Examining The Effects of Playing Difficulty and Playing Duration in Unwinnable Persuasive Games

Unwinnable persuasive games' persuasion strategy is to force the players to lose and use the ensuing experience to persuade them. After two decades, currently, we only know the different effects of winning and losing a persuasive game. We argue that research should start investigating how to design game loss that can positively contribute to the persuasion process. In particular, this study focuses on the effects of playing difficulty and playing duration. To force players to lose, designers can increase the playing difficulty to create an unwinnable challenge and use it to portray the severity of the issue. While there is a rationale for it, whether the increase can lead to positive outcomes has not been established with empirical evidence, especially because frustration from repeated failure might have negative impacts. In addition, longer playtime can help players become more familiar with the game. However, it is unfair to let them invest a significant time only to realize that it is unwinnable. To address the research gap, we conducted a factorial between-subject design experiment with an additional no-treatment control group. The results suggest that playing a more difficult and longer game can lead to a significantly higher donation. Based on the result, there are indeed benefits for game designers to increase playing difficulty and enable extended playtime when designing unwinnable persuasive games.