Gamified Cities: The Gamification of Urban Mobility

This paper will explore the use of gamification and digital storytelling methods as a way of navigating within a city. The ‘Pervasive Game Design Framework’ (PGDF) will be used as a framework to structure the research of this paper (Sobke et al., 2017). Gamification has many social elements that can be used to encourage and further motivate players to interact and engage with one another in the game while participating in the same activity (Guo et al., 2021). The purpose of this paper is to explore how gamification methods can be used to motivate players to use different modes of transportation other than driving, and participate in active mode choice-making to benefit their physical health. The use of alternate modes of transportation can also aid in the overall sustainability and energy saving of a city. The sociological implications of gamification in a travel-based context will be used to gauge how participants and players interact with each other and also the physical and digital spaces that they are in. In addition to that, the psychological implications on behavioural neuroscience on an individual level will also be explored in a travel-based context. Games like ‘Pokemon GO’ and ‘Ingress’ will be analyzed through the MDA (Mechanics, Dynamics, and Aesthetics) framework and be used as case studies in the area where gamification and city navigation meet. In both of these games, there are multiple layers of the physical and digital spaces working together to form the game. ‘Pokemon GO’ and ‘Ingress’ both include several motivational factors that keep players enticed, such as social aspects, being outdoors and recreation.