Worlds in Motion Summit - Monday
Some brief notes from the Worlds in Motion Summit at the Game Developers Conference two weeks ago in California. Apologies for how late these are, and for the formatting.
Raph Koster:
- why should gamers or anyone care
- asy for us to talk but we are not a rep sample
- we all already see the potential and therefore we are here
- showed images of games and darfur
- and where he grew up in haiti and katrina
- so the question is what vws mean in a larger sense
- doesnt really have anything new to say
- it should always be about the people not the tech
- we still dont take players rights seriously
- we mostly use in jokes and jargon
- we need to think of users and customers and the broad consumer base
- what is the imperative
- most mmo worlds are disneyland
- most vws are no better
- vws should be able to get past the tragedy of the commons
- what is our flying car
- replicating life in a new context is not an advance
- but he still believes that vws can have an impact on society
- any screen any device
- we should care bc vws are dead vive vws
- there is just this world
- vws are windows to communities and the real world
- its about connecting and what you do with the vw
casual games business models
- try and buy
- download free trials, then buy
- subscription model, pay per month, play as much as you want
- acquisition costs are high, very few subscribe
- per session or per play, it’s like an arcade
- portal placement and vertical inetgration - keep more of your revenue
- ad-sponsored models
- web-based games is the intersection here
- but selling ads is hard
- retail has good pay-out, but inventory risk, returns, etc and shelf space is expensive
- casual games are hte most common mobile games
- but mobile is tough too - many different handsets to support and you need many games
- most will not download so you need to bundle = shelf space = expensive
- console sales are interesting because the market is good - gamers are accustomed to paying a lot for games so casual games are cheap for them
- 3-6 people to create a casual game
freetoplay.biz, Adrian Cook
- gave some examples of other applications, e.g. free to rock, free to fly
- means getting numerous revenue models for monetizing attention and traffic
- players play without playing
- means more players
- showed examples, kartrider, club penguin, webkinz
- 91% of kids play free to play games
- many different models; virtual item sales - users set their ceiling
- item value driven by rarity, price, utility, visibility/status
- dual currency systems: attention-based (rewards for time spent, etc) and real-money based
- 5-10% conversion rate; 95% never buy
- item decay was cited as another example of a type of item; hotornot.com had a $10 virtual rose that was their most popular item
- merchandise (retail/toys)
- collectible cards
- information sale - they sell aggregated data; and you fill out marketing surveys to get items
- advertising
- auctions
- event fees
- real estate
- affiliates
- donations
- respect the free players: they make your world go around
- support on-board graphics; 80% of free game players have on-board (may not be 100% accurate; reported by nexon)
- be browser-based or small download
- regional payment systems (not all online credit cards; use kiosks, sms, etc)
- short compulsion loops - i need to be able to get something out of the game in 5 minutes; this is something we have to look at for twinity because it takes a long time to start twinity, load the lobby and actually get somewhere and load the location before you can really do anything
- defer user sign-up; let people play to try it out; they just lose progress unless they sign up at the end of their session or sign up at the beginning
- challenges:
- virtual property law
- broadband speeds
- dev costs
- secondary markets
- most free to play is under 18; after 18, males go to the console, females stop gaming
- trends/opportunities:
- social networks, mobile
- moving away from walled gardens
- most are spread virally, word-of-mouth, look at miniclip portal
- to increase conversion, look at what your model is and what context; if virtual items, make more compelling items or more useful items; decrease payment friction;
guy from rmbr.com; funware (sorry - missed his name)
- any application of a game for some other purpose
- ebay, facebook, yahoo! answers are funware; they have status games, etc
- anything on the web would benefit from being more fun
- new users prefer to interact thru a game metaphor
- facebook is an example of easy: easy, real, free, fun and has a status game
- girls prefer 2d; boys prefer 3d; 70% preference level
- almost all media is 2d
- the page metaphor is now the dominant interface - you have a page that is your launching point
- rmbr builds microgames from your pictures, like memory, tagging games, what your friends said about pix, which pix they uploaded
- wants shopping, travel and automotive/product, financial services companies to be more fun
- asia will be the next hollywood
