1. The
Quest
for
Aesthe-cs
in
a
Metrics-‐driven
Business
Games
Conven-on
Online
Leipzig,
July
9,
2010
Aki
Järvinen
Lead
Social
Designer
July
11,
2010
2. Aki
Järvinen,
Social
Game
Developer,
Ph.D
Aki Järvinen has a unique mix of experience from:
Mobile game design
Online & Social game design
Online gambling design
Board game design
User experience design
Business development
Academic research & development
Since 2009, focusing on Social Games:
• first doing contract work for startups in both
in the US & Scandinavia
• from 2010, as the Lead Social Designer &
Product Owner at Digital Chocolate, Sumea
Studio, in Helsinki, Finland
3. DChoc:
From
Mobile
to
Social
Games
http://apps.facebook.com/mmaprofighter/
http://apps.facebook.com/nanostarsiege/
http://apps.facebook.com/millionairecity/
http://apps.facebook.com/safarikingdom/
4.
5. The
Problem
• The
session
-tle:
‘How
to
get
the
player
playing’
• Context
of
the
talk:
Social
Games
Business
Development
from
a
player
experience
perspec-ve
• =
‘How
to
acquire
&
retain
players
in
the
social
games
market’
• ...
and,
according
to
the
freemium
model,
ul-mately
mone-ze
a
percentage
of
them
• ...
while
they
have
social
fun
6. On
to
specifics
• What
do
the
aesthe-c
aspects
of
social
games
mean
for
acquisi-on,
reten-on,
and
mone-za-on?
– What
characterizes
‘aesthe-cs’
of
social
games?
– How
does
it
relate
to
common
metrics
used
to
evaluate
social
games?
– How
can
we
employ
the
discourse
of
online
business
development
to,
actually,
talk
about
aesthe-cs?
7. What
makes
social
games
‘tasty’?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/anitajamal/
8. Solu-on
• Social
&
Service
Design
Contexts
• Social
Games
as
metrics-‐driven
products
• Social
games’
aesthe-cs
-‐
what
is
that?
• Aesthe-cs
vs
Metrics:
Who
wins?
• Take-‐away:
Metrics-‐conscious
yet
aesthe-cs-‐
driven
mindset
for
itera-ve
social
game
development
9. Solu-on
• Social
&
Service
Design
Contexts
• Social
Games
as
metrics-‐driven
products
• Social
games’
aesthe-cs
-‐
what
is
that?
• Aesthe-cs
vs
Metrics:
Who
wins?
10. Social
design
• ‘The
gameplay
experience
ends
up
simply
being
another
point
along
that
service
chain.’
(Andrew
Meyer)
• Social
design
is
the
concep-on,
planning,
and
produc-on
of
web
sites
and
applica-ons
that
support
social
interac-on.
(Joshua
Porter)
10
11. Service
Design
• ‘A
service
is
a
chain
of
ac-vi-es
that
form
a
process
and
have
value
for
the
end
user.’
(Dan
Saffer)
• service
design
focuses
on
context,
i.e.
‘the
en-re
system
of
use’.
• and
the
context
for
social
games
is...?
11
13. ‘Social
games’
defined
≈
Online
games
that
adapt
your
online
friendship
-es
for
play
purposes,
while
accommoda-ng
your
daily
rou-nes
13
14. Solu-on
• Social
&
Service
Design
Contexts
• Social
Games
as
metrics-‐driven
products
• Social
games’
aesthe-cs
-‐
what
is
that?
• Aesthe-cs
vs
Metrics:
Who
wins?
16. Metrics-‐driven
vs.
Visionary
design
• ‘Consul0ng
metrics
is
no
different
than
consul0ng
focus
groups,
only
on
a
much
larger
scale,
and
with
infinitely
more
frequency
and
granularity.
They
can
tell
you
if
a
design
choice
works
or
not.
[...]
no
feature
goes
into
any
game
unless
there's
a
business
objec0ve
it
sa0sfies,
be
it
increased
engagement,
virality,
immersion.‘
– Chris
Pasley,
ex-‐director
of
Kongregate
[reference]
18. Pivo-ng
your
product
• Dave
McClure’s
AARRR
‘pirate’
metrics
for
startups:
[link]
– Acquisi-on
– Ac-va-on
– Reten-on
– Referral
– Revenue
• Metrics
are
about
customer
development
&
product-‐
market
fit
• Lean
startups
combine
agile
development
methods
with
customer
insights
from
metrics
19. Metrics’
quali-es
• Ac-onable
– inform
design/development
solu-ons
immediately
– note
the
difference
to,
e.g.,
academic
research
• Accessible
– understand
what
they
really
measure
• Auditable
– ‘metrics
are
people
too’
(Eric
Ries)
– i.e.
the
qualita-ve
dilemma:
can
we
validate
that
players
really
did
what
the
metrics
claimed
they
did?
20. Key
business
metrics
• Acquisi-on
&
Referral
metrics:
“Key metrics are 1 day, 3 day, 7 day
– DAU
–
Dailyac-ve
users
retention, then long term retention. 1
day retention target is 30-60%, less
– DVU
–
Daily
viral
users
than 30% and you may not have a
– k
–
viral
coefficient
fixable game.” – from Social Gaming
Summit 2010 roundtable
• Ac-va-on
metrics:
– in-‐game
behavior:
gameplay,
-me
spent,
virtual
economy,
viral
ac-vity
• Reten-on
metrics:
– DAU
–
Daily
ac-ve
users
– DAU/WAU
–
ra-o
of
daily/weekly
players
– DAU/MAU
–
The
‘s-cky
factor’,
long
term
reten-on
• Mone-za-on
metrics:
– ARPU
–
Average
revenue
per
user
20
– ARPPU
–
Average
revenue
per
paying
user
21. Metrics
&
Marke-ng
driven
• To
get
to
1
million
DAUs
=
$2-‐3
million
marke-ng
budget,
es-mates
RockYou's
Jia
Shen.
