"Don't Give Up!" Can the Competitiveness and Difficulty of Video Games Build Persistence for a Subsequent Non-Gaming Task?

The determination exhibited by players is a valuable quality in other contexts that require persistence. Research suggests that competitive and difficult video game play may acclimate players to arduous challenges and steel them against later hardships. Participants played competitively (one-on-one) or cooperatively with a non-player character (two-on-two) against non-player character opponents of varying difficulty (e.g., easy, moderate, or hard) in Super Smash Bros. Subsequent persistence was measured by time spent on an anagram task that included unsolvable items. Results suggest that video game competitiveness is necessary to facilitate subsequent persistence. However, the difficulty of opponents did not influence players' subsequent persistence, even when withstanding the most competence-thwarting game play against hard opponents. The current study suggests that competitive play, in general, sufficiently jumpstarts persistent behaviors in players and that, instead of players cultivating persistence by enduring frustrating game play, they may be invigorated or enticed to attain goals when challenged.