Persuasive Meaningful Play : Exploring the video game Behind Every Great One

This thesis shines a light on tools that can be used in order to create persuasive and meaningful video games. This research was designed as an exploration of the game Behind Every Great One, with the purpose to determine if and how the game could attain a persuasive and meaningful representation of a benevolent sexist situation. To achieve this, the research took on three different approaches: an interview with the developer, a textual analysis of the game, and a qualitative survey analysing players' reactions to, and perceptions of, the game. The findings suggest that displaying characters' emotions in ways that transmit them to the players, paired with a realistic, complex representation of the social situation portrayed, are imperative for making the game have a persuasive and meaningful impact on the players. The researcher also suggests the term persuasive meaningful play as an applicable way to refer to games that contain similar characteristics as Behind Every Great One