Designing and testing credibility: The case of a serious game on nightlife risks

Abstract

This paper describes a game directed to young adults and aimed at sensitizing them about potential risks of psychoactive substance abuse during nightlife events. Of interest here is that this game targets a domain in which the credibility of a persuasive intervention is particularly fragile. The design decisions and the recommendations inspiring them are described first, characterized by an effort to fit the context in which the game was going to be used. In addition, a field study with real users during nightlife events is reported (N = 136), in which several dimensions of the game credibility are evaluated and compared with the credibility of a serious information tool (leaflets) in a between-participant design. By describing this case, the opportunity is taken to emphasize the importance of serious games credibility, and to enumerate some of the occasions to improve its strength that can be found during its design to evaluation.