Chapter 28 Further Reading: Gaming Mechanics in Social Media

Foundational Gamification Theory

1. Deterding, S., Dixon, D., Khaled, R., & Nacke, L. (2011). "From Game Design Elements to Gamefulness: Defining Gamification." Proceedings of MindTrek '11, 9–15. ACM Press. The foundational academic paper that formally defined gamification and established the design element taxonomy. Essential for understanding the precise scope of the concept and its relationship to related concepts like serious games and game-based learning. The two-dimensional matrix (game elements vs. context) remains the most useful framework for distinguishing gamification from related practices.

2. Bogost, I. (2011, August 9). "Gamification is Bullshit." The Atlantic. (Also available in Bogost's blog.) Bogost's polemic critique of gamification, introducing the term "exploitationware" for gamification that extracts engagement without providing genuine value. Essential counterpoint to the enthusiastic embrace of gamification in corporate and design communities circa 2010-2015. Bogost's critique has proven prescient in its identification of the hollow engagement failure mode.

3. Zichermann, G., & Cunningham, C. (2011). Gamification by Design: Implementing Game Mechanics in Web and Mobile Apps. O'Reilly Media. The practitioner's guide to gamification that was widely read during the early gamification enthusiasm period. Useful for understanding how gamification was conceptualized and sold to the design community. Reading alongside Bogost's critique provides a complete picture of the early gamification debate.

4. Werbach, K., & Hunter, D. (2012). For the Win: How Game Thinking Can Revolutionize Your Business. Wharton Digital Press. A business-oriented treatment of gamification that provides context for how corporate adoption of gamification was understood and justified. Werbach and Hunter's "MDE" framework (Mechanics, Dynamics, Emotions) is a useful analytical tool for dissecting gamification implementations.

Self-Determination Theory and Motivation

5. Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (1985). Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination in Human Behavior. Springer. The foundational text of Self-Determination Theory. Essential for understanding the three basic psychological needs (competence, autonomy, relatedness) and the conditions under which extrinsic motivation supports or undermines intrinsic motivation.

6. Deci, E. L., Koestner, R., & Ryan, R. M. (1999). "A Meta-Analytic Review of Experiments Examining the Effects of Extrinsic Rewards on Intrinsic Motivation." Psychological Bulletin, 125(6), 627–668. The meta-analysis that consolidated the evidence for the "undermining effect" across dozens of experimental studies. Directly relevant to understanding how social media gamification can undermine creators' intrinsic creative motivation.

7. Ryan, R. M., Rigby, C. S., & Przybylski, A. (2006). "The Motivational Pull of Video Games: A Self-Determination Theory Approach." Motivation and Emotion, 30(4), 344–360. Application of SDT to video game motivation that bridges game psychology and social media engagement research. Identifies why game elements satisfy basic needs and under what conditions they fail to do so.

Casino Design and Behavioral Addiction Research

8. Schüll, N. D. (2012). Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas. Princeton University Press. The essential ethnographic study of casino slot machine design and the psychological state ("the zone") that slot machines are engineered to produce. The structural parallels to social media design that this book reveals are disturbing and important. Essential reading for understanding the casino-social media design convergence.

9. Skinner, B. F. (1957). Verbal Behavior. Appleton-Century-Crofts. Skinner's theoretical framework for operant conditioning, including the foundational treatment of reinforcement schedules that underlies understanding of variable ratio reinforcement in social media and casino design alike. The primary source for the theoretical basis of the pull-to-refresh analogy.

10. Alter, A. (2017). Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked. Penguin Press. Accessible synthesis of research on behavioral addiction applied to technology, covering social media, gaming, and the psychological mechanisms of engagement. Bridges academic research and general audience readability effectively.

Social Media Gamification Research

11. Hamari, J., Koivisto, J., & Sarsa, H. (2014). "Does Gamification Work? A Literature Review of Empirical Studies on Gamification." Proceedings of the 47th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. Systematic literature review of empirical evidence for gamification effectiveness, finding mixed results across contexts. Essential for calibrating claims about whether gamification actually works as designed.

12. Bunchball Inc. (2010). Gamification 101: An Introduction to the Use of Game Dynamics to Influence Behavior. White Paper. An early and influential practitioner document that shaped how gamification was conceptualized and marketed to industry. Useful as a historical document revealing how gamification ideas entered corporate design thinking.

13. Seaborn, K., & Fels, D. I. (2015). "Gamification in Theory and Action: A Survey." International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 74, 14–31. Comprehensive survey of gamification research that identifies the key theoretical frameworks, empirical findings, and design principles. A useful reference for the academic landscape as of the mid-2010s.

Platform-Specific Research

14. Olsson, M., & Verhagen, H. (2016). "Foursquare: A Gamification Study." International Journal on Advances in Internet Technology, 9(3-4), 145–155. Academic analysis of Foursquare's gamification design, its behavioral effects, and the lessons of its evolution. Essential for the Foursquare case study context.

15. Massanari, A. (2017). "#Gamergate and The Fappening: How Reddit's Algorithm, Governance, and Culture Support Toxic Technocultures." New Media & Society, 19(3), 329–346. Analysis of how Reddit's voting and karma mechanics interact with community governance to produce specific cultural outcomes — including harmful ones. Provides context for understanding the limits of social capital gamification as a community quality tool.

16. Anderson, K. E. (2015). "Ask Me Anything: What Is Reddit?" Library Hi Tech News, 32(5), 8–11. Overview of Reddit's community structure and karma mechanics for readers unfamiliar with the platform. Useful background for the Reddit karma case study.

Critical Perspectives

17. Harris, T. (2016). "How Technology Hijacks People's Minds — from a Magician and Google's Design Ethicist." Medium. Harris's influential essay that brought public attention to the deliberate psychological design of technology platforms. Not an academic source, but highly influential in shaping public discourse about technology ethics. Harris's subsequent Center for Humane Technology has produced additional resources on attention design.

18. Kim, A. J. (2018). Game Thinking: Innovate Smarter and Drive Deep Engagement with Design Techniques from Hit Games. GameThinking.io. Kim's more nuanced practitioner framework for applying game design principles, explicitly distinguishing between engagement gamification and the kind of competence-building game design that supports long-term user development. Useful contrast to the PBL-focused earlier practitioner literature.

19. Montola, M., Nummenmaa, T., Lucero, A., Boberg, M., & Korhonen, H. (2009). "Applying Game Achievement Systems to Enhance User Experience in a Photo Sharing Service." Proceedings of MindTrek '09, 94–97. ACM Press. Early academic study of applying achievement systems to a social photo sharing service — a precursor to the kind of gamification that became ubiquitous in social media. Documents both the engagement benefits and the design challenges.