Online&Games&and&Behavior&Change:& · NancyPhelps& &Department:&CommunicationMediaStudies&...

Nancy Phelps Department: Communication Media Studies

Thesis Adviser: Professor Byron Reeves

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Online Games and Behavior Change:

An Analysis of Current Online Games and Platforms Encouraging Energy

Conscious Behaviors

The purpose of this Product Review is to analyze a representative landscape

of online games and platforms that engage the user on energy related issues.

Specifically, all of the featured products share a primary goal of encouraging energy

conservation whether in the home, office, or community. Each product will be

scrutinized from both a functional and psychological perspective with the expressed

purpose of understanding how each product catalyzes energy use behavior change.

The functional lens will highlight the particular components that comprise

the game. The goal of the functional lens is to explicitly outline how the game or

platform physically operates. Once the functional components have been identified,

the psychological lens will help us understand why each of them was incorporated

into the game’s design and the effect they are intended to have on the user.

The functional lens will therefore provide a framework for the psychological

lens. This psychological lens will expose the strategies the game employs in order to

encourage behavior change. And while each product functions very differently and

leverages different theories on behavior change, they are normalized across their

unifying desire to encourage energy conservation within the home or business. By



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comparing several products, we will not only present a representative landscape of

current offerings, but also a cross section of effective behavior change strategies.

The games and platforms presented here are intended to illustrate the

spectrum of online offerings. They address a wide range of audiences, employ

varying levels of interactivity, and communicate the value of energy savings

differently in order to resonate with their specific audience.



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Powerhouse: Stanford University

Led by Bryon Reeves, a Stanford University team developed an online game

to encourage residential energy conservation.

Functional Lens:

Powerhouse utilizes a high degree of interactivity in order to encourage a

high degree of player investment, community involvement, and behavior change.

(The particular motivations behind developing a highly interactive platform will be

expanded on within the ‘Psychological Lens’ section.) The interactivity takes the

form of a player controlling the actions of a virtual resident within a virtual home.

The player travels from room to room discovering ways for the virtual resident to

save energy within the house. For example, the player guides the resident to an

unoccupied yet fully lit room. After switching the lights off, points are awarded to

the player (earning him/her an Achievements Badge) and the player’s energy

dashboard is updated accordingly.



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The virtual home’s energy usage trends are then compared to the player’s

real time energy use within their actual home. This is made possible by linking the

player’s PG&E account with Powerhouse. Therefore, Stanford researchers can

understand whether there is a direct link between a player’s efforts to decrease

energy in the virtual home with their actual energy consumption behaviors. These

competing graphs are even overlaid which enables the player to see his virtual

usage as compared to his actual.

Another main component of Powerhouse is the Forum feature. This feature

encourages an individual player to connect with other players. Players can ask

questions amongst each other, post interesting things they learned, and engage the

Stanford research group themselves. Not only are these actions encouraged, but

they are even required for level advancement. In order to pass from one section to

another for example, a player must post within the forum, “friend” the Stanford

administrator’s avatar, and speculate on why their energy use either increased or

decreased during a particular section.

Powerhouse targets the average homeowner. Some often wonder about the

effectiveness of Gamification on the older demographic. But there is hard evidence

that the game-‐like features of Powerhouse are directly relevant to the average

homeowner. The average gamer is “33 years old, works full time, earn 85k, and has

been to college.”(Reeves, 2011) This supports the Powerhouse design team’s

decision to frame energy savings in terms of dollar savings (these homeowners

work full time for non trivial amounts). It also supports the decision to include



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energy saving tid-‐bits that are relatively sophisticated: the Powerhouse audience is

well educated and eager to engage on an active, intellectual level.

Psychological Lens:

Bryon Reeves and Dave Voelker’s Stanford University course Media

Psychology features the characteristics of effective virtual games. A player must “get

constant feedback, play a role and participate in a compelling narrative.” (Reeves,

2011) In order to catalyze a behavior change, a game must initially make the player

feel personally invested in the game and its outcome. Therefore, incorporating the

above 3 attributes are important.

