Effect of Timer, Top Score and Leaderboard on Performance and Motivation in a Human Computing Game

The development of human computing games requires the implementation of different game mechanics to make them challenging, interesting and motivating. These mechanics are often borrowed from popular video games, but their outcomes on the quality of solutions obtained and player motivation are not fully understood. We analyze the effect of showing a timer, an achievable (top) score and a live leaderboard on players’ scores, puzzle completion time and motivation using different versions of a human computing game. We show that presenting a top score on a puzzle results in better solutions, but at the expense of completion time, whereas the presence of a timer has the opposite outcome. As for the live leaderboard, we have observed an almost significant interaction effect with the timer. This work offers guidance for human computing game developers about what to expect from these different game mechanics, and how players react to them.