Feature: Getting Past Analytics In Social Games. In a new Gamasutra feature, game design veteran Chris Birke takes a look at how social games create "fun" from a neuroscience perspective, and urges developers to look past this simple construction to deeper, more meaningful design. Birke starts his analysis by asserting that the "fun" of a game is merely the controlled release and reception of dopamine in the player's brain as they come to expect in-game rewards.
He goes on to describe how this process can change and weaken as the game experience gets more familiar. By way of analogy, Birke lays out how simply waiting in line for ice cream can be exciting to a new ice cream eater, while the line quickly becomes a simple chore once the memory pathways associated with ice cream are all wired up. "They simply expect their reward of the ice cream in due time," Birke says.
"With nothing new to learn, they no longer trigger excitation. Standing in line for ice cream now sucks. " Angry Birds: 350 million downloads and counting. From left: Pandora's Tony Conrad, Rovio North America General Manager Andrew Stalbow. Photo: JP Mangalindan/Fortune FORTUNE -- Angry Birds is the game franchise that just keeps on giving. Some wonder whether the casual video game's popularity has peaked. Rovio's General Manager for North America, Andrew Stalbow, thinks otherwise. More surprising may be how big the merchandise side has become. The news bodes well for Rovio, which is capitalizing on Angry Birds' success in every way possible, with more than 25 ways to get it across multiple platforms -- iOS, Android, Nook, Chrome Web app -- to talks of an Angry Birds movie that would likely be developed in-house thanks to the acquisition of Helsinki-based animation studio Kombo earlier this summer.
What Does the Future Gamer Look Like? - Tricia Duryee - Commerce. The stereotypical gamer is no longer a recluse in his basement who sits on his couch staring at the TV for hours. Thanks to portable devices, like smartphones and tablets, and games on Facebook, men and women alike are squeezing a few minutes of game play into their daily lives, which is actually leading to more social interactions in and out of the living room. Or at least that’s the conclusion of a new study released this week by Latitude, a research and consulting firm that counts DirecTV, Yahoo, Food Network, ESPN and other major media companies as clients. The report, which studied 290 smartphone owners, examined the future of gaming and tried to illustrate the portrait of the “new gamer.” This is not an economic forecast. There are no hockey stick graphs here. Rather, this is a touchy-feely explanation for why more people are gaming than ever before. Read the report here, watch a video here, or better yet, take a look at this infographic (click to enlarge).
Photo Credit: Mario Spann. Feature: How The Free-To-Play Model Is Evolving. In a new Gamasutra feature, contributor Simon Ludgate examines how social game makers are tweaking the free-to-play model to maximize both player value and developer revenue at the same time. Ludgate starts by examining the traditional MMO monthly fee subscription model, which left out players with lots of time but not enough money to devote to the game's fixed costs. Many social games instead use an "energy" model, where players could play for free for a limited time before being forced to pay money or wait for in-game energy to recharge before getting more play time.
Ludgate points out that this model can lead to frustration for people who have lots of time but no money to activate further play, and lost revenue from players with lots of money but no time to play the game. Games on the "energy" model are often designed to be as inconvenient as possible, encouraging addictive, money-sucking play at the expense of fun. Electronic Arts Thinks Its Future Is The iPad. Les jeux «freemium» rapportent gros | Applications.
Une autre enquête de Flurry portant sur l'App Store d'Apple a établi que les applis freemium rapportaient plus aux développeurs que les applis payantes. - Photo AP Les utilisateurs américains de tablettes et mobiles iOS et Android qui effectuent des achats intégrés aux applications vidéoludiques peuvent dépenser jusqu'à 50$ -l'équivalent d'un jeu console ou PC- en une seule transaction, selon une étude publiée le 25 juillet par Flurry Analytics. Les plateformes de vente en ligne d'applications regorgent de jeux gratuits, mais la majorité de ceux-ci utilisent un modèle «freemium», encourageant les mobinautes à faire des achats au sein de l'appli (in-app), pour acquérir des niveaux supplémentaires ou débloquer des fonctionnalités. Selon le cabinet d'étude de marché Flurry Analytics, les consommateurs américains dépensent en moyenne 14$ par transaction in-game (au sein du jeu). 13% des achats in-app sont supérieurs à 20$ et plus de 5% atteignent ou dépassent 50$.