First, Powerhouse does include constant feedback: it provides real time

energy usage updates (through graphs) for both the player’s own and virtual

houses, it encourages players to actively respond to other players’ forum posts (a

strategic way to include an element of social media, which is known to be “the

dominant game platform”(Reeves, 2011)) and it acknowledges good energy use

behavior by awarding Achievements Badges.

In regards to the second criteria, Powerhouse employs role-‐playing: in fact, it

is the core of the game. The goal of role-‐playing is to increase the likelihood that the

player will associate with the virtual human and become invested in its goal of

saving energy. The ultimate hope is that this virtual investment will bleed over into

actual investment when a player changes his energy use behaviors within his own

home. This “Gamification” concept is employed because “game-‐like features sustain

consumer engagement.” (Reeves, 2011)



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Finally, by providing a game that directly compares a player’s actual home

energy use with their virtual home energy use, Powerhouse defines a “compelling

narrative” that will keep players continually interested in the topic of energy

efficiency. Essentially, the game makes energy conservation increasingly relevant by

bringing the results out of the computer and into a player’s own home by

continually comparing the two data sets. No longer is energy conservation an

abstract, intangible, irrelevant concept in the eyes of the average homeowner.

Rather, Powerhouse seeks to show players how all of the behaviors learned in the

game directly effect their own home and their own pocketbooks.

Powerhouse recognizes additional psychological components of games. It

directly addresses the fact that “competition is fun, feedback is best when

immediate, and that trial and error is the best plan.”(Reeves, 2011) By incorporating

a Leader Board, Powerhouse intentionally creates an element of competition. This

helps to make the game fun while also bolstering player investment in the game. Not

only does the game provide feedback through energy use graphs but Powerhouse

also provides immediate feedback by making the virtual resident jump to the sound

of a light-‐hearted “ping” noise when the player succeeds in turning off an un-‐used

light, for example. This immediate feedback and reinforcement makes the player

feel good and provides encouragement. Finally, Powerhouse acknowledges the

importance of trial and error by structuring the games with 6 installments: the

player must go through 6 levels of the game before finishing. This will ensure that

the energy saving techniques become hardwired in the player’s mind and translated

into his actual home energy use behaviors.



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Ultimately, Powerhouse incorporates “the ingredients to a successful game:

self representation, ranks/levels, narrative, feedback, rules, transparency,

economies, teams, and communication.”(Reeves, 2011) All of these elements are

incorporated into the functionality of the game in order to create a psychological

experience that fosters player investment in the game. Because “play allows for

rehearsal and learning(Reeves, 2011)” the overarching thinking is that a player’s

investment in the game will allow them to “rehearse and learn” energy saving

behaviors which in turn will translate into meaningful energy use behavior change

within the player’s own home.

Similar Platforms:

There are several games that resemble, both in form and function,

PowerHouse. SimpleEnergy, for example, is a social yet competitive game that is

also highly relevant. I use the term “relevant” here to refer to a game’s ability to

mimic and affect each individual’s real time energy use and behaviors. SimpleEnergy

achieves this by integrating each resident’s utility meter into the functionality of the

game (in a similar way that PowerHouse does.) Yoav Lurie, CEO of Simple Energy:

“We use game mechanics to achieve measurable and verifiable energy efficiency

results.” One SimpleEnergy user even “cut her energy usage by nearly 50%.” (John,

2012) Lurie goes on to attribute this drastic, real-‐time energy savings to “once

they’re [users] in the game, they tend to start taking pride in saving money, getting

into conversations with friends and neighbors, and otherwise getting involved with

the subject in a new way, driving long-‐term behavior changes.” (John, 2012)



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This game, Lourie notes, has far reaching impacts and does not stop at

engaging just homeowners. If fact, this game significantly impacts utilities too: “the

data flowing from them [the user] starts to give utilities a level of data analysis

they’ve never had before, at the system level, and at the customer-‐focus level.” (John,

2012)

Digital Service Efficiency – eBay

The goal of eBay’s Digital Service Efficiency dashboard is to place energy

efficiency within the larger business context. (eBay, 2013) Energy savings translates

into real dollars for large technology companies like eBay. The dashboard

communicates the importance of energy savings by introducing the unit

“transactions per kilowatt hour.”(eBay, 2013) This is a direct nod to the dashboard’s

primary audience: business executives who understand eBay in terms of a

transaction (a single “buy” or “sell” on the site.) By incorporating this language into

the dashboard, the dse designers acknowledge the importance of communicating in

a common language when trying to change behavior. In this case, because eBay’s

business executives speak in and see the value in “transactions,” the importance of

saving energy must be presented in this same language. Only then will the CEO see

the value in changing the energy use behavior of his/her company.



