Gamification of the point of sale using hybrid-reality games: Non-players' negative influence on players' service experience

Hybrid reality games are transposing the outside world into a virtual playground. Commercial venues are voluntarily taking part in this phenomenon by becoming in-game locations of interest. As such, players and non-players now intermingle at the point of sale (POS). The literature has overlooked the influence of technology on customer-to-customer interaction at the POS, the social context in which gamification takes place and gamification's counterproductive outcomes. To address these gaps, we employ a three-step mixed method approach. First, using the Critical Incident Technique, we show that non-players can create a significantly negative service experience at the venue for playing customers. We investigate this result further through semi-structured-interviews and find that players feel pressure to conform due to stereotyping and roles enforced by non-players. In turn, players feel negatively judged and excluded at the point of sale. Finally, using a between-subject experiment with 377 hybrid reality game players, we show how such a negative interaction decreases players' satisfaction at the POS and in turn repatronage and word-of-mouth intention toward the POS. We also investigate how this backlash effect can be counterbalanced by publicly granting players a privilege.