The act of Persuasive Design explores and expands upon the different mental processes people go through that inadvertently influence the human behaviors that can be applied to design. The open world RPG game Genshin Impact created by Mihoyo uses this act throughout their game to influence the users’ actions and decisions they make whilst playing through the game. For example, in this game there is an aspect and feature of gambling- since this is a gatcha game- for different characters and weapons that can be used in the games story and quests. The motivational aspect of this influences the player to gamble more and more as it gives the player and incentive to continue playing the game again and again as well as gamble more and more as when they do, they receive rewards ranging from 3 star to 5-star quality, thus motivating them to play the game and gamble so they can get the best characters and weapons. The game also gives more incentive as through leveling up your adventure rank or characters you earn wishes giving you more motivation to continue playing to earn the wishes so you can get rewards.
The company gives lots of incentive and motivation to the player to continue playing and logging on each day as they give you daily login rewards, for example items that you can use to level up or money that can be used within the world, thus planting the seed in the brain of the user that they should log on as from simply logging on the get rewarded. They also have a feature where if the game is down for any reason for example bugs or maintenance, they will compensate the user with Primogems- this is used to purchase wishes. Mihoyo does this because it brings the ratings and the number of players up for the game but also inadvertently gives them more players who are more likely to spend real life money on the game for rewards, thus bringing up the sales and earnings of the game allowing them to add more features and characters to the game.
The games use of audio also gives the user cues of what the quality of their wish- the name of the gambling system in game- is revealed, thus triggering a certain reaction from the user. The game uses its design exceptionally giving people the opportunity to earn through daily commissions and story/world quests, the currency that is needed to buy wishes allowing users to gamble is given when the quest or commissions are complete giving the users the ability to feel like they have earned their rewards through hard work, thus giving the user a good feeling and implanting the thought process that constantly playing the game will give them rewards and a sense of accomplishment rather than feeling as though it has been handed to them.
There is also a trigger used once the player begins to gamble, as stated previously, but the visual on screen also changes depending on the quality of the reward- 3-star is blue, 4-star is purple, 5-star is gold- thus triggering a certain reaction from the player and different attitudes and feelings. This type of design is used as the game wants people to continue to gamble, to spend more and more money to raise their chances of earning a 5-star character or weapon, they also want to get a reaction from the player regardless of the fact that most of the time they are bad reactions due to the gambling chances being quite difficult and all luck based if you get a 4 or 5 star. This causes a chain of events to occur because when the user receives an average quality item, a reaction will trigger in their mind to try again and fight against the odds, triggering them to continue to gamble over and over until they get exactly what they want. Therefore, the sales of the game go up and the user is more inclined to gamble again and again because they want to get a 5 star.
The use of persuasive design is used because it gives players an incentive and a trigger to continue playing the game over and over again every day, spend more and more money on the game until they get what they want, thus the companies earnings increase as though the game is free the addition of the gambling aspect is used to convince people to spend money on the game to receive more rewards and trigger a sense of accomplishment in the users mind thus creating a cycle of more players engaging with the game and more people willing to spend money on the game.
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