The gameful museum experience: motivation, behavior, and interpretation in a hybrid money exhibition

This study explores how visitors experience a hybrid, gameful museum exhibition by examining KA-CHING! Show Me the Money at the National Museum of Denmark. Using seven walk-along interviews, three days of participant observation, and an exit survey (n = 101), it adopts an audience-centered approach to explore how gameful elements shape motivation, behavior, and interpretation. The analysis draws on procedural rhetoric, Falk and Dierking’s visitor motivation types, and Bartle’s player taxonomy to understand visitors’ motivation and behavior. The Money Game, featuring interactive stations on labor, speculation, and investment, functions as a central interpretive framework, fostering competition, collaboration, and reflection. While many visitors found the gameful design enriching, it also posed challenges related to accessibility and behavioral expectations. The study contributes to museum and game studies by highlighting the situated, multifaceted nature of play in cultural history contexts and its implications for inclusive and engaging exhibition design.