• Do
the
math:
$2M/360
≈
$5,5k
marke-ng
spend
per
day
• Bopom
line:
In
today’s
Facebook,
viral
and
game
quality
only
goes
so
far
– viral,
cross-‐promo-on,
and
marke-ng
contribute
roughly
1/3
each
to
number
of
users
acquired
– one
can
buy
players
for
any
app
through
marke-ng
– and
earn
players
through
the
cross-‐promo-on
leverage
from
a
hit
21
22. Acquisi-on
&
Ac-va-on
processes
• Viral
–
persuading
via
social
proof
• Cross-‐promo-on
–
persuading
your
exis-ng
customers
to
spend
more
-me
with
you
• Adver-sing
–
persuading
those
are
seeking
social
entertainment
to
click
on
your
ad
• Each
account
for
roughly
1/3
of
new
customer
acquisi-on
23. Viral
is
Social
Proof
ignored
http://www.flickr.com/photos/designdamage/
24. Customer
Journey
through
Gameplay
• First
week:
– Completes
the
tutorial:
‘First
five
minutes’
[
Gamasutra
Feature]
– Leveling
structure
as
mo-va-on
&
reten-on
mechanic
– Hits
The
Wall
–
the
-pping
point
for
mone-za-on;
‘crea-ng
a
problem
and
selling
back
the
solu-on’
– 80%
of
players
stay
if
you
manage
to
retain
them
for
the
first
week
(Mixpanel)
• Second
week:
– Balancing
act
–
how
to
keep
the
non-‐paying
customers
so
that
they
provide
value
for
the
paying
ones
25. Game
mechanics
are
key
• S-ll,
gameplay
mapers
–
it
is
the
heart
of
reten-on,
referral,
revenue
• Gameplay
is
experienced
through
game
mechanics
• Game
Mechanics
are
– ‘a
collec-on
of
tools
and
systems
that
an
interac-ve
designer
can
use
to
make
an
experience
more
fun
and
compelling’.
(Amy
Jo
Kim)
– they
are
the
emo-onal
basis
for
game
experiences
– what
makes
up
(social)
game
aesthe-cs
26.
27.
28. Game
mechanics
drive
reten-on
&
revenue
• In
a
freemium
business
model,
all
‘game
mechanics’
are
reten-on
mechanics
• ...that
gear
towards
mone-za-on,
by
imposing
in-‐game
goals
that
become
The
Wall
29. Solu-on
• Social
&
Service
Design
Contexts
• Social
Games
as
metrics-‐driven
products
• Social
games’
aesthe-cs
-‐
what
is
that?
• Aesthe-cs
vs
Metrics:
Who
wins?
30. Aesthe-cs:
Game
Design
Context
• MDA
design
framework
(Hunicke
et
al.
2004):
– ‘Aesthe-cs
describes
the
desirable
emo-onal
responses
evoked
in
the
player,
when
she
interacts
with
the
game
system.’
• Swink:
Game
Feel
31. Aesthe-cs:
Game
studies
context
1. Game
aesthe-cs
refers
to
the
sensory
phenomena
that
the
player
encounters
in
the
game
(visual,
aural,
hap-c,
embodied).
2. Game
aesthe-cs
refers
to
those
aspects
of
digital
games
that
are
shared
with
other
art
forms.
3. Game
aesthe-cs
is
an
expression
of
the
game
experienced
as
pleasure,
emo-on,
sociability,
forgiving,
etc
(with
reference
to
”the
aesthe-c
experience”).
• Simon
Niedenthal,
Malmö
University:
‘What
We
Talk
About
When
We
Talk
About
Game
Aesthe-cs’
hpp://www.digra.org/dl/db/09287.17350.pdf
32. Aesthe-cs
of
Social
Games
• =
look
&
feel,
including
social
interac-on
and
constraints,
such
as
ga-ng
content,
that
the
freemium
business
model
imposes
• Social
game
aesthe-cs
are
anchored
in
the
following
aspects:
– ‘clickability’
– crea-ng
&
acknowledging
social
proof
both
through
viral
&
gameplay
– unlocking,
by
grinding
and/or
paying
33. Aesthe-cs
behind
the
Metrics
Aesthe-cs
Metrics:
examples
clickability
-me
per
session,
funnels:
tutorial,
payment,
...
social
graph
viral
feeds
/
invites
sent,
friends
in
the
game,
...
unlocking
level
progression,
money
spent,
...
37. Solu-on
• Social
&
Service
Design
Contexts
• Social
Games
as
metrics-‐driven
products
• Social
games’
aesthe-cs
-‐
what
is
that?
• Aesthe-cs
vs
Metrics:
Who
wins?
39. There
is
no
juxtaposi-on
Aesthetics need Metrics for a Winning Formula
40. The
Problem
Revisited
• ‘Metrics
are
people
too’:
They
are
not
the
whole
(qualita-ve)
truth
• Metrics
are
servants
to
your
‘games
as
service’
development
process
• What
you
pivot
is
gameplay
and
the
player
(customer)
experience,
and
the
metrics
will
follow
• There
is
room
for
innova-on:
Create
aesthe-cs
that
force
you
to
reinvent
metrics!
42. Welcome
to
GDC
Europe!
• Talk
-tled
‘Uncovering
Viral
Mechanics’
at
Cologne
in
August:
– Myths
about
virality
– Iden-fying
the
‘shareworthy’
in
your
game
– Designing
viral
loops
– Case
studies
&
various
examples
of
social
games’
viral
mechanics
• hpps://www.cmpevents.com/GDCE10/a.asp?
op-on=G&V=3&id=680834
