthew iessenGamed Agencies: Affectively Modulating our Screen and App-DrivenDigital Futures ................................................................................................ 251

REMODELLING DESIGN

Sonia Fizek Why Fun Matters: In Search o Emergent Play ul Experiences ............... 273Scott NicholsonExploring the Endgame o Gamication ..................................................... 289Sebastian DeterdingEudaimonic Design, or: Six Invitations to Rethink Gamication ........... 305

APPENDIX

Authors ............................................................................................................ 333Index ................................................................................................................ 337


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HOW TO WIN FOURSQUARE:BODY AND SPACE IN A GAMIFIED WORLD

by Maxwell Foxman

I desired to do something truly unprecedented or our housewarming. Te

estivities began Saturday morning at Artichoke Pizza. We called it Te Al- phabetical our o Alphabet City. Te goal was simple: in twenty- our hours,traverse twenty-six restaurants and bars throughout the lower Manhattanneighbourhood, in alphabetical order.

I rarely sat and only spoke briey to the ever-increasing group o guests ateach locale. Instead, I was preoccupied typing out the name o each venue weentered on my smartphone. I checked-in to each spot using the social mediaapplication Foursquare, which utilised GPS to veri y my location and allowedme to compete with riends and strangers over how many places we requented.

Each check-in, urthermore, was linked to other social media plat orms,namely Facebook and witter, enabling other users online to meet up with useven as we progressed at our rantic pace. I relished each check-in as the sof-ware awarded me points.

Te next day, we were joined by a ew celebrants or brunch at our -nal destination, Zum Schneider. Recovering over German sausages in the beerhall, we three stalwarts who made it to every venue bragged and congratulatedeach other, in awe o our achievement. Trough the bounty o the social media


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applications employed, our exuberant adventure and the spoils o our socialcompetition had been recorded or all to envy. At some point, I recall thinking

to mysel not so much that the Alphabetical our was just a great party and asocial success, but that I had won. I wasnt sure what I had won, but I certainlyhad the score to prove it.

GETTING INTO THE GAMETe Alphabetical our was not particularly unique in a city like New Yorkwhere bars abound and crawls between them are commonplace. Atypi-cal was the extravagant amount o time, money, calories and brain cells Iexpended or a bit o merriment, and the role the then year-old programFoursquare (2009) played in shaping our adventure. Its presence punctuatedmoments throughout the day and evening, and not only broadcasted whereI was along the route, but also became a topic o conversation during theevent itsel .

Foursquare, in many ways, has become the corporate embodiment ogamication. Its use o location-based technology and mobile media makesFoursquare the per ect target or admonishments about the exploitationo users through game-like elements, the acility or surveillance and the

promotion o conspicuous consumption. We realised such apprehensionsduring the tour. However, knowing ull well its potential ramications, whydid I, like millions o others, use Foursquare? Te sheer zealousness o thecelebration highlights how I was willing to disregard concerns about ma-nipulation or reasons that are at once difficult to dene yet undamentallyimportant to that day. Te desire or a glorious experience outweighed anyrational judgments.

While much o the research surrounding the proli eration o gami -cation into non-play ul settings and the design o Internet applications hascentred on either the potential effects o game elements on the populace, orthe growing cultural acceptance o games and play, the experience o gami-cation has been less explored. As the Alphabetical our illustrates, this phe-nomenon is subtle yet distinctive, involving new orms o communication,and exploits some o our most elemental urges: to compete, to win, to orgea path to glory.

Tis article will deal with the experience o gamication, specicallythrough the lens o Foursquare. Afer rst situating the application within the


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larger discourse o gamication, it will become evident that, while Foursquarehas never purported itsel to be a game, it remains a quintessential example

o a tool that capitalises on user behaviour through the employment o ex-plicit and implicit game-like unctions.

Supercially, Foursquare appears to reduce a users environment to aseries o icons and locations that aunt capitalism and a culture o coolwithin primarily urban and suburban settings and constituencies. Tis per-ception also intensies claims that Foursquare is merely a waste o time.

I will argue instead that Foursquare rescripts ordinary experience intoone o expenditure and glory by allowing its users to bring an ethos o com-petition into their existence. Trough Foursquare, li e becomes a conduit orerce play, communicated less through words than through presence, a kindo proximal communication.

