Effective talk: Creating better mobile games through engagement
Year of Talk: 2017
Player Engagement:
The presenter starts off talking about player engagement and more specifically the amount of attention and mental time the players invest into a game. (Even if they are not playing)
Over time the player can be expected to transition from Passion → Intemacy → Commitment. Where as the player starts playing a game and getting a passion they spend more time with the game and have more frequent intensive gaming sessions.
When players initially receive some sort of stimulus, it helps increase engagement, which will slowly decrease until it tapers out or more stimulus is received.
Good design can have the player anticipate when the stimulus will occur and help incentivize them to play more and therefore increase their engagement.
Because people tend to get used to the stimuli, the effects wear off over time. This means that the game needs to find unique ways of giving players stimuli to help keep them engaged so that they don't start feeling normal and bored and move on to other games.
This can normally be seen with player data when they are playing less over some time. At times it might not be as important as it can be temporary and player numbers can return.
Rest Periods for players:
Try to aim so that players can have rest periods for the game. This will give them time to recharge and return to the game with more energy and willingness.
An example given is the chest system for Clash Royal and the limit on the number of chests a player can have. Even though the player can continue playing, the limit on the number of chests means that the reward will be less than if they waited.
By having the player wait it also plants the idea of the game and that something is going to happen in X amount of time and they want to return by the time that X has passed.
Two types of attention:
Voluntary: People choose where to focus on and what is important for them.
Compulsory: Someone's attention is grabbed and required due to some emotional or other need. Forces them to concentrate on something.
By compelling attention, a game can get more attention in a nonconsensual way. Which can help improve the stats on how long and how much players might play the game. But can cause some people to get pushed away and can affect long-term player retention.
When trying to call on the player's compulsory attention it also means that the devs will constantly need to keep it up or new players will feel like they lost opportunities while older players might feel like they already spent so much money and deserve it.
Player Perception:
There are a few ways to give the player the chance to back away and relax before coming back into the game. The three main ways of showing this to players are with Direct, Indirect, or Implicit timers.
You can choose depending on what best fits the player's mental model. An example is how much time it takes for crops to grow and show off a time.
Direct: When timers appear on top of events. Is straightforward how long you need to wait and can return.
This can help create clear moments of rest for players. Players know how long they need to wait before coming back.
Indirect: Request for a certain amount of resources and you roughly know how much of that resource you make over a certain period of time.
Allows players to spend time strategizing and lets them take time to think of plans outside of the game.
Implicit: Where tasks take time because of some mechanic. A given example is needing to walk around in Pokemon Go where players need to walk to locations if they want to catch Pokemon.
Gives players the option to play more often but they don't feel forced. Not much is lost if they can't do it.
The design of time:
If properly designed players will be able to understand that the game is meant to be played over time and for an extended period. Which helps them transition into a specific mindset that it can be worthwhile playing the game for a long time.
By creating anticipation it helps engage the players and incentivizes them to come back in the future for rewards. Making them more willing to play a game long-term.
The following questions to as is; when will the player receive the rewards and what will the rewards be?
A way of doing so is called ‘variable ratio’ which is requesting players do a certain amount of actions for a reward. And both are changed. But this can cause players to repeatedly play the same tasks and tire themselves out quicker.
It would be best to spread out the ‘variable ratio’ to help not overwhelm players or force them to blitz through content.
Decay:
Whenever working on a story and the progress of the game for new vs old players it can be a challenge to help newer players to catch up to the more experienced players.
By creating a more unique progress system it can help keep players more bunched together.
Time decay is where some stat for a character will slowly get weaker unless the player feeds them or does some action to bring it back to full strength.
Durability decay is where items will have a certain amount of durability that goes down as it's used.
Threshold decay where stats get lowered over time but have a limit that puts players at risk but doesn't completely go to the end.
Market decay where value for items can change depending on how other people might value the items you have. This can cause an item that's worth a lot to quickly lose its value over a short amount of time.
Other driven decay is where a player decays in value/strength when losing against another player.
Reset Decay is when players are given the option to restart a game for some arbitrary new token that gives a benefit in future runs of the game. Normally seen in idle games.
Communities:
A major factor in helping a game last for extended periods is the community that is built and how everyone interacts with each other.
Having a thriving community allows the users to interact with each other and create their own stories inside and outside of the game. Helps keep players together and lets them bond over the game.
The stories and friendships players create with each other help games stay relevant as people continue returning to enjoy their time with other people.
There are four main ways to create relationships; Proximity, Similarity, Reciprocity, and Disclosure.
Proximity: When players encounter a semi-persistent pool of players allowing them to get used to their presence.
Similarity: When players have similar values or identities, it allows them to have things to bond over and talk about.
Reciprocity: Multiple and repeated conversations between people that go both ways. When two people are talking with each other they can keep a conversation going with the same amount of energy.
Disclosure: When people can exchange ideas or feelings more freely as well as easily create a certain level of trust to allow people to feel relaxed and among equal peers.
The communities then can start creating a common language or customization to better know who is in the group and who isn't. An example is everyone in a guild wearing the same type of armor.
Key Takeaways:
Create communities so that players are willing to interact with each other and breathe life into the game even if you might not be able to add as much content.
Be trustworthy to your players. Show your players that they can trust that the game is meant to last and won't try to take as much money as possible from them.
Allow players to take breaks and come back to the game at a slightly later date. This way they don't feel forced to play a lot and burn out.
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