Exploring Player Experience Factors for Designing Persuasive Recruitment Games

Persuasive recruitment games serve as a strategic tool for attracting candidates to the teaching profession, functioning as interactive interventions that shape career interest and self-efficacy. By comparing these games against realistic job previews and control activities, it becomes clear that interactive recruitment methods significantly outperform non-related tasks in fostering candidate engagement and perceived person-vocation fit. While both games and realistic job previews are effective, they influence different psychological outcomes; games are particularly adept at stimulating interest, whereas realistic job previews excel at building self-efficacy and aligning candidates with the demands of the profession.

The effectiveness of these interventions is fundamentally rooted in specific player experience factors rather than the medium itself. Empirical analysis of 957 participants reveals that meaning and mastery are the primary drivers of persuasion. Meaning acts as the strongest predictor of professional interest, while mastery is the critical component for enhancing self-efficacy and person-vocation fit. Conversely, factors such as immersion and autonomy demonstrate no significant impact on persuasion outcomes. These findings challenge the assumption that high-fidelity immersion or player freedom are necessary for successful recruitment design.

To optimize the impact of recruitment interventions, designers should shift their focus toward features that foster a sense of purpose and provide clear, constructive feedback mechanisms. By prioritizing content that conveys the significance of the role and mechanics that allow candidates to experience professional mastery, organizations can create more effective tools for talent acquisition. This evidence-based approach, supported by psychological frameworks like self-determination theory, suggests that the strategic integration of meaning and mastery is essential for transforming recruitment games into high-performing instruments for career engagement.