Call for papers:

GamiFIN 2019 conference welcomes 1) paper submissions, 2) posters, and 3) doctoral consortium applications.

Important dates:

December 10, 2018: Submissions deadline
January 21, 2019: Notifications of acceptance sent to authors
January 31, 2019: Registration deadline for paper authors
March 29, 2019: Deadline for authors to submit the final manuscript
April 8-10, 2019: Conference


The topics:

Gamification is a multi-faceted phenomenon that affects multiple domains of human life. Therefore, we welcome submissions related to this ludic transformation of our reality under several domains and related (but not limited) to e.g. the following keywords:

Users: e.g. Engagement, experience, user types
Education: e.g. Gamification in education, serious games, game-based learning, games & math
Media: e.g. eSports, streaming, gamification in journalism
Commerce: e.g. Business models, free-to-play, gambling, gamification as marketing
Work: e.g. Organizational gamification, gameful work, gamification in leadership
Technology: e.g. Virtual reality, augmented reality, Internet of things
Toys & play: e.g. Toy play, toy design/creation, toys in education, Internet of Toys
Health: e.g. Quantified self, games for health, health benefits
Culture: e.g. Ludification, history of games and gamification
Theories/concepts/methods: Contributions to science around gamification


During the last decades, games have penetrated the everyday by becoming an established vein of entertainment and consumer culture, and an increasingly common and integral part of people’s daily lives. The ways in which people play and employ games have become and continue to be more varied. There are more different kinds of games available for a multitude of different platforms, mediated through different technologies that cater for differing gaming needs for widening audiences and which use a wide variety of business models.

Following these developments, our reality and lives are increasingly game-like, not only because video games have become a pervasive part of our lives, but perhaps most prominently because activities, systems and services that are not traditionally perceived as game-like are increasingly gamified. Gamification refers to designing products, services and organizational practices to afford similar experiences to games, and consequently, to attempt to create value and affect people’s behaviour. In recent years, the popularity of gamification has skyrocketed and is manifested in growing numbers of gamified applications, as well as a rapidly increasing amount of research. Healthcare, educational and organizational contexts have been especially prominent fields for gamification interventions and solutions. Gameful restructuring of activities has been perceived as a potentially effective way of increasing motivation and participation in such contexts. Research in the given contexts has seemed to support the idea that gamification can indeed be beneficial for increasing engagement and commitment in, for example, healthy habits and exercise, learning, and work.

Beyond intentional gamification, gamification also refers to the general ludic transformation of our reality, culture and everyday lives. For example, recently we have witnessed the popular emergence of augmented reality games and virtual reality technologies that enable a more seamless integration of games into our physical reality. The media ecosystem has also experienced a degree of ludic transformation, with user generated content becoming an important competitor for large media corporations. This transformation has led to the development of several emerging phenomena such as streaming and esports, that have penetrated the cultural membrane allowing games to seep into domains hitherto dominated by traditional media. Furthermore, current developments in smart home and smart office solutions, and the integration of sensor technology and connectivity to tangible everyday objects, and the development of the Internet of Things, are creating new avenues for creating playful and gamified experiences. Today, many toys also incorporate technology, extending the ways they can be used and interacted with. Connected, smart playthings and the Internet of Toys (IoToys) have widened both our understandings of play and what comprises contemporary, digital playgrounds, exemplifying the toyification of technology. At the same time, when shared on social media platforms, play with non-technological toys is becoming increasingly gamified.

Full papers

Full papers submitted to GamiFIN 2019 should be maximum 8 pages, including the list of references. All submissions will undergo a double-blinded peer-review process. Therefore the authors should remove any information that could give an indication of the authorship.

Accepted papers and posters as well as far enough developed doctoral consortium entries will be sent for consideration for publication in CEUR Workshop Proceedings in the GamiFIN Conference volume. CEUR-WS.org is a free open-access publication service and recognized ISSN publication series, ISSN 1613-0073. (In the Finnish classification of publication forums, CEUR-WS-proceedings are classified as JUFO-1).

The GamiFIN conference will offer an entry to the Gamification Publication Track that can help authors develop their papers from the first manuscript version to the final journal paper and thus aim to increase the predictability and rigorousness of the publication process.

Posters

The posters should be concise and visual descriptions of smaller research contributions, work-in-progress projects, student projects or results. They will be displayed at the conference venue and will provide an opportunity to further develop and discuss the research topics presented.

Doctoral consortium

GamiFIN 2019 invites doctoral students (irrespective of stage in the program) to apply to the doctoral consortium. The doctoral consortium will provide all doctoral students the opportunity to develop and discuss their research among other students and leading scholars. Any research presented at the consortium can also be submitted as a paper/poster in the conference, but the consortium will allow the attendees to more extensively develop their papers in collaboration with the conference chairs and keynotes, as well as other students.

There are three ways to submit/propose to join the doctoral consortium:
1) Submitting an application to the doctoral consortium through the conference submission system (5 page summary of research and a CV)
2) Submitting a full paper or a poster but checking the box “I also wish to submit the entry to the doctoral consortium”, 2.1.) in case the paper/poster is accepted to the full paper proceedings, the author(s) may also be accepted to present and develop the paper in the doctoral consortium 2.2.) in case the paper is rejected as a full paper/poster, it can still be accepted to the doctoral consortium to be developed further.

Papers/posters accepted to the doctoral consortium will also be published in the proceedings under the doctoral consortium category (unless the same paper was also otherwise accepted to full paper/poster category).

More details about the submission process will be announced later, but if you have any questions related to the conference, please contact:

info@gamifinconference.com