SXSW '11 : Seth Priebatsch, ninja en chef, SCVNGR. C'est la keynote inaugurale du volet "Interactive" de la conférence SXSW. Sans surprise, le Ballroom D du Austin Conference Center affiche complet, la file court sur deux niveaux et il reste toujours les salles de rediffusions en direct pour se replier. Dans une gaie odeur de bouffe (il est 14h à Austin), entouré des premiers iPad 2, on s'apprête à accueillir, Seth Priebatsch, 22 ans, "ninja en chef" de SCVNGR, un jeu mobile et social ancré dans le monde réel, floutant un peu plus les frontières entre monde virtuel et réel.
Il a un million de membres, soutenu par Google et Highland Capital Partners. Et porte en vrai, comme sur ses photos, des lunettes de soleil oranges ! Dans un débit saccadé et rapide qui rappelle la voix ravalée de Mark Zuckerberg, Seth Priebatsch attaque : "Qu'est-ce que le game layer ? C'est quand on prend les mécaniques de jeu et qu'on les transpose dans le monde réel pour motiver des actions. La couche sociale est aujourd'hui construite, elle s'appelle Facebook. Intrinsic Motivation and Extrinsic Rewards.
Management implications of the interaction between intrinsic motivation and extrinsic rewards David Beswick | DB Home | Psychological Research | Academic email: beswick@unimelb.edu.au Original seminar presentation November 2002, Updated 14 January 2003, 2 November 2004, 16 February 2007. Published 2009: Beswick, D. G. Management implications of the interaction between intrinsic motivation and extrinsic rewards. For an earlier paper see An Introduction to the Study of Curiosity and for further development see From Curiosity to Identity. This paper is the basis for Chapter 3 of Cognitive motivation: From curiosity to identity, purpose and meaning. Mangers generally, and anyone formally or informally responsible for oversight of others who are engaged in work or learning tasks, will be aware that some people are participating more out of interest in the task than others are.
Extrinsic rewards have been found to reduce intrinsic motivation, but not in all circumstances. Some illustrations. Game Analytics | The Engagement Hierarchy. Engagement is a commonly accepted term in the web and online games industry to talk about how often a player is coming back into a game. It is regarded as the most essential sort of metric (also called retention, in fact just this afternoon by Nicholas Lovell in his latest post on Gamesbrief) to really know whether a game has long term legs, or whether it is flash-in-the-pan. Online game companies measure and track engagement obsessively, and worry greatly when the figure dips. While the concept is less regularly used in console and PC games, the principle of how and why players play is much the same. There are games that players play for months or years, and others that they ditch within a day.
In the world of console gaming, a number of studies over the years have established that as many as 50-75% of players never finish most of their games' single player modes. Hierarchy The Engagement Hierarchy tries to graphically capture the idea that engagement is far more than a number. Movement. How Online Companies Get You to Share More and Spend More | Magazine. Zynga, Facebook, Apple, and many other online companies and services are refining techniques developed by game developers to keep you in their game. Photo: Christopher Griffith; brain created by Megan Caponetto/Apostrophe You’re not stupid, but you can be fooled. For millennia, the best salespeople have known how to exploit the vulnerabilities of the human mind.
In the burgeoning field of behavioral economics, we’ve begun to give precise names to the mental weaknesses that make us all susceptible to a well-crafted pitch. Drawing on the insights of psychology, behavioral economists have explained why we buy more stuff at $0.99 than at $1.00 (the “left-digit effect”), why we commit to gym memberships we’ll never use (“optimism bias”), and why we don’t return things we buy as often as we should (“post-purchase rationalization”). The giants of the web, from Amazon to Zynga, use similar tricks to keep us coming to their sites, playing their games, and buying their goods.