Videogames, gaming-related content, game aesthetics, gaming (-adjacent) platforms, gamification, and their potential link to digital extremist content and digitally-mediated radicalisation processes, are an increasingly popular topic in extremism research. Gamification, defined as “the use of game design elements in non-game contexts,” i.e. the transfer of points, badges, leaderboards, rankings, quests, and other game features into spaces not usually considered as games, is one of the gaming-related mechanisms that have been identified to make extremist online content more appealing, entertaining, and ‘fun’. Gamification has also been discussed as a potential avenue to make digital P/CVE content more engaging and increase the likelihood of such content being seen in a digital environment over-saturated with information and entertainment content. However, both the theoretical and empirical basis for a theory of the ‘gamification of radicalisation’ is slim and often relies on anecdotal evidence. One avenue to expand the theoretical foundation of this issue is to examine how different user types may react to and are affected by certain game elements. Based on a recent, more detailed discussion of user types in digital gamified radicalisation processes published in Perspectives on Terrorism, this Insight presents five ideal user types and their potential interaction with gamified extremist content.
As You Like It: User Types in Digital Gamified Radicalisation Processes – GNET (gnet-research.org)