Because the application maintains a constant presence within everydayli e, this orm o communication becomes as much part o the bodily ex-perience as an outwardly communicated act. Trough a phenomenologi-cal approach, along with personal anecdotes to support it, I will show howFoursquare engenders what I call a state o play in which the motivating

orces o play are not only elt in the virtual space o a magic circle, but also

punctuate and pervade mundane activities, ultimately characterizing the ex-perience o gamication more generally.

GAMIFICATION AND ITS DISCONTENTSGamication might have been a rhetorical inevitability with the ascensiono digital and video games in the beginning o the twenty-rst century.Game Studies scholars, such as Jesper Juul and Eric Zimmerman, endeav-oured to carve out a distinct eld or the study o games, connecting themto the realm o play, or ludology (Frasca 1999), a term attributed to JohanHuizinga, who attempted to track the pervasiveness o play in society inHomo Ludens: A Study o the Play-Element in Culture. As a consequence, atits theoretical roots, Game Studies underscores plays potential universalityand its broader application to cultural contexts.

Te study o gamication has helped to disclose the discontinuities be-tween perceptions o games and play and their impact on society. Advocates

oresee games helping to mitigate adverse social conditions (McGonigal 2011;Zichermann and Cunningham 2011). For instance, current projects make


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weight loss (Block 2012) and the awareness o climate change (Fox 2013)a game. Others assail the insidious and unbridled enthusiasm to capitalise

on game elements or corporate greed.While the potential societal effects o play and gamication deserve

much attention, the experience o the player and what motivates him toengage with gamied programs remains a less travelled rontier. I the in- vocation o gamication opened up a Pandoras box o predictions about agame ul world, it is worth asking what it is like to live in it.

WHY STUDY FOURSQUARE?Founded in 2009 by Dennis Crowley and Naveen Selvadurai, Foursquare hasdeveloped along with the proli eration o gamication, becoming the quin-tessential example or academics interested in both gamication and mobilemedia (de Souza e Silva and Frith 2012; Deterding et al. 2011; Frith 2012;Frith 2013; Glas 2013; Whitson 2013). Te premise o the application is sim -ple: Users check in primarily with smartphones to various venues, ranging

rom their homes to bars, restaurants, stores, parks and other public settings.Venues are assigned both by the company and created by users. Users arerewarded or checking-in with points posted on a virtual leaderboard o

riends. Tey may also achieve mayorships and badges on rarer occasions.Te oremost reason or using Foursquare as a case study is to examine

the paradoxical relationship between the systems that make up the applica-tion and the experiences o the user. Tat the application osters competitionover leisure appears not only to be impractical in a utilitarian sense, butalso blatantly exploitative due to the companys knowledge o users loca-tions. Te by-product o Foursquare is a valuable commodity: a record othe whereabouts o users, including the timing and requency o their everyexcursion, which has recently enabled Foursquare to offer businesses theability to advertise to users when in close proximity to their establishments( ate 2013). However, the experience o the user remains somewhat divorced

rom this capitalist ploy. Users willingly volunteer in ormation, submittingto Big Brother, while revelling within the constraints o the system. Publicdisclosure and control are produced rom the bottom up.

Foursquare, like other gamied applications, lies provocatively on theborder between being a game and social media. Games are dened by KatieSalen and Eric Zimmerman, in Rules o Play: Game Design Fundamentals, as


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a system in which players engage in an articial conict, dened by rules,that results in a quantiable outcome (Salen and Zimmerman 2003, 83).

Although their denition is meant to be unctional, it emphasises the game-like quality o the application. Foursquare encourages competition throughrewards while retaining the basic components o social networking sites,which (1) construct a public or semi-public prole within a bounded system,(2) articulate a list o other users with whom they share a connection, and(3) view and traverse their list o connections and those made by otherswithin the system (boyd and Ellison 2007, 211).

Even as it sets the stage or riendly competition, the program is mar-keted as a singular tool to connect people throughout cities via location-based technologies, offering coupons and deals or those who requentparticipating restaurants and bars. Tis somewhat prosaic goal neither ex-plains Foursquares appeal to at least 40 million users (Foursquare 2013), norits growing ubiquity among retailers throughout cities in the United States.Te essential unctions o the program, the check-in and the subsequent re-wards, provide a peephole into the applications appeal.