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Functional Lens:

The eBay Digital Service Efficiency dashboard is a one-‐way message-‐to-‐

receiver platform. There is no interactivity that would enable the user to submit

feedback or engage with the platform. While the values are continuously updated,

there is no interactivity from the viewer’s end. The interface resembles a car’s

dashboard with several toggles indicating various energy-‐related measurements.

Taking all of these barometers together, eBay hopes to paint a picture of the

company’s current energy performance (including the datacenters.) By including

trendlines underneath the real-‐time values, the user can contextualize the current

values. These trendlines are ultimately what will encourage the business executives

to institute company efficiency measures.

The DSE dashboard displays energy data under 4 banners (revenue,

performance, environment, and cost.) This is a direct nod to the fact that different

audiences will be concerned with different facets of energy efficiency: for example,

the CEO will be interested in the cost trends whereas the datacenter designer may

be more interested in the energy trends. A user can also change between fiscal



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quarters (Q1-‐Q4.) This helps the user further understand whether current values

represent a larger trend in energy use whether that be a decline or incline.

Furthermore, the dashboard is divided into left and right views:

“infrastructure” and “business” respectively. “Infrastructure” presents values

related to datacenter efficiency (power usage effectiveness, water usage

effectiveness, power load, physical servers etc.) “Business” presents values in terms

of dollars and users (revenue per user, carbon per million users, carbon and

revenue per MW etc.)

Psychological Lens:

The stagnant, non-‐interactive nature of eBay’s DSE largely fails to engage the

viewer’s emotion. It is important to engage someone on an emotional level in order

to create a lasting behavior change or to have him become invested in an online

game or platform. “Indeed, any interface that ignores a user’s emotional state or fails

to manifest the appropriate emotion can dramatically impede performance and

risks being perceived as cold, socially inept, untrustworthy, and incompetent.”

(Nass, 2002, 82) This dashboard seeks to be extremely trustworthy and very

competent; therefore by not engaging on an emotional level, this dashboard actively

works against its own value. And not only does this interface not engage on an

emotional level, but it does not encourage different moods, which “tend to bias

cognitive strategies and processing over a long term.” (Nass, 2002, 84)

Therefore, in terms of meaningful behavior change, affecting someone’s

mood is very important. Developing a strong mood is associated with developing a



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dynamic cognitive process and, through inference, a strong attitude towards

something (or someone.) “Mood has been found to affect cognitive style and

performance…[it] profoundly affects the flexibility and efficiency of thinking and

problem solving.” (Nass, 2002, 85) By combining mood’s ability to activate cognition

on a deep level with its ability to influence “memory encoding, retrieval

and...decision making(Nass, 2002, 85),” mood is clearly a factor in creating strong

attitudes (particularly those around the importance of sustainable practices and

behavior change.)

These strong attitudes are important in this discussion of energy use

behavior change because strong attitudes are “enduring, resistant, and predict

behavior.” (Griffen, 2012) This translates into a game or platform’s need to create a

strong pro-‐energy conservation attitude in the user in order to foster meaningful

behavior change. And, in order to create a strong attitude, it would behoove

designers to think about how to influence a viewer’s mood. In our particular eBay

dashboard case, the lack of an interactive component places this dashboard at a

distinct disadvantage: it is much harder to change people’s energy use behaviors if a

designer does not engage their mood.

