UX for Gamer Acquisition, Retention and Conversion
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A presentation focused on the impact game design can have on the game acquisition, retention and conversion. Subjects covered include freemium design, barriers to acquisition, retention strategies, conversion/monetization tactics, and ethics of freemium design. Presented at UX Scotland 2014 by Claudio Franco (Senior Research Manager at Dubit) and Esther Stringer (CEO of Border Crossing Media).
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UX for Gamer Acquisition, Retention and Conversion
- 1. UX for Gamer Acquisition, Retention and Conversion UX Scotland 2014 Tutorial Claudio Franco @dubit @clauzdifranco Esther Stringer @BCM_Tweets @EstherBCM
- 2. Introduction
- 3. Introduction: Dubit & Border Crossing Media Senior Research Manager - Games and Media Dubit, digital entertainment studio based in Leeds Ongoing Professional Doctorate (PhD) Digital books, storytelling and audience involvement Managing Director – Border Crossing Media, User Specialists MMRS User research, analytics, facilitator and trainer UX Scotland 2014
- 4. Agenda UX Scotland 2014 ● The freemium Empire: o What is freemium? o Some examples o Our focus ● Acquisition: lowering barriers o Home and landing pages o Starting a game ● Retention: strategies o Overview o Examples
- 5. Agenda UX Scotland 2014 ● Conversion: monetisation tactics o Overview o Examples o Reflection ● Key take aways
- 8. FREE + PREMIUM = FREEMIUM Freemium games are games that are free to install and play, but that also contain virtual goods and currencies acquired through in-app purchases yielding functional advantage and status to the player [...] paying players possess an advantage that can only be met by free players if they choose to grind. [T]he freemium business model for games has become the go-to games business model [...] since the 2007 introduction of the iOS App Store. Charles Kriel, game designer and author of the "Concise Dictionary of Freemium and Free-to-Play Game Design. Freemium: What is Freemium? UX Scotland 2014
- 9. 200M+ / $77M+ 200M+ / $50M+ 70M+ / $30M+ 2-M+ / $80M+ UX Scotland 2014
- 10. UX Scotland 2014
- 11. UX Scotland 2014
- 12. Freemium: Other Media / Products UX Scotland 2014
- 13. “CHEAPMIUM” cheap + premium UX Scotland 2014
- 14. ● Distinct UX needs for different kinds of games ● Children MMOs / virtual worlds and apps ● Player acquisition and initial moments UX Scotland 2014 Freemium: Our Main Focus
- 15. Acquisition: Attracting players and lowering barriers
- 16. UX Scotland 2014
- 17. UX Scotland 2014 Acquisition: Targeted approaches
- 18. UX Scotland 2014 Acquisition: Targeted approaches
- 19. Source: http://fantasy-faction.com Source: http://corpserun.wordpress.com UX Scotland 2014 Acquisition: Meeting expectations
- 20. Source: Gamasutra: Mark Robinson's Blog - Why do players leave your game? Top 5 reasons revealed 60-80% of players leave a game for good after a disappointing first session. UX Scotland 2014 Acquisition: The importance of first use
- 21. Source: News: Mobile game survey finds players leave fast - CVG UK Speed Dating? "It's a bit like a first date. If it's going to be effective, it needs to be effective quick." UX Scotland 2014
- 24. UX Scotland 2014 Acquisition: Registration
- 26. Acquisition: Starting a game - Tutorials UX Scotland 2014
- 27. UX Scotland 2014
- 28. UX Scotland 2014
- 29. UX Scotland 2014
- 30. UX Scotland 2014
- 32. ● Balance of difficulty ● Help for not-so-good players ● Social features ● Communication ● Competition, leaderboards ● Collaborative play ● Collectible items ● Achievements ● Leveling-up UX Scotland 2014 Retention: Keeping players coming back
- 33. ● The Eternal BETA ● Fine-tune ● Game metrics ● Player research ● Large worlds ● Range of playing styles ● Audience involvement ● Tapping into player creativity UX Scotland 2014 Retention: Keeping players coming back
- 35. ● Walled areas ● Added functionality ● Try your luck ● Slowing progress ● Time gates ● Vanity items ● Collectibles ● Making it social UX Scotland 2014 Conversion: Overview of tactics
