A survey and typology of human computation games

Abstract

Human computation games (HCGs) can be seen as a paradigm that makes use of human brain power to solve computational problems as a byproduct of game play. In recent years, HCGs are increasing in popularity within various application areas which aim to harvest human problem solving skills by seamlessly integrating computational tasks into games. Thus, a proper system of describing such games is necessary in order to obtain a better understanding of the current body of work and identify new opportunities for future research directions. As a starting point, in this paper, we review existing literature on HCGs and present a typology consisting of 12 dimensions based on the key features of HCGs. With this typology, all HCGs could be classified and compared in a systematic manner.