FUN CTIONS OF FOURSQUARE

While comments, the uploading o photos and other social elements com-mensurate with social media like Facebook have been added since the end o2010 (Van Grove 2010), the primary unction o Foursquare has always beenthe check-in with corresponding rewards. Tis is the causation that drivesthe Foursquare experience. Upon close observation, the check-in unction istinged with both implicit and explicit means o eeling a sense o glory; theuser competes and potentially wins by per orming the act.

Te check-in is not an inherently competitive act. In Foursquare, oncerecognised, the user is in ormed o his success ul check-in and rewarded.Te importance o the check-in is not only related to registering the userspresence at the venue, but also the value ascribed to the act o registering.Users only receive rewards, points and trophies when the GPS sofware ontheir phones traces them to the vicinity o the particular venue.

Since the majority o places where the user checks in are retail estab-lishments and public venues (Bawa-Cavia 2010), Foursquare is requentlyassociated with consumption, underscoring its business / marketing model.


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Check-in restrictions can be circumnavigated by users with ew conse-quences. Tey can check in rom a mobile internet browser version o the

application, or emulate a GPS signal on a computer.1

Tese practices invokea kind o cheating that is somewhat unusual within the context o socialinteraction. 2 Rather than being innocuous, the check-in is actually a play uland competitive act, the standard by which rewards are given airly or illicitly.

Foursquares rewards adhere to Salen and Zimmermans game deni -tion, providing a quantiable outcome or particular actions. Each prize isappropriated toward competitive ends, bestowing bragging rights and pro-moting a kind o glory. Jordan Frith describes users cultivating their activi-ties around cities in order to obtain particular badges and mayorships (Frith2013, 251), which are prominently displayed on the prole page o each user.Badges, which are given or specic sets o check-ins such as registeringin the same place three times in one week, or checking-in to ve differentMexican restaurants, dene the achievements o a user and the breadth ohis activity, or the type o player he is. Foursquares reward system expandedin 2011 with the addition o levels to specic badges (Parr 2011). Te repeti-tive completion o the same task now garners even more benets.

A mayorship is granted to a user or requenting and achieving an abun-

dance o check-ins at a particular venue, more than any other user within a60-day period. Te glory that comes rom a mayorship is highly localised.Particularly in cases where riends requent the same venue, they becomecognisant o each others mayorships and can vie over them. Mayorshipsgarner other tangible and intangible awards. Both mayors and riends omayors receive extra points or their check-ins at establishments or whichthey are mayor, as well as occasional mayoral perks rom venues. In the caseo restaurants, ofen a ree drink or appetizer is the mayors reward or eachcheck-in, a air honorarium or a loyal patron who, at any time, is in dangero losing his position.

1 It should be noted that i a user checks in with the browser version o the application, theyare able to receive points and badges, but not mayorships.

2 Te most notorious case o cheating in Foursquare can be ound in the case o IndonesianJumpers who gained notoriety by checking-in to venues in the United States, en masse,

rom Indonesia (Glas 2013).


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Te most constant orm o competition and reward is the leaderboard,which appoints a numerical score, seen only among riends, or the users

check-ins over the prior week. Users receive points or a variety o pre-scribed reasons, ranging rom bonus points or checking in to new venues,to attaining a mayorship, to checking in over multiple days or weeks at aparticular type o establishment. Other points are awarded completely arbi-trarily, such as extra points or the inauguration o the Year o the Dragon onthe lunar calendar, or on a users anniversary o joining Foursquare. Accu-mulation o points does not lead to achieving any specic reward; points areonly signicant because the leaderboard is built into the overall structure othe program. Like the high scores in an arcade game, the leaderboard tallyrecords and perpetuates the overall glory o the user. Furthermore, becausethe score reects only the past weeks activity, it constantly resets, establish-ing perpetual competition among users. Since the scores on the leaderboardare only shared among riends, the entire reason or its existence is local-ised glory and competition. Te leaderboard seems to be Foursquares mostgame-like eature with obvious allusions to scoreboards and video gamescoring systems.

As can be seen rom this brie synopsis o Foursquare, the possibility

or competition and play is explicitly ostered, in the case o the leaderboardand mayorships, or potentially, in the case o badges and the check-in itsel .More than anything, like other gamied systems, these rewards are meantto motivate users, to induce them to play. However, both the consequencesand experiences o these unctions or the user are lacking in this analysis.

