The Persuasive Roles of Digital Games: The Case of Cancer Games

Abstract

Using behavioral scientist B. J. Fogg’s conceptual framework on the role computer technology plays for users as a starting point, this article argues that persuasion through digital games can be approached from three different perspectives: digital games as media for persuasion, digital games as tools for persuasion and digital games as social actors for persuasion. In this article, I use five cancer gaming cases to illustrate how these three different persuasive roles can be used to accomplish different persuasive goals. In this respect, I explain how each of these persuasive roles digital games can play in the process of persuasion can serve to support cancer patients to face three different challenges: (1) lack of information about the treatment or the disease itself, (2) lack of motivation to start or continue with the treatment, and (3) difficulties in coping with the treatment or the disease. The analysis of these games is theoretical in nature and is done to illustrate my arguments. The categorization proposed in this article can be used as an analytical approach for the study of persuasive gaming strategies.