In addition to the eBay dashboard doing little on the interactivity side to

actively appeal to the viewer’s mood, it also does little to leverage a color scheme

that would affect a viewer’s mood. The color palette largely comprises, grey, blue,

and green. Whereas “warm colors provoke active feelings…cool colors are much less

likely to cause extreme reactions.” Blue even has a “calming effect.”(Nass, 2002, 88)

Knowing that “color schemes can produce reliable and specific influences on



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mood”(Nass, 2002, 88) it is unclear whether eBay has made the correct design

decision. In order to spark a strong attitude towards energy conservation,

leveraging a calming color scheme seems do to little to incite such passion. The

calming effect may even do the opposite: it may leave the viewer with the

impression that the energy-‐figures/trends are not that important and do not need to

be acted on or considered immediately.

Similar Platforms:

Facebook has also developed an online dashboard aimed at highlighting its

energy efficient practices with goals for future energy conservation. Like eBay’s dse,

it places the importance of energy conservation in the larger business context. The

dashboard is designed specifically around more sophisticated, data center specific,

metrics such as PUE and WUE (power usage effectiveness and water usage

effectiveness respectively). By presenting the trends of PUE and WUE over time,

Facebook promotes energy conservation from a very technical standpoint.

The average Facebook user who views this dashboard may be confused

about how Facebook’s sustainable initiatives and efficiency practices are tied into

the PUE and WUE values. The data driven visualizations contribute to the overall

credibility of the dashboard (in contrast to the more youthful, data-‐sparse eBay

visual), but it comes at a comprehension cost. The Facebook dashboard underscores

the need for energy conservation in the eyes of the business executives and data

center designers: this audience understands how and why a small change in PUE

directly influences Facebook’s cost structure. In this way, this dashboard does



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encourage and underscore energy efficiency, but only to a select group and in a very

select way.

While Facebook’s dashboard may be more complicated and niche than eBay’s

dashboard, it does employ interactivity as an engagement tool. eBay’s lack of

interactivity prevents users from engaging with the tool and further understanding

of energy related concepts. The Facebook platform on the other hand allows you to

turn dials and scroll through timelines – this interactivity heightens user interest as

he/she experiments with different data visualization options. While the metrics may

be complicated for many, the interactivity engages them and ensures a longer

attention span than would be devoted to a more stagnant medium (like eBay’s DSE.)



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FUNergy: Making Energy Saving Fun

The FUNergy energy conservation game is targeted specifically to children.

Its high degree of interactivity and animation speaks directly to its younger

audience. The particular game “Lolly vs. Energy Monkeys” encourages the child to

learn energy conservation practices by setting him at odds with energy monkeys

trying to steal energy from his home.

Functional Lens:

The protagonist of the game (Lolly) enlists the help of the user by producing

on-‐screen captions such as “The Energy monkeys are in my kitchen, living room, and

bedroom. We must stop all the wastage so they can’t recharge their battery.”

(“Battery” refers to the space ship battery the energy monkeys used to land on

Earth.) The game then transfers to a kitchen scene with lights and appliances turned

on, water running, and refrigerator doors ajar. Each item that the user successfully



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turns off produces a fact pop-‐up window that displays positive reinforcement

information. For example, a grinning face accompanies the caption: “The fridge

doors were open which meant that the fridge was having to work extra hard to keep

things cool” when the user closes the fridge. If the player does not identify the

elements wasting energy within a certain amount of time, the monkeys pop up in

the window claiming their victory and that they have succeeded in taking all of the

energy they need from the home.

Another element of the FUNergy game is that the user can challenge the

monkeys in a trivia game show in which energy conservation knowledge is tested.

An example of one such trivia question is: “A low energy lamp costs less to run than

an ordinary light bulb. True or false?” Positive reinforcement for correct answers is

communicated through a clapping virtual audience within the game show.

The aesthetic of the FUNergy online game is entirely designed to engage

children. The color scheme inside the house comprises very bright, primary colors.

The characters within the game are caricatures and have extremely exaggerated,

animated expressions. Additionally, the wording within the game is not concerned

with real world parallels or consequences. For example, by phrasing the importance

of energy conservation in terms of malicious, extraterrestrial monkeys, the

designers of FUNergy acknowledge the cognitive limitations of their younger

audience. A storyline based on dollars saved or watts saved would not resonate with

an 8 year old (but would be more appropriate for an adult.)