- 36. ● Walled areas ● Added functionality ● Try your luck ● Slowing progress ● Time gates ● Vanity items ● Collectibles ● Making it social UX Scotland 2014 Conversion: Overview of tactics
- 37. ● Walled areas ● Added functionality ● Try your luck ● Slowing progress ● Time gates ● Vanity items ● Collectibles ● Making it social UX Scotland 2014 Conversion: Overview of tactics
- 38. ● Walled areas ● Added functionality ● Try your luck ● Slowing progress ● Time gates ● Vanity items ● Collectibles ● Making it social UX Scotland 2014 Conversion: Overview of tactics
- 39. ● Walled areas ● Added functionality ● Try your luck ● Slowing progress ● Time gates ● Vanity items ● Collectibles ● Making it social UX Scotland 2014 Conversion: Overview of tactics
- 40. ● Walled areas ● Added functionality ● Try your luck ● Slowing progress ● Time gates ● Vanity items ● Collectibles ● Making it social UX Scotland 2014 Conversion: Overview of tactics
- 41. ● Walled areas ● Added functionality ● Try your luck ● Slowing progress ● Time gates ● Vanity items ● Collectibles ● Making it social Source: Glu Mobile UX Scotland 2014 Conversion: Overview of tactics
- 42. UX Scotland 2014 Conversion: Ethics - money or fun experience?
- 43. The OFT’s Principles for online and app-based games and Annexe UX Scotland 2014 Conversion: Ethics - money or fun experience?
- 44. Source: PocketGamer.biz UX Scotland 2014 Conversion: Ethics - money or fun experience?
- 45. ● Freemium rules ● Lowering barriers to Acquisition is essential (targeting, registration, tutorials) ● Games lose players - retention and ongoing work is essential (eternal beta) ● Current conversion tactics are efficient but have to be used with care ● Player research, prototyping and testing should inform and refine assumptions ● There’s room in the market for more beautiful, creative games! UX Scotland 2014 Key Take Aways
- 46. For more information contact: Claudio Franco @dubit @clauzdifranco Esther Stringer @BCM_Tweets @EstherBCM Thank You
Editor's Notes
- … Before we dive into the meat of the presentation, let us quickly show you its skeleton structure...
- …
- …
- This is the Oxford Dictionary’s online definition of freemium… you can’t get much more authoritative than that! But it is also very concise, as dictionary definitions should be… let’s look at another one...
- This one is from Wikipedia… and is also used, with little modifications, in the website Mashable, one of the leading online references for digital and technology… it’s taken from books by T Hayes and J Iglesias. It points out the initial free character, and it starts defining different things people can pay for… such as additional features and virtual goods... Now let’s look at some examples of freemium games… you may have heard about some of these… [NEXT SLIDE]
- Here we present the approximate numbers of players and annual revenue for these games. As for their freemium strategies, we have a diversity of strategies… membership or subscriptions to access more areas and features possibility of buying virtual goods such as rare outfits and weapons, or in some cases power-ups the purchase of chances to spin prize wheels And then we have one last example…
- Is there anyone in this room who cannot recognise this logo? [If YES] Good, close your ears now, you don’t want to become addicted too - apparently it’s contagious!
- Candy Crush is a massive success that has recently attracted a lot of attention in the mass media when King, the game developer, reached £1Bn in revenue! It is impressive… It may go away soon, and not many people will fondly remember the hours spent trying to beat a level, or the shame of spending money in power-ups or extra lives to “buy your way up”... but the fact is that this is a very clever game in terms of UX and linked monetisation strategy.
- And freemium isn’t just used by game developers... there are other business sectors adopting this and similar models... For example, we have online newspapers, professional networking tools and many productivity tools, such as LinkedIN, where you pay to send emails, see profiles not on your network, etc. Or Slideshare where if you pay you have access to detailed stats.
