Persuasive mobile game mechanics for user retention

Lukas Legner, Chloe Eghtebas, Gudrun Klinker

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

Retention is an important success factor for mobile social games. However, in game design, very little literature exists on the impact of game elements and their persuasive effects on user retention. We scraped ten high grossing mobile games and play tested them over the course of two weeks to gather persuasive game mechanics. After categorization and filtering of the persuasive mechanics, we simultaneously relate them to base game mechanics and a corresponding psychological theory from behavioral economics and psychology. Our results help increase the accessibility of using persuasive mechanics for future game developers.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationCHI PLAY 2019 - Extended Abstracts of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery, Inc
Pages493-500
Number of pages8
ISBN (Electronic)9781450368711
DOIs
StatePublished - 17 Oct 2019
Event6th ACM SIGCHI Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play, CHI PLAY 2019 - Barcelona, Spain
Duration: 22 Oct 201925 Oct 2019

Publication series

NameCHI PLAY 2019 - Extended Abstracts of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play

Conference

Conference6th ACM SIGCHI Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play, CHI PLAY 2019
Country/TerritorySpain
CityBarcelona
Period22/10/1925/10/19

Keywords

  • Behavioral Economics
  • Behavioral Psychology
  • Game Design
  • Mobile Games
  • Persuasive Technology

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