You might have heard the words “casual gaming” and “gamification” a lot these days. Thanks to mobile devices and social networks, games are reaching new customers. Publishers target these “casual gamers” with simpler gameplay, no required continuous commitment (you can play in short bursts) and new business models (low pay-per-downloads price or free-to-play). EA’s Peter Moore describes his company’s vision about this new, disruptive era (See Part I).

Given this new landscape, it is no wonder why other applications now includes gaming dynamics: Part II. explains John Ferrara’s Elements of Player Experience, which provides inspiring insights for implementing gamification into your applications.

Part I. Game industry: “the times are changing”

EA Sports’ Peter Moore said at MI6 game marketing conference that the game industry is facing disruption. This creative destruction resembles the changes the music industry underwent with the rise of Napster and the digitization.

• Game companies have to experiment other business models, including free-to-play, virtual goods, subscription, advertising and pay-per-download. Digital game now adds up to 45 % of the total industry revenues (31 % in 2008). This will help games take off for segments and countries that can’t afford $60 games (EA expects the number of players to multiply from 250 m to 3 bn over time).
• “The ability to coalesce your development around one console is gone” Customers plays game on mobile devices, tablets, computer, console, browsers and social networks (it represented $1 bn in 2010).
• Digitization hits the industry. At the end, consumers will choose: only the most convenient business model will win.
• “Every game now has to be socially engaging.”

EA’s facts & figures:

• #1 in mobile games
• #2 in social games on Facebook
• #1 in casual webgames
• A $3.74 bn game business
• Direct relationships with more than 230 m players
• 3.5 m players on its Facebook version of FIFA

Part II. The Elements of Player Experience

John Ferrara proposes a simplified model to successfully design engaging and enjoyable games.

Although it has intentionally been written for game designers, it will provide great inspiration for those looking to instill some game dynamics in their software (gamification).

1. Motivation which comprises two main elements:
   • Short term motivation or up-front “interestingness”: for Pac-Man, it’s the race to clear the board
   • Long term motivation or systems of rewards: being the first in the leaderboard
2. Meaningful choices: “games work best when there’s a partial ambiguity between which actions will result in better or worse outcome”.
   • Long term: chess relies heavily on long-term strategy
   • Short term: tactics in sport games or first-person shooter
3. Balance: is the game appropriately challenging? Only iterative prototyping and testing will solve your problems, given games’ complexity and dynamic nature.
4. Usability: it includes all the UX concerns, plus some usability considerations that are specific to games: players should have a sensible experience and a sense of control. For instance, they should understand why they lost and attribute it to a cause.
5. Aesthetics, which can have a profound impact, as shown by Red Dead Redemption.
   • Long term: narratives
   • Short term: images, sounds, haptics (including 
     ), etc.

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Sources:

• GamesBeat, EA Sports chief says game makers face disruption, transformation, and digitization
• UXMagazine, The Elements of Player Experience

This article was originally published on FaberNovel’s blog
Photo Credits: Flickr CC docpop