Gamification and domestic energy consumption




A previous post referred to a review by Jonna Koivistoa and Juho Hamaria which covered a wide spectrum of papers on gamification. The following review has a much narrower focus, closer to the central topic of this blog.


Gamification and serious games within the domain of domestic energy consumption: A systematic review.

Johnson, Daniel; Horton, Ella; Mulcahy, Rory; & Foth, Marcus; Queensland University of Technology (2017)
Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews, 73, pp. 249-264.


The authors refer at the outset to “the urgent need to consider new approaches to motivating individuals to become more energy aware and to translate this knowledge into action.” From a search of 2831 articles, 26 were selected as most suitable for study. These are based on 25 primary studies reporting empirical data on the value of gamification and serious games on energy consumption. There is increasing interest in these tools “to motivate, engage and educate people regarding energy consumption and related concerns.”

Serious games are defined as “any form of interactive computer-based game software for one or multiple players to be used on any platform and that has been developed with the intention to be more than entertainment” and gamification as “…the use of game elements in non-game contexts to improve user experience and user engagement”. Serious games are “fully fledged games” while gamification “refers to the application of parts of games in a non-game setting”. Theory is still emerging, but a distinction has been suggested between rewards-based gamification (points, levels, badges etc.), which may yield short-term changes (for example in understanding and behaviour), and meaningful gamification, pursued for its own sake, in which change may be long-term. The review seeks “to closely examine the empirical evidence for the effectiveness of applied games in the domestic energy consumption domain.” The term “applied games” is used to capture the overlapping categories of “serious games” and “gamification” used above.

Three categories were devised: fully digital games that have no real world integration but are aimed at influencing the real world; games that may be digital but have some integration with the real world; and games with no digital elements that occur, and are thus fully integrated, in the real world.
A system of quality assessment is described for the papers reviewed, and shortcomings are noted in some, for example lack of information on the recruitment and selection of participants, and absence of controls. Twelve of the studies were rated as of higher quality in terms of the aims of the review, and a number of these appear to be particularly relevant to domestic energy issues; details appear at the end of this post.
Some of the factors identified as encouraging positive outcomes are competition and social sharing, feedback, rewards and challenges. The review lists numerous caveats in interpreting the results of the studies, but nevertheless claims that overall “these studies provide encouraging initial evidence of the utility of applied games for short-term changes in energy consumption behaviour” while the “efficacy of applied games in terms of mid to long-term behaviour change was less well-substantiated”. It notes that the “reliability and accuracy of the reported real-world behaviour outcomes and subsequent generalisations are compromised by methodological issues in a large proportion of the reviewed studies, even in those assessed as higher quality.”

In conclusion there is “encouraging initial evidence that applied games can have a positive influence in the domestic energy conservation domain, but overall this review provides a good foundation for further work as opposed to conclusive evidence.”

Details of studies noted above:

EnergyLife, mobile app
see EnergyLife: Pervasive energy awareness for households
(Gamberini et al, 2011)

Power Explorer, mobile app
see Power explorer - A casual game style for encouraging long term behavior change among teenagers (Gustafsson, Bång and Svahn, 2009)

Power Agent , mobile app
see Evaluation of a Pervasive Game for Domestic Energy Engagement Among Teenagers (Gustafsson, Katzeff, & Bang 2009)
available at

EnerCities, non-mobile (online)
see EnerCities - A Serious Game to Stimulate Sustainability and Energy Conservation: Preliminary Results (Knol & De Vries 2011)
available at

Power House, non-mobile (online)
see Increasing Energy Efficiency With Entertainment Media (Reeves et al. 2015)

Do It In The Dark, non-mobile (online)
Social mobilization of climate change: University students conserving energy through multiple pathways for peer engagement (Senbel, Ngo, & Blair 2014)
request text from

eViz, nonmobile (computer game)
see EXPLOITING GAMING TECHNOLOGIES TO VISUALISE DYNAMIC THERMAL QUALITIES OF A DOMESTIC DWELLING: PILOT STUDY OF AN INTERACTIVE VIRTUAL APARTMENT
(Stone et al. 2014)
available at

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