- And whilst some are adopting freemium, we could say others are adapting it… With Ryanair you don’t travel for free - but nearly - and then pay for virtually everything as an extra
- Because designing a good UX for different types of games / platforms isn’t quite the same, we have to define our main focus… We’ll look mostly at examples from children’s MMOs, sometimes called children’s virtual worlds - online multiplayer games such as Moshi Monsters - and picking a few examples from apps too. There will also be a stronger focus on Acquisition and initial experiences of a game. Something else we can say, which is implicit in the work that we do, and to this tutorial, is that our approach to UX is informed by three core rules: 1) following established principles of good practice in UX design 2) never taking things for granted, which means you should engage in research with your players, testing and iterating all the way; and 3) and the fact that you need a hell of a good creative team! Without creativity and energy to make good games you won’t go very far...
- Let’s then talk about actual UX in games… starting with what you should do to facilitate the acquisition of players… Marketing and promotion are an obvious part of this, but we won’t focus as much on marketing, but rather on what happens when players arrive to a an online game’s landing page…
- There are many ways to represent this, but in essence think of your player numbers as going through a funnel… You spend marketing budget to get a number of players onto your game… some of these drop out in the first few seconds on the homepage… some survive through registration and start playing the game… some get bored, others don’t get it, they leave… The basic message is that you lose players in this process, so you want to provide an UX that lowers barriers to entry, engages players for some time and, if you have a freemium game, encourages them to spend money in your game… An important point here… not all payers are equal, so you often need to think of multiple strategies, aimed at different targets...
- Without wanting to stereotype too much, boys and girls tend to enjoy games, and specifically MMOs, in slightly different ways… of course there is overlap, but in the tens of surveys and ethnographic pieces of research that we’ve done about children game players there are clear tendencies… Boys tend to prefer completing missions and play mini-games, whilst girls prefer communicating, shopping and pets...
- But it is not just along the lines of gender that we can see playing tendencies… often it is more productive to use player archetypes or personas… These are based on actual qualitative research with children who play on MMOs… MMOs offer players a huge range of activities, which means they can follow their preferences… Some enjoy mostly decorating and taking care of pets… Others prefer competition and exploration… It’s good to offer different experiences to players in MMOs...
- It’s also important to meet the expectations of potential players… if your online campaign or TV advert mention the game’s amazing group battles, you better have them in there - and they’d better be good! The main point here is to remember being authentic, honest, and not too hyper in your marketing… I have a good example from the MMORPG sector - last year we did a global study of players of a certain well-known game, and found out that many younger players were leaving the game very early on after starting it for the first time… we looked at the adverts they were watching, and compared with the game… what happened was that kids were being shown an amazing, high quality cinematic trailer of a game full of action and fighting, but soon after they actually started the game they were introduced to long periods of grinding… they were disappointed and leaving the game. So be careful with setting realistic - accomplishable - expectations. Let’s now look at some stats that show the fundamental importance of the first moments in playing a game
- These stats relate to games on mobile devices… and an analysis of 80 games, to show some of the reasons why players leave freemium games… These stats clearly show the importance of first sessions, and also that designing an effective freemium game is an art of balance… between monetisation, enjoyment, levels of difficulty and amount of resources… On-boarding is also fundamental...
- Here are some more stats… this time based on an analysis of data for 10 million players. Apparently ⅔ drop out from games in the first 24h of trying them… an analyst compared the first experience with a first date - you need to engage with the payer quickly! Another interesting statistic is that 53% of all spending is done within the first week - in MMOs for children we often see that if players haven’t paid for membership in the first week, the likelihood is that they will never pay. Let’s now see how UX can be effective in MMOs for children, in order to lower these kinds of barriers.
- I want to show you 2 examples of good practice. This is the Moshi Monsters homepage The best things about it are: the attractive visual design, a prominent PLAY NOW button in the centre, and the “take a tour” option... Tours and videos are great ways to show what a game has to offer. Some games allow you to email / share the video with a friend, which is good to promote virality
- This one is from Club Penguin… The best things about it are: the rolling images about the game’s features… as an appetizer, and the links for parents easily accesible... Parents are fundamental gatekeepers, and Club Penguin have always catered very well for parents... they send detailed information on their emails, have a parent moderation console, and present plenty of safety certificates and awards… most parents won’t read them, but the more critical and inquisitive will find reassurance...