CONCEPTIONS, CONSUMPTION AND CONTESTSFoursquare activity appears to stem more rom the act o checking-in thanthe rewards received. Publicizing a particular space at a particular time, es-pecially in an urban setting, automatically carries socio-economic connota-tions. Te sofware promotes a certain kind o conspicuous consumption,allowing users, as hackneyed as it may sound, to appear cool.

Te desire to be seen at particular places is popular in urban set-tings, where knowing the trendiest spot is ofen competitive. Historically,the data about Foursquare showed that the primary locales checked-intowere commercial establishments, such as restaurants, bars and art galleries


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(Bawa-Cavia 2010).3 Tis evinces a natural inclination that the average Four-square user wants to be seen and in-the-know more generally. In a July

2010 Urbagram study, check-ins were concentrated in areas where restau-rant culture and high retail consumption thrived, such as downtown areaso Manhattan, Williamsburg, and Park Slope. In other cities, such as Lon-don and Paris, this same study ound similarly that Nightli e and Food venues were the primary places where users were checking in, with Parisalso having slightly more requent check-ins at both art galleries and parks(ibid.).

However, Carnegie Mellons Livehoods project, started in 2012, bothupdated and complicated the ndings o the Urbagram study (Livehoods2013). Te project visualised the activity o Foursquare users in differentUS and Canadian cities with ascinating results. In different neighborhoods,distinctly diverse activity occurred. For instance, while a number o grocer-ies made up the most checked-in sites o New Yorks predominantly residen-tial Upper West Side, Brooklyns hipster enclave Williamsburg eatured twobars in its most popular check-ins. In other words, the check-ins mirroredthe particular demographics o each neighbourhood, rather than being ho-mogenous throughout New York City (ibid.).

Livehoods contradicted the preconceived notions o conspicuous con-sumption associated with the check-in, describing different ends based onthe users locales. Users may choose to orego some check-ins in avour obeing seen at others. For instance, I rarely see users check in at home. Tisis supported by Friths determination that players predominantly check into score points, earn badges, present themselves to others, and rememberwhere they have been (Frith 2012, 189).

Foursquares activity, consequently, is prompted by personal use, orpersonal reasons. Furthermore, this personal choice drives Foursquares eco-nomic model. Afer all, Foursquare generates its revenue through advertis-ing; its sofware is ree. Foursquares existence is sustained by the continueduse o its players, whom it must stimulate in order to maintain an audience

or advertisements and rom which to collect in ormation. Users must ex-

3 As o 2013, the most popular check-in spot within the United States was airports(Shankman 2013).


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pend on behal o the program. Such exertion has led PJ Rey to describe theactivity as playbor. Te term, which he derived rom Julian Kcklichs 2005

study o the modding o video games, means making productive activity anend in-itsel (namely, un) . . . Te object o production is no longer to create value; instead value becomes a mere by-product o play (Rey 2012).

Certainly, the activity in Foursquare encompasses this denition. Teplay o the check-in belies the effort people expend on behal o the program.Rey partially invokes playbor to dissolve the traditional notions o economyin capitalist systems, in which work and play are separate. Rather than sim-ply a device to promote rivolous conspicuous consumption, within the con-text o playbor, Foursquare becomes an outlet or work, causing play to loseits innocence (ibid.). However, Rey acknowledges that the experience oplay has its own value, including the symbolic capital o intangible rewards.What motivates playborers (ibid.) then does not derive rom traditionalcapital models, but instead rom intrinsic incentives that come rom playitsel , namely personal choice and competition. I not driven by capitalism,an ontological investigation o exchange within society may explain the mo-tivation or such competition: glory.

COMPETITION AND GLORYBecoming mayor in Foursquare can be associated with a certain amount oboasting. Mayorships allow users to compete over their avourite haunts. Sostrong was my desire to obtain mayorships, that I sought them rom any num-ber o places. I became mayor o my grandmothers condo, as well as the gymin my mothers basement (actually just a stationary bicycle). Many riends weresimilarly mayors o their local delicatessens, bagel shops and apartment build -ings, rather than the hippest restaurant or nightclub. Tese trumped up mayor-ships still had value, with a riend complaining i another had pre-empted themayorship o their apartment. In act, when I was nearing the assumption othe mayorship at the completely ctitious Arsenal HQ (the Foursquare title given to the bar where Arsenal FC ans met to watch soccer games), the head othe supporters group hal -seriously threatened me i I overtook his mayorship.His sincerity was enough or me to abandon my quest or that position.

