Can people’s brainhex type be changed with serious games? Evidence from the banking industry

Abstract

The BrainHex model is one of the most researched models to represent player profiles in games. In this paper the author examines how serious games can be used to change the player profiles over time, even in heavily regulated environments, such as the banking industry. To understand if player archetypes change over time, I have conducted an exploratory study with 2531 bankers over the course of three years. Our results indicate that the players ‘archetypes can potentially be changed with the help of serious games Age of the players and their role in the organization do not influence the change of the main archetypes, but can determine the amplitude of that change. The change appears to be significant across all age groups and roles in the organization and also persistent. A slight decrease in Y3, however, could indicate that the change could be reversible with the passing of time. The statistical analysis of the data collected indicates that the desired change in the main archetype can be obtained by having the players spend between 10 and 20 hours playing personalized serious games that facilitate the desired archetype and that those games should be designed to facilitate an easier level up mechanism. My results both confirm existing studies on the subject and have practical implications for the designers of serious games and gamification mechanisms, by indicating how serious games should be personalized to achieve the desired change in behaviour.

Keywords

• brainhex
• player archetypes
• serious games, design mechanisms, level up, lms