Classic ways of gathering data on human behavior, such as laboratory based user studies, can be time-consuming, costly and are subject to limited participant pools. Crowdsourcing offers a reduction in operating costs and access to a diverse and large participant pool, however issues arise concerning low worker pay and questions about data quality. Gamification provides a motivation to participate, but also requires the development of specialized, research-question specific games that can be costly to produce. We provide another alternative that combines gamification and crowdsourcing in a smartphone-based system that emulates the popular Freemium model of micro-transactions to motivate voluntary participation through in-game rewards, using a robust framework to study multiple unrelated research questions within the same system. We deployed our prototype framework on the Android market and gathered data over a period of 5 weeks. We compared this data to that gathered from a gamified laboratory version and a non-gamified laboratory version, and found that players who use the in-game rewards were motivated to do experimental tasks. The data showed that there was no difference between the groups for performance on a motor task; however, performance on a cognitive task was worse for the crowdsourced Android group. We discuss the possible reasons for this and provide options for improving data collection and performance on tasks.

<p>Internet and the digital channels for distribution have meant big changes for the musicindustry. The physical record that has been symbolising this market for a long time is slowlybeing replaced by digital based music. The technical progress during the last ten years has ledto a democratization of music production. The amateur musicians of today can produce highquality music on their laptops and later distribute it via free music sites. MySpace andYouTube are two of the biggest sites for this free distribution and is therefore my main choiseof study.</p><p>The purpose of this essay was to find out how and if these changes have made a difference formusicians without a record deal to reach an audience by themselves. In order to find this out Iconducted three qualitative personal interviews with both established and amateur musiciansworking in the music business.</p><p>To find out how many listeners a amateur musician can generate on their own within a shortamount of time I made a quantitative study during five weeks where I posed as an musicianstarting from scrach with an aim to become famous. During these five weeks I got my songplayed 164 times and got to collaborate with a podcast show from England.</p><p>My hypothesis has been that the future role of the record company will be reduced andpossibly disappear. The theories in this essay argues that this might indeed be the case whenmusicians have accsess to a world o free marketing.</p> / <p>Internet och de digitala distributionskanalerna har inneburit stora förändringar för musikindustrin. Den fysiska skivan som länge har symboliserat denna marknad försvinner bytssakta men säkert ut mot digitalt baserad musik. De tekniska framgångarna under de senastetio åren har lett till en demokratisering av musik produktion. Amatörmusiker kan idagproducera musik med hög kvalitet på en laptop och sprida den gratis med hjälp av sajter förgratis musik. MySpace och YouTube representerar två av de största kanalerna för dennaspridning av gratis musik och jag har därför valt att fokusera min undersökning till dessa tvåsajter.</p><p>Syftet med denna uppsats var att at reda på hur och om denna förändring inomdistributionsmöjligheterna har förändrat förutsättningarna för musiker utan skivkontrakt attsprida sin musik och hitta en publik på egen hand. För att studera detta utförde jag trekvalitativa intervjuer med etablerade musiker och amatörmusiker inom musikbranschen.</p><p>För att ta reda på hur många lyssnare en amatörmusiker kan generera på egen hand under enkortare tid utförde jag en kvantitativ studie under loppet av fem veckor. I denna undersökningsatte jag mig själv in i rollen som amatörmusiker med en målsättning att bli känd. Underdessa fem veckor fick jag min låt spelad 164 gånger och fick även medverka på en podcastfrån England.</p><p>Min hypotes var att skivbolagen kommer att spela en mindre roll i framtidens musikscen ochkanske rent utav att försvinna. Teorierna som behandlas i denna uppsats talar för detta. I envärld där musiker har tillång till gratis marknadsföring och spridning av musik, vem behöverdå skivbolagen?</p>

Internet and the digital channels for distribution have meant big changes for the musicindustry. The physical record that has been symbolising this market for a long time is slowlybeing replaced by digital based music. The technical progress during the last ten years has ledto a democratization of music production. The amateur musicians of today can produce highquality music on their laptops and later distribute it via free music sites. MySpace andYouTube are two of the biggest sites for this free distribution and is therefore my main choiseof study. The purpose of this essay was to find out how and if these changes have made a difference formusicians without a record deal to reach an audience by themselves. In order to find this out Iconducted three qualitative personal interviews with both established and amateur musiciansworking in the music business. To find out how many listeners a amateur musician can generate on their own within a shortamount of time I made a quantitative study during five weeks where I posed as an musicianstarting from scrach with an aim to become famous. During these five weeks I got my songplayed 164 times and got to collaborate with a podcast show from England. My hypothesis has been that the future role of the record company will be reduced andpossibly disappear. The theories in this essay argues that this might indeed be the case whenmusicians have accsess to a world o free marketing. / Internet och de digitala distributionskanalerna har inneburit stora förändringar för musikindustrin. Den fysiska skivan som länge har symboliserat denna marknad försvinner bytssakta men säkert ut mot digitalt baserad musik. De tekniska framgångarna under de senastetio åren har lett till en demokratisering av musik produktion. Amatörmusiker kan idagproducera musik med hög kvalitet på en laptop och sprida den gratis med hjälp av sajter förgratis musik. MySpace och YouTube representerar två av de största kanalerna för dennaspridning av gratis musik och jag har därför valt att fokusera min undersökning till dessa tvåsajter. Syftet med denna uppsats var att at reda på hur och om denna förändring inomdistributionsmöjligheterna har förändrat förutsättningarna för musiker utan skivkontrakt attsprida sin musik och hitta en publik på egen hand. För att studera detta utförde jag trekvalitativa intervjuer med etablerade musiker och amatörmusiker inom musikbranschen. För att ta reda på hur många lyssnare en amatörmusiker kan generera på egen hand under enkortare tid utförde jag en kvantitativ studie under loppet av fem veckor. I denna undersökningsatte jag mig själv in i rollen som amatörmusiker med en målsättning att bli känd. Underdessa fem veckor fick jag min låt spelad 164 gånger och fick även medverka på en podcastfrån England. Min hypotes var att skivbolagen kommer att spela en mindre roll i framtidens musikscen ochkanske rent utav att försvinna. Teorierna som behandlas i denna uppsats talar för detta. I envärld där musiker har tillång till gratis marknadsföring och spridning av musik, vem behöverdå skivbolagen?

Submitted by Noeme Timbo (noeme.timbo@metodista.br) on 2017-03-28T17:59:35Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Silvia Maria Moretti Morgan.pdf: 919943 bytes, checksum: 3511f82d3e4378cf8ff6524dc9a25724 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-03-28T17:59:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Silvia Maria Moretti Morgan.pdf: 919943 bytes, checksum: 3511f82d3e4378cf8ff6524dc9a25724 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-10-24 / The distance education in Brazil has undergone significant changes in recent years. These changes end up awakening, especially in managers, the search and implementation of new business models for the offering and distribution of content produced emphasizing this mode as easing the provision of higher education in the country.Bekkelund (2011) in his study "Succeding with freemium" suggested a set of eight propositions that should be used as guidance for companies wishing to employ freemium as a business model.The guiding question of this dissertation is: The business model of distance education have been influenced by changes in progress in the creative industry? The overall objective of this study is is to identify possible trends of changes in business models of Distance Education by means of exploratory research of a quantitative nature. This is a quantitative research study with the scale proposed application by Bekkelund via survey. The results show that there are features of replicable freemium business models in the context of business management model oriented for distance education. / A Educação a Distância no Brasil tem passado por mudanças significativas nos últimos anos. Essas mudanças acabam por despertar, principalmente nos gestores, o interesse pela aplicação de novos modelos de negócios para o oferecimento e distribuição do conteúdo produzido nesta modalidade de ensino. Bekkelund (2011), em seu estudo “Succeding with freemium” sugeriu um conjunto de oito proposições que devem ser usadas como orientação para empresas que desejam empregar o freemium como modelo de negócio. A pergunta norteadora do presente estudo é: Os modelos de negócios da Educação a Distância têm sido influenciados pelas mudanças em andamento na indústria criativa? O objetivo geral deste estudo é Identificar eventuais tendências de mudanças nos modelos de negócios da Educação a Distância Superior a Distância por meio de uma pesquisa exploratória de cunho quantitativo. Trata-se de uma pesquisa de caráter quantitativa, com aplicação da escala proposta por Bekkelund via survey. Os resultados encontrados demonstram que há características dos modelos de negócios freemium com tendência a serem replicadas no contexto da gestão de modelos de negócios orientados da Educação a Distância.

Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Instituto de Artes, Departamento de Desenho Industrial, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Design, 2016. / Submitted by Fernanda Percia França (fernandafranca@bce.unb.br) on 2016-11-22T17:31:12Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2016_JoãoPaulodoNascimentoLopesNogueira.pdf: 1421507 bytes, checksum: 274061bd8a73745f58c5e565ff7167bb (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Raquel Viana(raquelviana@bce.unb.br) on 2017-01-31T19:49:24Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2016_JoãoPaulodoNascimentoLopesNogueira.pdf: 1421507 bytes, checksum: 274061bd8a73745f58c5e565ff7167bb (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-01-31T19:49:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2016_JoãoPaulodoNascimentoLopesNogueira.pdf: 1421507 bytes, checksum: 274061bd8a73745f58c5e565ff7167bb (MD5) / O desenvolvimento de jogos digitais no Brasil integra as políticas de Economia Criativa, e há um crescente interesse na área. Dentre os modelos de negócios praticados, o Freemium destaca-se nas lojas digitais para dispositivos móveis pelo alcance no número de usuários e a possibilidade de geração de receita com microtransações. O emprego de abordagens agressivas ou intrusivas por parte dos desenvolvedores para as ofertas resultou em uma percepção negativa dos jogadores sobre este modelo de negócios. A pesquisa busca compreender que fatores afetam o processo decisório do usuário ao realizar uma microtransação com base em referências teóricas multidisciplinares nas áreas da Psicologia, da Economia e do Design. A investigação também traça paralelos entre Design de Serviço e Design de Jogos, justificando o planejamento, a produção, e a manutenção de um jogo como um serviço. O objetivo é favorecer o aumento de receita gerada pelo produto enquanto um serviço e experiência positiva para os jogadores. Como processo metodológico, foram selecionados três jogos - Clash of Clans, Farm Heroes Saga, e Cebolinha Quebra-Blocos - para análise de fluxo inicial e core loops integrados com microtransações, e realizadas entrevistas empáticas com jogadores para estabelecer a jornada de usuário e extrair elementos-chaves para o estudo. As ferramentas e técnicas utilizadas auxiliaram a identificar o uso de contextualizações com narrativas em diálogos, tutoriais progressivos, uso de hard currency, ancoragem de preços, geração de necessidades, e o foco em monetização. Conclui-se que há a necessidade em analisar e compreender a relação de Design de Serviço que será estabelecida com o público, o senso de comunidade e seu impacto no engajamento dos jogadores, a comunicação não intrusiva e clara de vantagens nas ofertas de microtransações, e a influência da experiência de usuário na manipulação do core loop e balanceamento do jogo. / Game development in Brazil is part of the Creative Economy politics, and there is an increasing interest in the area. Among the current business models, Freemium stands out in mobile digital stores due to range of users and the revenue from in app purchases. The use of intrusive or aggressive approaches for offers by developers resulted in a negative perception of the players on this business model. This research seeks to understand what factors affect the decision-making process of the user when performing a microtransaction based on multidisciplinary theoretical references in the fields of Psychology, Economics and Design. This investigation also draws parallels between Service Design and Game Design, justifying the planning, production, and maintenance of the game as a service. The goal is to boost the revenue generated by the product while a service and positive experience for the players. As a methodological process, three games were selected – Clash of Clans, Farm Heroes Saga, and Jimmy Five Brick Breaker – for initial flow and microtransaction integrated core loop analysis, and made empathic interviews with players to estabilish the user journey and extract key elements for the study. The tools and techniques helped to identify the use of narratives contexts with dialogs, progressive tutorials, use of hard currency, price anchoring, generation of needs, and the monetization focus. The conclusion shows that there is a need to analyze and understand the Service Design relationship that will be estabilished with the public, the sense of community and their impact on the players’ engagement, a clear and non-intrusive advantage communication in microtransaction offers, and the influence of the user experience in handling the core loop and game balancing.

No description available.

The freemium business model, initially popular in mobile gaming, has gained significant traction in the PC gaming arena during the last few years. This study explores the increasing prevalence of freemium models, i.e., free-to-play games with in-game monetization, in PC games and investigates how players' perceived value plays a crucial role in determining the appeal of these games. The research focuses on examining how players' perceived value influences the appeal of freemium PC games, concentrating on continued use intention (retention) and in-game purchases (monetization). The paper introduces a modified PERVAL framework, drawing inspiration from Hamari (2020), which includes four dimensions: emotional value, social value, economic value, and enjoyment. Through surveys and data analysis, the study uncovers insightful findings. It reveals that emotional and social values play a positive role in shaping players' intentions to keep playing and invest in in-game purchases. While economic value is linked to playing intentions, it doesn't directly impact the purchase of premium content. Moreover, enjoyment is positively associated with playing intentions but exhibits a negative relationship with the acquisition of in-game items. The study underscores the importance of perceived value, particularly emotional value, in influencing player engagement and generating revenue in the context of freemium PC games.

No description available.

