Collaboration versus competition: Design and evaluation of mechanics for games with a purpose.
Kristin Siu, Alexander Zook, Mark Riedl · 2014
Games with a purpose (GWAPs) have proven to be effective solutions to solving difficult problems, labeling data, and collecting commonsense knowledge. Unlike traditional games, GWAPs must balance between acquiring accurate solutions or data and maintaining player engagement. However, when it comes to designing GWAPs, the effects of different game mechanics on accuracy and engagement are not well understood. We report on a study designed to investigate how scoring mechanisms based on principles of collaboration and competition impact the accuracy and engagement of players in commonsense knowledge collection tasks. Overall, we found that competition-based scoring mechanics generated data that was as accurate as more conventional collaborative scoring mechanics, but increased player engagement. Furthermore, when players were presented with both collaborative and competitive scoring options they performed worse due to the need to consider strategy. Our results suggest that different mechanics may be used with different players without loss of accuracy.