Playbor certainly characterises my pursuit or mayorships. Mayorshipsrequire persistent checking-in to venues, and as described in the above


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account, the additional labour o making up both actual and ctional placesin which to check in. Te reasons or the effort are related to competition.

Since competition is so prominent within Foursquare, its importanceand nature warrant urther exploration. Tis analysis will begin to positionFoursquare within the realm o game play and to substantiate user partici-pation. It explains, not only how people play Foursquare, be it as playbor orotherwise, but also why they put so much effort into the program.

Salen and Zimmerman re er to the importance o conict as both in-trinsic to the game and the means by which players achieve their goalswithin the connes o the game (Salen and Zimmerman 2003, 265). JohanHuizinga indicates in Homo Ludens, [t]hus competitions and exhibitions asamusement do not proceed rom culture, they rather precede it (Huizinga1971, 47). Huizinga sees the contest as a prescribed event, not dissimilar

rom play: Like all other orms o play, the contest is largely devoid o pur-pose. Tat is to say, the action begins and ends in itsel , and the outcomedoes not contribute to the necessary li e-processes o the group (Ibid., 49).

Te desire or glory, to win at the contest, remains a part o the economyo play, motivating play, as well as proffering a result when play occurs. It isa means o rethinking the value o Foursquare. Users will check in to more

places or renown as opposed to receiving some tangible economic boon.Te users check in is rewarded with glory, or bragging rights, the exaltedphenomena that we can never ully understand but can only experience(Leibovitz 2013, 75).

Te goal o the Foursquare user there ore diverges rom capitalist eco-nomic purposes in the competition or glory. Expenditure, the dispensing otime and energy into the Foursquare experience, with no economic value inreturn, galvanises the Foursquare user and is implicit within Reys playbormodel. Participation in Foursquare, in regard to traditional economic mod-els, is to some degree a bona de waste o time. As in any game, its economyis dictated by the rules o and desire to play, rather than any rational capital-ist motivation.

Tis expenditure echoes Georges Batailles analysis in Te Notion oExpenditure that:

A certain excitation, whose sum total is maintained at a noticeably con-stant level animates collectivities and individuals. In their intensied


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orm, the states o excitation, which are comparable to toxic states, can bedened as the illogical and irresistible impulse to reject material or moral

goods that it would have been possible to utilise rationally (in con ormitywith the balancing o accounts). (Bataille 1985, 128)

Excitement is then caused when the user expends. Interaction with the sof-ware, or the sake o glory and competition, exposes the user to more activities.Te user does not react to the sofware as a promotional tool. Foursquarehas created a mode o consumption that marries advertising and traditionalmarketing with anti-productive activity, namely competition and glory.

Batailles expenditure also explains the reasons why users play, a kindo economy o competition, independent o capitalist models. As he puts it:

[ ]he creation o unproductive values; the most absurd o these values,and the one that makes people the most rapacious, is glory . Made com-plete through degradation, glory, appearing in a sometimes sinister andsometimes brilliant orm, has never ceased to dominate social existence;it is impossible to attempt to do anything without it when it is dependenton the blind practice o personal or social loss. (Ibid.)

Glory, according to Bataille, is inherently a part o human interaction andculture.

6.1 The PotlatchBataille, Huizinga and oundational anthropologist Marcel Mauss all men-tion glory in their dissection o the potlatch ceremony. Te potlatch wasone o the rst tribal systems o exchange studied by anthropologists. Whilebased partially on economics, the practice permeated all aspects o societyincluding initiations, marriages, [and] unerals (Bataille 1985, 121).

Te potlatch was a ceremony o competition and expenditure, with thegoal o humiliating, de ying, andobligating a rival (ibid.) through the giv-ing o gifs and the sacricing o wealth. Te goal o the potlatch was to giveaway ones excesses with the expectation that some day a gif o greater valuewould be returned, and by receiving that gif, another o even greater valuewas obligated.


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Bataille states that the potlatch is linked to the possession o a ortune,but only on the condition that the ortune be partially sacriced in unpro-

ductive social expenditures such as estivals, spectacles, and games (ibid.,123). Tis sacrice o excesses and expenditures relates to Foursquare in thatusers are ranked by how much they give in excess to the game. In this way,Foursquare mimics the potlatch gif culture when riends turn their dailyactivities into spectacles o expense.