- The registration process in online games for children is also crucial… we have been moving away from long forms with up to 10-15 fields, and towards simpler, more engaging registration processes. Club Penguin uses a simple method in 2 steps. You pick your penguins colour - which is fun - choose a name, add a password, and a parent email - in the next screen you’re ready to press PLAY NOW
- This one has 3 steps, but 2 of them are fun choices for the player: picking a monster and changing its colour… The information requested is username, password, age and gender. Increasingly game developers are opting for quick registration processes… which means you don’t initially collect useful data such as age and gender… But you can do this in steps, for example asking parents to enter more details when accepting their kids’ registration… CP do a clever thing when parents approve accounts - they can set up parental moderation tools - for example, set up type of chat kids can use, or see how many hours their kid has played. Another way to get more data from your players is to ask them gradually when they go back to the game, offering them some kind of reward. Nobody filling in forms… so you want to keep the registration process as smooth as possible… besides, kids want to jump straight into the action.
- Let’s now talk briefly about the importance of tutorials… these are doubly important for children’s games… children aren’t as experienced in game playing as most teenagers or adults… especially the younger ones, for whom a game may be the first one they try, at least in a certain genre… For the very youngest ages, preschoolers, visual language and sound / voice are fundamental… look for example at the Cbeebies website, and the ways in which their games start with very simple explanations, often using visual and sound clues to explain objectives and how to play a game.
- Just before a mini-game, there is a voice explaining how to control the characters. This is accompanied by text, with highlighted words, and with arrows and icons to represent the actions
- MMOs are more complex, and even older children need some initial hand-holding… this is an example from Moshi, to illustrate our points. When you start the game you are inside your home, and you can see an icon, with the words garden, shining and moving – asking you to be clicked – it’s a bit like Alice in Wonderland’s bottles: “Drink me!” The tutorial uses a mix of text, highlighting, sounds and animations to convey the message in a multimodal way - kids are different, this way you give them options. In the garden you have both text, images and sound to tell you what to do - plant a seed to get a Moshling...
- Then you get an arrow and sparkles asking you to click on the Moshling to open your Moshling book, for more information. The old guy tells you you can do this more often to get other Moshlings… there are loads to collect.
- In-between loading screens you get tips. These are good not only for teaching players about the game, but also to show them there are lots of things they can do in the game! In the case of Moshi, of course their popularity helps… virtually any kid knows what a Moshling is, and that you collect them… but still the game introduces players to these facts and goals… Children need to understand how to move about in the world; they need to understand the goals of the game, and how to reach them… The best kind of tutorial is a PLAYABLE TUTORIAL… which means that instead of just providing explanations, and then let kids play, you actually add the explanations in the game… sometimes using a bit of text, but mostly using visual cues, pointing arrows, highlighting objects, etc… in one word, sign-posting. Playable tutorials are important because many kids don’t want to sit waiting to read instructions, and will just click SKIP A boring tutorial, or no tutorial at all, will quickly result in drop-outs The use of games analytics is fundamental to understand where you’re losing players, and you can improve both the landing page, registration process and onboarding… at Dubit we use a mix of GA, Mix Panel and our own tools to report on more complex data recorded by our game servers.
- Let’s now look at RETENTION strategies… and then CONVERSION strategies… both these sections will be shorter than the part we just ran through on ACQUISITION… think of them as a quick overview of best practice… and do feel free to grab us during the breaks if you want to know more...
- Well… above all you want to design a fun game… fun is a common, but relatively subjective concept… fun for whom? I’d recommend this book as a great starting point… A fun game needs things such as a good balance of difficulty - challenging but not too difficult, sometimes with tips and help after players fail a few times... social features such as sharing scores, challenging friends, leaderboards… or even collaborative play Many games use collectability as a way to engage players - moshlings and puffles are a good example Achievements and rewards are also important… which is linked to leveling-up and player progression
- Players need to have new things to do - launching a game is rarely the end of a game - we now hear the expression “eternal beta” to characterise most games… they’re ever-evolving beings, with designers using game metrics and player research to fine-tune the player experiences In the case of MMOs, they need to offer a lot to explore - they need to be big worlds, and worlds where you may be in the same place but doing something different, for example completing a mission - and offering alternatives to players with different playing styles... And then, as we said, you need to understand your audience - who are you designing a game for? At Dubit we tend to test our ideas with real people, with kids who are potential players… We involve them in co-design sessions, play prototyping, game testing… throughout the process of creating a game, in order to make sure we are going in the right direction. Kids can be amazingly creative - when you direct their energy, you risk getting some really cool ideas for game design!
