09.15.09

Why games work

  • Schedules of Reinforcement
    • http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/images/schrein.gif
  • Flow

Questions to ask

  • Who's playing? What's their motivation?
  • What's the core mechanic for earning points?
  • What's the length/frequency of each play session?
  • What makes the game social? How do people connect?

Game Mechanics for Social Media

  • Collecting
    • bragging rights
    • Twitter is about collection (... really??) ... also, variable reinforcement schedule; Twitter is addicting because people don't know when tweets are coming
  • Points
    • Flickr's "interestingness" metric
    • Redeemable points drive loyalty
    • Leaderboards
      • a feature that you can add to any single player game and automatically make it social
      • can help guide player behavior
    • Levels
      • goals to achieve along the way
      • unlock abilities and access (eBay PowerSellers)
      • paces learning curve, too
      • belt system in martial arts
  • Feedback
    • Accelerates mastery
      • BrainAge, Wii Fit: healthier/smarter physical stats
  • Exchanges
    • Explicit vs Implicit (emergent) ... trade vs gifting
  • Character & Interface Customization

(misc)

  • "Four Square" iPhone game
    • What do you need to add to an experience to make it a game?
  • sublimating: To modify the natural expression of (a primitive, instinctual impulse) in a socially acceptable manner.

EA Interactive guys

  • Microtransaction games: expect around 5-10% of players to actually pay real money for things, while remaining players who only do stuff that's free create a large social pool and bring more friends to play.

  • Social games as a "service" rather than a product

  • brands useful for "discoverability"

  • what constitutes an "active user"?

    • used to be go to the application within the past day
    • now more often ... within the past month, you've loaded up the game

Social Games monetization

  • Competition with friends via leaderboards, vGood accumulation
  • Continuous stream of small tasks to advance drives retention, visits
  • Advancement requires inviting friends, vgoods
  • Get vgoods by direct purchase or CPA offers

Living in a world without friction

  • Frictionless Development: no SDKs, free game engines, built-in audiences (Facebook), no region restristrictions
  • Enabling new developers
  • Create -> Distribute -> Play

Problem: tons and tons of apps.

The economics of Free

  • Buy one, get one free
  • Third party supported (ads, offers)
  • Freemium model: A few subsidize the many
    • If you want to keep playing, you put in quarters
    • What if you had people put in quarters after you're commited?
    • Compulsion loop is a powerful motivator
  • Regulated/limited compulsion loops: replenishes on a regular basis, but not enough for "motivated" players

Games as services

Narrowcasting instead of broadcasting

changed November 11, 2009