Te reasons or the potlatch were entwined in a society o sel -perpet-uated loss and destruction, endemic to the human condition, what Bataillebelieves to be the reckless, discharge, and upheaval that constitutes li e . . .(ibid., 128). Glory came rom the much more intrinsic need to humiliate, towin and ultimately expend excesses. Bataille urther expounds that all ormso order and reserve in society are merely temporary states to acilitateglorious expenditure (ibid.).

Foursquares sofware, by Batailles estimations, serves a natural need:when seeking glory wherever he can, the user needs order and meaning to

reely expend. Foursquare supplies an ordered pattern to everyday li e, sothat the user may nd the means to compete and potentially eel the sense oliberty afforded by his expense. Tis begins to rationalise Batailles states o

excitation in the excessive play o Foursquare.Competition can be incorporated into just about anything, and potlatch

interaction enveloped numerous aspects o daily li e. Bataille and Maussstate that the potlatch was woven into all orms o exchange. It was re-served or orms which, or archaic societies, are not distinguishable romexchange (ibid., 123). For Mauss, all o these systems o giving, o glory andsacrice are integrated. Tey are part o what makes up these early anthro-pological societies (Mauss 2000/1950). For Bataille, expenditure extends tothe entire biosphere, which he characterises in terms o a play o energy thatno particular end limits: the play o living matter in general , involved in themovement o light o which it is the result. On the sur ace o the globe, orliving matter in general , energy is always in excess (Bataille 1991/1949, 21).

Foursquare taps into something quite undamental i it is indeed makinguse o excess and expenditure. Te expenditure on behal o Foursquare isnot explicit, however and the rewards bestowed are intangible. Te compe-tition between players acts as a kind o public sacrice between users.


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Mauss also broadens the scope o the potlatch to a wider gif culture,which he argues persisted in a subdued manner into nineteenth century Eu-

rope, long be ore the current interest in the gamication o everyday li e.Citing an exchange among the Maori people, Mauss states that the gifs givenare a tie occurring through things, is one between souls, because the thingitsel possesses a soul, is o the soul (Mauss 2000 / 1950, 12). In relation toFoursquare, such an atmosphere pervades and capitalises on the structureso the program. Te applications architecture allows the competition to ex-pose users lived experience, where they went and what they did, therebymaking their expenditure on the games behal , at least rhetorically, o thesoul. Te everyday becomes the gif that the users sacrice and exchange.Te giving, rewarding and playing or the sake o Foursquare is based uponeveryday existence. Te result o these exchanges, in Mauss perspective, wasa renzy o excitement.

Bataille, clearly acquainted with Mauss, re ers to the state o excitementin his own models and Huizinga, also aware o such a state, pronouncesthe potlatch spirit is akin to the thoughts and eelings o the adolescent(Huizinga 1971, 60). In the same text, Huizinga considers the study o thepotlatch as both a social and religious experience, similar to Mauss, and, as

such, places the potlatch within the realm o what he calls the magic circle.

6.2 The Real Shape of the Magic CircleTe magic circle acts as a bridge in explaining the spiritual and societalworlds in which competition and the gif economy exist. Te theoretical ba-sis o the magic circle lies within the work o Huizinga, who manu acturedthe term when studying the play element in culture. For Huizinga, the circlerepresents the place o com ort, which one enters to play. Huizinga enu -merates several important points in describing this circle: rst, the circleprovides a sense o reedom. Second, Huizinga identies play (the state oentering the magic circle) as distinct rom ordinary li e both as to localityand duration (Huizinga 1971, 9). While this view has been aulted or toonarrowly dening the act o play (Zimmerman 2012) and has been amendedand redrawn by game studies scholars (Juul 2008; Zimmerman 2012), thepotency o the hypothesis lies in the act that the magic circle creates or-der, is order (Huizinga 1971, 10). Huizinga explains urther: For archaicman, doing and daring are power, but knowing is magical power. For him all


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particular knowledge is sacred knowledgeesoteric and wonder-workingwisdom, because any knowing is directly related to the cosmic order itsel

(ibid., 105).Te magic then partly derives rom what is known. Huizinga connects

this to the east and competition, glory and, implicitly, the potlatch (ibid.).Te magic circle becomes, within this context, the landscape o what isknown, a moment in space where things can be predictable.