“Freemium” (Free + Premium) hat sich zu einem führenden Preismodell für digitale Güter entwickelt. Dabei kann die Basisversion eines Produkts, z.B. von Handy-Applikationen (“Apps”), unbegrenzt kostenlos genutzt werden und Firmen bieten Premium-Erweiterungen gegen Bezahlung an. Konsumenten haben in 2018 194 Milliarden mal Apps heruntergeladen und 101 Milliarden US-Dollar für In-App-Einkäufe ausgegeben. Beinahe 80% des Umsatzes auf App-Stores wird dabei durch Handyspiele generiert. 2,4 Milliarden Menschen haben in 2019 Handyspiele gespielt, was der Hälfte aller App-Nutzer im gleichen Zeitraum entspricht. Die Hauptthese dieser Dissertation ist, dass preisreduzierende Sonderangebote von großer Wichtigkeit für das Vermarkten von Freemium-Gütern sind: Obwohl Freemium bereits eine extreme Preis-Reduktion darstellt, indem es ein Produkt Konsumenten kostenlos zum Ausprobieren zur Verfügung stellt, können demnach Firmen durch die Nutzung weiterer Sonderangebotstaktiken höhere Profite generieren. Die Arbeit postuliert weiter (und beweist dies empirisch), dass lange angenommene Risiken in der Nutzung von Sonderangeboten, die vor allem bei klassischen Konsumgütern etabliert wurden, im Freemium-Bereich in dieser Form nicht zutreffen. Diese Perspektive entwickelt und vertieft der Autor über vier individuelle Papiere, die zusammen mit einer einleitenden Zusammenfassung die fünf Kapitel dieser Dissertation ausmachen. Die vorliegende Arbeit ist empirischer Natur und wendet “Advanced Analytics”, insbesondere Feldexperimente und maschinelles Lernen, in Zusammenarbeit mit Firmen an. Als repräsentativer Forschungsgrund dienen dabei Freemium-Handyspiele, in denen Firmen detaillierte Daten über Interaktionen mit Kunden sammeln. Anhand dieser Daten leitet der Autor neue Kenntnisse über Kundenverhalten ab und entwickelt Entscheidungsunterstützungssysteme, die es Firmen ermöglichen, höhere Gewinne beim Verkauf von Freemium-Gütern zu erzielen. / “Freemium” (free + premium) has become a workhorse pricing model in the digital economy: A basic version of a product or service, e.g., mobile applications (“apps”), can be used for free in perpetuity and premium upgrades are available against payment of a fee. Consumers downloaded apps 194 billion times in 2018 and spent $101 billion on in-app purchases in the same time period. Accounting for almost 80% of that revenue, gaming in particular has seen an unparalleled expansion of demand. It is estimated that 50% of mobile app users play games regularly and that a global total of 2.4 billion people will play mobile games in 2019. The core thesis of this dissertation is that promotions are essential to the marketing of freemium goods such as mobile apps and games. While freemium already represents a promotional pricing tactic in using a zero price for free sampling, the author conjectures that firms can operate their freemium offerings more profitably by using further promotional tactics, especially targeted and personalized promotions, to sell premium upgrades. The author also argues (and shows) that widespread concerns around the use of promotions, particularly developed in the setting of consumer packaged goods, do not apply in the same way in this setting. This thinking is qualified and developed across four chapters that represent individual papers after providing an introduction to the work in the first chapter. The work is empirical in nature and applies advanced analytics, in particular field experimentation and machine learning, in collaboration with firms. As representative of the freemium app economy, the collaborating firms observe dense user data that enable the author to both derive insights on consumer behavior that extend existing conceptual thinking in the field of marketing and to devise decision support and expert systems that allow firms to operate more profitably in this setting.

This study examines how journalistic content can be affected when a local newspapers website changes its business model to what is commonly known as a premium paywall. This study is based upon data provided by the local newspaper Barometern. The data concerns the number of online articles included in fifteen subject and geographically defined categories. The data was collected from two three month long periods, one before and one after the introduction of the news paper paywall that was installed in October of 2014. The study finds that the total number of articles published after the introduction of the paywall was significantly higher than before but that the share of articles included in the different subject categories did not change considerably for paying readers. For non- paying readers however, the data show that the share of articles for the different subject and geographical categories changed significantly. Even though the data from this study cannot confirm a correlation, it does highlight a possible connection between media competition in different local markets and subject matters and the amount of articles that are placed behind the newspapers online paywall in that category. This means that non-paying readers in this case got access to a large number of articles included in some categories and only a small portion of articles included in some other categories. Non-paying readers not only got access to a smaller number of articles but also to a different content profile than paying readers.