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Psychological Lens:

The key part of this online game is its liberal use of language. Language is the

fundamental, essential, and most basic manifestation of interactivity because it

encourages two-‐way communication. Language helps people relate to others, both

real and virtual. Expressions and words establish a way for one to resonate with

another. Therefore, in order to encourage active engagement and involvement in

FUNergy, designers leverage the most simple and fundamental technique possible:

liberal incorporation of language between the virtual characters and the user.

Because the user is young, it is easy to influence their highly malleable minds: by

using simple language and then letting the child’s natural want to engage with

another communicating entity, the designers of FUNergy create a highly engaging

game based on a very simple premise.

Byron Reeves and J. Leighton Read provide support for this simple

narrative’s role in increasing overall user engagement and game effectiveness.

“Stories have several important psychological advantages that help keep people

engaged…stories are primitively important to thinking, emotional experience, and

social expertise…the most engaging journalism tells a story. You can’t just present

the facts.” (Reeves and Leighton) Similarly, players in a story/narrative based game

“understand why they’re doing something…as well as being eager to find out how

what they do will affect what happens next.” The emphasis placed on stories being a

“primitive” mode of engagement further supports using it as a primary FUNergy

engagement technique considering its youthful audience.



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Reeves goes on to say: “psychological responses to stories are

primitive,…uncertainty…creates excitement and tension that sustains player

involvement.” (Reeves and Leighton) This is directly applicable to why FUNergy

designers incorporated a conflict based narrative. The uncertainty about whether a

user will triumph over the energy consuming monkeys sustains their involvement in

the game. This is turn increases the likelihood that the user will remember the

energy saving techniques taught within the game: “stories influence memory; that is,

it’s easier to remember information when it’s presented in a narrative format that

when it’s merely stacked, one fact on another.” (Reeves and Leighton)

Similar Platforms:

Several games mimic FUNergy in both form and function. “Energy Hogs” by

the Alliance to Save Energy and “The Energy Elf” by the US Department of Energy

both involve narratives similar to FUNergy albeit with different energy antagonists

(hogs and elves respectively.)



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Synthesis and Discussion:

Current online platforms encouraging energy conservation appear to fall in

three major categories: interactive games for adults (PowerHouse), interactive

games for children (FUNergy), and dashboards (eBay DSE). This product review has

shown that interactivity, competition, and socialization are all techniques positively

associated with long-‐term energy use behavior change. Fostering an online

community within a game or between the user and the virtual players encourages

investment in the game’s outcome and players therefore become more committed to

playing on a regular basis. This regularity is key in ensuring that the games’ energy-‐

related teachings are impactful and not ephemeral.

Online games help to place energy conservation within the context of an

individual’s day-‐to-‐day life. This translates energy concepts from its intangible,

abstract, complicated form into more easily accessible, simple language. When a

user can physically see how energy conservation is involved in his daily life within

his home, it becomes highly relevant and salient.



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Bibliography

eBay. (2013, March). Digital Service Efficiency Solution Brief.

http://dse.ebay.com/sites/default/files/eBay-‐DSE-‐130305.pdf.

Griffen, E. (2012). A First Look at Communication Theory 8th Edition. NY, New York:

McGraw-‐Hill. 207.

John, Jeff St. (2012, Jan 12). “Simple Energy: The Facebook of Energy Savings?”

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/simple-‐energy-‐the-‐

facebook-‐of-‐energy-‐saving.

Nass, C. and Brave S. (2002). “Emotion in Human-‐Computer Interaction.” In Jacko, J.

and Sears, A. Handbook of Human Computer Interaction (pp. 82-‐93). New

York. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 2002.

Reeves, B. and Read, J. Leighton. “Games at Work: How games and virtual worlds are

changing the way people work and businesses compete.” Harvard Business

Press.

Reeves, B and Voelker, D. (2011). “Communication 172 Games Spring 2011.”

Lecture. Slide Presentation.

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