Exploring the Influence of Game Framing and Gamer Types on the Effectiveness of Persuasive Games

Although persuasive games are effective at promoting behaviour change, their effectiveness may be influenced by many factors, which include gamer personality type and game framing. This paper explores the relationship between game framing, gamer type and persuasive strategies, focusing on a persuasive game for Healthy Eating. In a between-study of 371 participants, our research revealed that, although the three game-framing versions (gain-framed, loss-framed, and gain-loss-framed) and four persuasive strategies implemented (reward, competition, praise, and suggestion) were perceived as effective, the effectiveness of the reward strategy was significantly different across the game-framing versions. It was more effective in the gain-loss framed version when compared to the other two versions. We also found that the reward strategy had the highest number of significant relationships with the gamer types across all the game framings, while the suggestion strategy showed no significant relationships with the gamer types across all framings. We conclude by discussing the insights from these results and how they affect persuasive game design for game framings and game types.