Filed under: Research by Digado

The games of today are no longer the simple mind challenges such as Tetris and Donkey Kong. Games have evolved to complex, social environments, aimed to challenge and entertain the user. The educational value of games has been much discussed, but what can companies and their marketers learn from these immersive worlds which keep millions of users fascinated on a daily basis.

1. ‘Socially Excusable Meetings’

I’m not the first to say games such as Wold of Warcraft resemble ‘golf’ in a lot of ways. A social excuse to meet and interact - share experiences while killing a few creatures or completing gaming goals that don’t require a lot of attention. This creates easy, low-level interaction and links between player. The kind of relation building the people behind Facebook would do well to learn from. The step to approach a complete stranger is a lot easier when compared to non-gaming environments. In games you always have the excuse of helping each other out in the game while chatting casually.

2. Create Clear Objectives

The goals in games are often related to quests - they have one or a series of tasks you will be able to perform and are clear about the reward. Obtaining the reward is the goal, and these quests have step by step instructions on how to achieve it. Being clear about the objective helps your users estimate whether the reward for their ‘actions’ is appropriate beforehand, preventing disillusioned customers after purchase.

3. Instant rewarding

Games are able to keep their users attention for a long period of time, because of the constant cycle of small, instantaneous rewards. Instant gratification of very minor ‘needs’ to achieve a greater goal. ‘Experience’ or gold for slaying a monster, or doing a ’sub quest’ to advance a storyline. It pays to find a way to give your user small rewards for their attention. Motivate by providing answers to teaser questions or unlock (small) premium services to motivate potential/new/returning customers.

4. Create a ‘common’ Goal

In games, armies of players can be mobilized quite easily if all players involved have something to gain from the same (clear) goal. Beating a fearsome opponent, solving a puzzle or completing tasks that require more than one user. On the internet mass collaboration works best if you can formulate a common goal - like co-writing a book or blog for shared attention, or raising a certain amount of money for charity. User participation has never been this important, creating tempting, realistic and measurable goals that can be achieved by a mass-effort will get you a lot of attention within communities.

5. Challenge your User

The players in games are willing to listen, learn and even practice for hours if you challenge them enough to do so. Find a way to tease your user, grab their attention with something that will both entertain and educate them. Create a challenge for your customers to explore your product, with immersive tutorials, interactive prototypes or storytelling. All of these can be used to tell some difficult details about your product, or explain very complicated properties.

6. The Value of Status

In gaming there are five characteristics of players. Each of these characteristics can be represented in a user, but usually one more is dominate over the other. These characteristics are:

1. The Explorer - They enjoy exploring the rich environment and possibilities of the game
2. The Artist - They enjoy the story advancement, character developments, role playing, music or graphics behind the game
3. The Social User - They care about the community inside games, chatting, grouping and sharing - the social experience
4. The Gamer - They enjoy the challenge and the the game mechanics, puzzles/combat of the game
5. The Achiever - The challenge of the achiever is to be the best, the absolute top of the game, and to be ahead of the rest.

The latest characteristic, is by far the most dominant in massive multi player games. Status is everything to these players. Whether it be to have the best weapon, the most gold or experience, or the best at ‘Player VS Player’. In Second Life or other Virtual Worlds status will always be a huge factor, and people will do a lot to get ‘ahead of the rest’. Think of exclusive products, elite products, or status branding to cater to the players who prefer to stand out.

7. Create ‘epic’ Experiences

In Word to Mouth in social networks it’s not always the product that gets talked about, especially if the product is nothing really remarkable by itself. In games, what gets a lot more attention in is the process of acquiring your items (products). Events that stay stuck in your mind as being exciting, and rewarding experiences you would not hesitate to repeat. 3d Virtual Worlds provide the tools to create these ‘epic’ experiences, where you recall the process of buying the product a lot more then the product itself.

Posted on: January 10, 2008 | Share on: