Playing to Save the Planet: A Case Study of Meaningful Gamification in a Climate‐Action Community

ABSTRACT This study examines how meaningful gamification may support proenvironmental engagement within a sustainability‐oriented digital community by integrating Self‐Determination Theory (SDT) with the RECIPE framework. We conduct an overt, multisource netnography of the GreenApes platform, combining participant observation, interviews, and analysis of user‐generated content with iterative coding and hermeneutic interpretation. Within this case, findings suggest that autonomy flourishes via optional missions and cocreation; competence grows through knowledge‐based challenges and timely feedback; relatedness strengthens within hospitable social spaces. Rewards operate as value‐screened scaffolds and donation pipelines heighten moral salience, whereas punitive leaderboards hinder retention; cooperative milestones sustain belonging. We advance a midrange framework that links design levers to basic‐need support and patterns consistent with movement toward more autonomous regulation, offering actionable guidance for scholars, managers, and public agencies engaged in climate change mitigation. Given the single‐case design, a 4‐month observation window, and interviews concentrated among highly active users, the framework is advanced as analytical propositions with transferability potential rather than population‐level estimates of long‐term effects.