Te power o knowing, and in the case o Foursquare, knowing aboutparticular venues, knowing where riends are, knowing where one is in re-lation to riends, is predicated by the compulsion to enter the magic cir-cle. Control o that order, to some degree, through contest and competitionmight be seen as the desired goal o the game. But it remains dissonant withthe experience o the user, who must learn how to play through their properexperience o the game. Tis notion aligns with phenomenologist HubertDrey us theory o maximal grip (Drey us 2002, 367), in which the bodynaturally acquires prociency at skills and tasks to the point where playersare no longer cognisant o the necessary skills to per orm / play. In explain-ing the phenomenon o games, Drey us explains that expertise, or know-ledge o a game, is achieved when a player reaches maximal grip. Tus, the

delight o games comes rom the developing level o knowledge, which aplayer experiences each time he engages with the game.

Te magic o the magic circle can then be dened by the experienceo the players, who engage with a game, not rationally comprehending whathas occurred, but knowing the experience through their bodies, their livedexperience, which is not static, but ever-changing. As Foursquare now re- veals itsel to be part o the magic circle, providing an order to li e congru-ent with gif economies and expenditure, a study o this inexplicable bodilyengagement, this magic, brings to light a theory behind the user experiencewithin this particular social network.

PROXIMAL COMMUNICATION As my workload steadily increased during my Masters career and with my reetime limited, I elt obligated to decline riends invitations to spend time withthem. I soon developed a new ritual to steal moments o relaxation. Afer a ullday immersed in academia, I would inevitably reach a burnout point in the


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evening and use the opportunity to sneak out or a quick, low-key dinner withmy girl riend, now wi e.

Meanwhile, each time my girl riend and I would surreptitiously visit arestaurant or bar, I instantly wondered how I could check in to Foursquare.Since many o my riends use the social network, I eared my log o check-inswould offend their social sensibilities. With the ick o a virtual switch on mysmartphone, I would check in off the grid, a private check-in option that al-lowed me to acquire the same points as i I checked-in publicly.

I kept at it, noting my standing on the leaderboard within the top 10 o my riends. However, my score dropped precipitously afer Foursquare revised its policy to one point per off-the-grid check-in, as opposed to the 5 to 10 points per public check-in, with the claim that this change would encourage riendlycompetition (Foursquare 2012). My leaderboard score slipped, inciting sur- prise rom my riends and incurring a blow to my ego. Suddenly, the choice tocheck in off the grid became a decision I had difficulty making, and indeed myoff-the-grid check-ins were reduced to nearly zero afer the policy change. I elta mixture o guilt and resentment each time I checked-in off the grid, stemmingnot only rom hiding my whereabouts rom riends, but also or not gettingcredit or my illicit excursions.

While the magic o playing Foursquare is linked to competition andglory, it also embraces its antithesis, de eat. Te experience o Foursquare is

elt rather than contemplated, coupled to the competition o play and thepersonal and social components o everyday li e. Te check-in becomesabsorbed into daily experience, becoming part o one act: registering onespresence in a particular location, and along with it the renetic competitionand glory o the magic circle.

Tis begins to explain the individual experience o Foursquare: the usergets lost in play throughout his daily activity. Tat this activity is perpet-ual also makes the experience different rom that o ordinary gameplay. Teplayer o a video game or board game has a rareed experience, while theuser o Foursquare has an experience ultimately integrated into ordinary li e.

Expenditure and reward through Foursquare allow the experiences othe user to be o service to him, by bringing these aspects o play into hisdaily routines. Tis interpretation implies that Foursquare has the potentialto change our most mundane actions rom meaningless to meaning ul by

urnishing the tools to understand them within a larger set o involvements.


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Tis play ulness extends beyond personal achievement to interactionwith others through Foursquares social network. Socialising through Four-

square is not based primarily on comments or even text-based conversationo any kind, which would be the norm within a social network. Although

riends in Foursquare do not usually chat back and orth through text,nonverbal interaction regularly occurs. Tis communication is based onpresence and gathering in relation to users proximity. Tis orm o proxi -mal communication should be dened as communicating through a userspresence within a particular space and time.

