The Context Dependency of Four Persuasive Game Design Principles

This paper explores the context dependency of four popular persuasive game design principles in order to improve their effective implementation. To prevent the use of badly chosen design principles that can be counterproductive, other authors showed the importance of tailoring persuasive game design principles to various gamer personalities. In this paper we aim to further theoretically explore the context dependency of four popular principles. With the elaboration likelihood model as a framework, we present examples of different scenarios that describe how these four persuasive game design principles can either enhance or reduce the motivation and/or ability of the player to elaborate on the persuasive message of the game. Although we emphasize the theoretical nature of this paper, it may form a starting point for experimental research on persuasive game design principles. Results from this future research will ultimately contribute to the overall effectiveness of persuasive games, whose application is valuable within an active learning context.