Do Games Motivate Mobile Content Sharing?

• Published in: The Role of Digital Libraries in a Time of Global Change pp. 61 - 70
• Main Authors: Goh, Dion Hoe-Lian, Lee, Chei Sian, Chua, Alton Yeow-Kuan
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin, Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2010
• Series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science
• Subjects: Mobile content sharing game; motivations; social computing; usability; user evaluation
• ISBN: 3642136532; 9783642136535
• ISSN: 0302-9743; 1611-3349
• DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-13654-2_8

Indagator (Latin for explorer) is a game which incorporates multiplayer, pervasive gaming elements into mobile content sharing. Indagator allows users to annotate real world locations with multimedia content, and concurrently, provide opportunities for play through creating and engaging interactive game elements, earning currency, and socializing. A user study of Indagator was conducted to examine the impact of the usability of Indagator’s content sharing and gaming features, as well as demographic profiles on participants’ motivation to use the application. Participants felt that the features in Indagator were able to support the objectives of content sharing and gaming, and that the idea of gaming could be a motivator for content sharing. In terms of motivation to use, usability of Indagator’s gaming features, gender and participants’ familiarity with mobile gaming emerged as significant predictors. Implications and future research directions are discussed.