My rst awareness o proximal communication occurred a number oyears ago, when I noticed my growing jealousy over my riends check-inroutines. I would watch their activity as I worked at home. As groups o my

riends successively checked-in to the same place, I would take note o it.Tey would not necessarily advertise their goings-on through other social

media outlets, such as commenting on witteror Facebook. Rather, they would merely checkin as each o them arrived. No verbal or writtencommunication was necessary. Te opposite o

my decision to check in off the grid, the act conveyed a specic meaning o

riends congregating and interacting at a given moment, o which I was nota part.

Proximal communication, however, is not conned to social sniping or jealousy. Its spirit is much more basic. A per ect example was a habit o my

ormer roommate, who would ofen stop by unannounced to say hello whenI was out on a date with my girl riend. In these casual visits, a complex serieso proximal communications were articulated. By checking-in, I was statingthat I was available, present and wanting to socialise, without saying any othose things specically.

Proximal communication is not merely communication over a virtualnetwork with text, but a communication o time and space. Communicationand interaction are physical and active, based on the check-in. Tis commu -nication is also contingent upon a number o actors, including gathering,relationship to space and the meaning that space may have to other usersand riends. Proximal communication embodies these relationships and re-lays them silently. Most signicantly, proximal communication points to theimportance o real-world location within the context o Foursquare. Space

Foursquare transforms play from a moment in lifeto an ever-present state.


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and gathering here shapes the plat orm. Te experience o proximal com-munication is urther sustained by notions o glory and competition, which

provide an easy means o knowing within this non-verbal communication.o understand Foursquare is to comprehend the experience o using it

and the mediating role o engaging with the plat orm, which teeters provoc-atively along the edges o games and play. As a consequence, the experienceofen pervades everyday li e in unexpected ways that deviate rom both theparadigms o un and games, as competition encounters everyday li e.

Users remain in a state o anticipation or punctuated moments o glory,which both can be premeditated and arrive when least expected. Te re-netic excitement conjured within the magic circle, when extended beyond asingular bounded moment in time and place, when it appears unexpectedlyat any moment and time, becomes a potent orce. As such, the presence oproximal communication lies at the very oundation o the Foursquare ex-perience, trans orming li e rom a moment o play to an ever-present stateo play.

STATE OF PLAYFoursquare is not strictly a game. It neither provides the boundaries o a

game, nor does it correspond with the eelings o sa ety or order, the rareedexperience, that might be perceived in a game. Paradoxically, Foursquaredoes impart a sense o magic by creating a state o play within mundaneactivities. I use the term state due to the nature o the program itsel . Itsuse o proximal, as opposed to written or verbal communication, rendersan experience that is elt within the real world. Te term play is purposelyselected to counter the critiques o gamication, which right ully argue thatproviding rewards and badges to anything is merely a supercial exercise inthe utilisation o game elements.

Te key to Foursquares success is more elemental. Te use o the sof-ware or the sake o expenditure ( or the sake o play) causes a state o playthat has less to do with engendering productive activity and more withtrans orming mundane activity and chaos into play. Te experience withinthis plat orm urnishes structure and meaning in our lives through the samemeans as the magic circle.

Foursquare then not only enacts a state o play, but also a state omagic, not a circumscribed or rareed magic circle, but the experience o


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the knowing ound inside it, within the script o our everyday li e. Further-more, unlike the magic circle, there is no skill set required to understand the

rules o the state o magic or the need to experience it with the expertise omaximal grip. It can be entered into and almost immediately understood.

Foursquare operates, unabashedly, as a promotional tool through whichit creates a state o play or the sake o advertising and consumption. Bydesigning the program around a very ordinary and unproductive activity,simply where we go, Foursquare has ound a per ect arena in which a state oplay can be enacted. Te user is aware o the intentions o the company, butuses the application because o the state o play it creates, not because o itsovert manipulation. Tis state o play is not exclusive to Foursquare. Whileother gamied plat orms comprise other types o interaction, covering awide spectrum o daily activity, the state o play and proximal communica-tion discussed here are ofen present as well. While such states might not beas obvious, they are drawn out o us by the sofware itsel . As a consequence,when exploring the pervasive effects o gamication on the populace, andeven play more generally, as this article and personal accounts highlight,there is the need to unearth what is deep within us when we play and athomthe power o play on our daily experiences.


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rethinking gamification how to win foursquare

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