- OK… so far we’ve seen how to welcome players into your game, and how to keep them playing… now let’s look at ways in which games are being monetised… As we’ve seen before, near the start, there are different ways of monetising freemium games… Here I’ll give you an overview, and reflect a little on what some of these strategies mean for PLAYER EXPERIENCE...
- Some games like CP have special areas that you can only access if you’re a paying member… These areas may also give you access to special in-game events or new mini-games… Kids are motivated by feeling special and part of a special group - which in turn mirrors our society and cultural values - think of VIP areas at train stations and airports...
- You can also pay for a better car, or for a better weapon… Look at Gun Brothers as an example - you could buy a $500 dollar Kraken, the ultimate weapon… even Schwarznegger would be jealous!... I’ve also highlighted the Kraken as an example of a vanity item… Although these are often purely decorative items, with no game functionality, such as outfits, or home decoration items, which many kids love… For children who are growing and defining their identity, games pare part of their social world… they invest emotions in the games, get attached to characters and their avatars, so getting outfits and accessories to fit their style is part of defining their identity...
- Some games give you an opportunity to sin wheels of fortune, or similar, to get prizes - such as desirable items, game currency… But this can sometimes backfire… in RuneScape, the largest freemium MMORPG in the world, many hardcore players reacted very strongly against this introduction… they saw it as going against the “grinding” and hard work spirit of the game… you can’t simply win the magic sword… you need to earn it!
- In Cityville you have to have energy to build… once it runs out - and it does fairly quickly if you play a lot, you have to either buy, or ask some from friends… here progress is linked to social features… this was one of the ways in which Zynga, the makers of Cityville and Farmville, managed to spread their games so far… The downside? How many notifications did you used to get from friends requesting stuff for their games? 10-20 a day! Facebook had to soften down the number of notifications...
- This one is similar to running out of resources… you want to play more but you can’t, unless you wait, or pay, or ask friends… It’s been referred to by commentators as possibly the best strategy used in Candy Crush Saga - together with a visually appealing game, quite a lot of variation within the same theme, and the game’s social side of competition with, and help from, friends
- In the case of collectibles, in games like Club Penguin you have to pay for membership to have access to the rarest puffles… they’re pets, but in a way you’re also collecting them… like Moshlings… many kids love collections, and are motivated to get the rarest items also outside games - think of stickers or Pokemon... We could also talk about monetisation tactics external to the game… for example all the merchandise, or book and film deals that go with games… but that falls outside of UX in the game…
- MMOs are obviously social by nature… they’re multiplayer… you can chat to others, play mini-games in competition, visit their homes, and so on… But nowadays even single player experiences are made social… Candy Crush lets you to see where your friends are on the progress board… Miniclip, one of the leading mini-games portal has player profiles, leaderboards, and allows you to challenge other players… and even so-called social games, on social networking features, are adding more actually social functionality, such as working together in clans to attack other players… Social features are very important. This does not mean that a good single player experience won’t work, just that we’re living through a period where social features are appreciated, and highly effective… 75% of revenue in mobile market comes from games with social features… We’ve seen a lot of success cases… but now let’s take 1 or 2 steps back and look at criticisms on some of the UX and monetisation strategies used in games… we won’t be taking sides, but simply reflect on some of these matters...
- Another current issue is the use if in-app purchases… This was covered extensively in the news some months ago, with headlines in the major newspapers and on TV channels of kids spending hundreds of pounds in in-game purchases without their parents being aware… And just for the record, I have nothing against the Smurfs!
- Which in turn triggered an inquiry and new guidelines from the Office of Fair Trading… [Esther?]
- Recently we have also seen many commentators, including defenders of freemium, claiming that good quality paid games - even in tablets - are on the up, and well worth the money… I’ve brought two examples… The Room, and Monument… both beautifully made games… Other examples of successful premium games - and apps - come from the digital book sector, with story and book apps being sold for as much as £12. Disney Animated is a good example, which won the App of the year 2013. Toca Boca are a very successful developer of apps and games for children - they only have 1 or 2 free titles out of about 20, and have reached the 50 million downloads mark! A proof that premium - or good quality premium - also works...