=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-1345/keynote2
|storemode=property
|title=A Game of Search
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1345/keynote2.pdf
|volume=Vol-1345
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/ecir/Azzopardi15a
}}
==A Game of Search==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1345/keynote2.pdf
A Game of Search
Leif Azzopardi
School of Computing Science
leif.azzopardi@glasgow.ac.uk
University of Glasgow
be used to understand and evaluate aspects of the
retrieval process (i.e. via games with a purpose).
Abstract On the other hand, other researchers adopted vari-
ous game mechanics with in their systems to enhance
Searching is central to our existence. The the quality of data captured [BMI14, MJMW14], to
search for water, food and shelter. The search improve the engagement of users in tasks or exper-
for employment, transport and love. Search- iments [HBAdV14, FLHRARC14] and to shape be-
ing for things to do, places to go, and people to haviours [PMRS14] (i.e. via gamification). In previ-
meet. Of course, in Information Retrieval, we ous work, I focused mainly on developing games with
are primarily concerned with the search for in- a purpose: to evaluate how well people can use search
formation, knowledge and wisdom. If search- systems and to assess their querying behaviours (see
ing is so central to our lives, then are there Fu-Finder [OPA11] and PageFetch [APG12, PA12]
underlying search strategies that define how which were based on PageHunt [MCQG09]). However,
we search, and invariably how successful we in this talk, I will focus on how I have been using games
are? Information Foraging Theory posits that as a way to test something more fundamental, that is
our search behaviour is similar to how animals to evaluate people’s search strategies.
forage for food (as it is derived from Optimal
Foraging Theory). But do people search in To kick off the talk, I will first present essentially
such a manner? And how can we test such a an experiment to test people’s search strategies un-
theory, when so many factors influence peo- der various conditions. The experiment uses a number
ple’s search interaction, behaviours and out- of standard gamification techniques to gamify the ex-
comes? In this talk, I will describe my search periment (i.e. Points, Badges, Leaderboards), but it
for mechanisms to test such theory - specif- is not really very much fun, and it is very abstract.
ically focusing on games and gamification as Consequently, I needed a way to make the scenario
a way to abstract the problem down so that more concrete and more enjoyable. Before showing
experiments can be conducted in a controlled how we attempted to do that, I will explain how we
and precise manner. are using this system to gather data to test theories
such as, Information Foraging Theory [PC99, SK86]
and Search Economic Theory [Azz11, Azz14]. To fo-
1 Overview
cus the discussion, I will concentrate on presenting the
During the GamifIR 2014 workshop [HKKM14], there core concepts from Information Foraging Theory, and
were many different ways in which games and gam- how the theory can be applied to generate hypothe-
ification were used or considered in the context of ses about how people should interact under various
Information Retrieval. For example, games like circumstances. Then, I will demonstrate a number of
Zomblingo [FGC14], Pagefetch [ABG+ 14] and the games we have been developing which encode the same
Beauty Contest [Har14] produced data that could principles/underlying theory but in the disguise of fish-
ing, gold mining and surviving a zombie apocalypse.
Copyright c 2015 for the individual papers by the paper’s Through such games, it is possible to precisely control
authors. Copying permitted for private and academic purposes.
This volume is published and copyrighted by its editors.
the conditions and environment that the player is sub-
In: F. Hopfgartner, G. Kazai, U. Kruschwitz, and M. Meder
jected to, creating an ideal experimental play ground
(eds.): Proceedings of the GamifIR’15 Workshop, Vienna, Aus- to test the theory. I will describe different manipula-
tria, 29-March-2015, published at http://ceur-ws.org tions that we can perform and how they can be used
to simulate different aspects with in the information Workshop on Gamification for Infor-
search process. I argue that if players do not act as mation Retrieval, GamifIR ’14, pages
predicted in such contexts then they are unlikely to 22–26, 2014.
do so in more complex and information rich environ-
ments. On the other hand, if they do, then it is quite [FGC14] Karën Fort, Bruno Guillaume, and
possible that a person’s ability to optimise their search Hadrien Chastant. Creating zom-
behavior and adopt search strategies that get the best bilingo, a game with a purpose for
from their interactions, are able to do the same when dependency syntax annotation. In
it comes to information search. However, it is an open Proceedings of the First International
question, as to how well findings from such games can Workshop on Gamification for Infor-
generalize to information search and information seek- mation Retrieval, GamifIR ’14, pages
ing more broadly. 2–6, 2014.
[FLHRARC14] Juan M. Fernández-Luna, Juan F.
Acknowledgements Huete, Humberto Rodrı́guez-Avila,
Thanks to all my students who have worked on devel- and Julio C. Rodrı́guez-Cano. En-
oping these different games; Fu-Funder: Carly O’Neil, hancing collaborative search systems
James Purvis, PageFetch: Abdullah Razzouk, Andrew engagement through gamification. In
Gardiner, Martin Bevc, David Maxwell: GoldDigger: Proceedings of the First International
Gabriele Rossi, GoFish: Maksim Solovjov, Sean Ja- Workshop on Gamification for Infor-
cobson, and Zombie Apocalypse: Stefan Balling. mation Retrieval, GamifIR ’14, pages
42–45, 2014.
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