The Application of Gamification to Transmedia Activism (the Case of Fort McMoney)

This work aims to examine and portray how a gamified interactive documentary, extended across several media platforms, may engage people in the discussion of actual problems and stimulate social activism. The theoretical part of this thesis examines the fairly new notion of gamification (Deterding, Khaled, Nacke, & Dixon, 2011; Deterding, Dixon, Khaled, & Nacke, 2011), which is a key concept to be explored throughout the thesis. This section is also intended to cover the actively evolving concepts of interactive documentary (Gaudenzi, 2013; Gifreu, 2012; Choi, 2009), transmedia storytelling (Jenkins, 2006; Pratten, 2015; Gambarato, 2013) and transmedia activism (Nanì, 2013; Hancox, 2014; Jenkins, 2016)—the field scrutinised by Lina Srivastava. The following empirical study analyses the unique case of Fort McMoney (2013), which is the first successful attempt to effectively combine documentary film and video game in order to achieve civic engagement in problem-solving and, potentially, lead to social change. The qualitative method of research employs the transmedia project analytical model (Gambarato, 2013) to understand the nature of the project, identify a range of game design techniques and investigate the practical results. That makes the research valid for further explorations in this area, which could unravel essential factors of applying gamification to activism projects. The research findings demonstrate how the combination of interactive documentary and game logic works on catching people’s attention, resulting in deep understanding of a topic and provoking its discussion for social change.