Blue Bat Games CEO Kenny Huang discusses the importance of gamification in social casino titles
Morgan Stanley ‘s recent report “Social Gambling, Click Here to Play” indicates social casinos will become a $7B market within the next two years. Social gambling is a high revenue, high margin business that benefits from the network effect to create explosive player growth. The online gambling industry will see thousands of digital, global casino games converging into social within the next 2 years. Invariably, it’s still early days, but the days where you can quickly produce a low quality, undifferentiated slot game on Facebook/mobile is over. Players are looking for unique and relevant experiences. So how do you as an operator satisfy this need to create an immersive, engaging social experience with your casino games?
What motivates players to play, when there’s no cash out?
Before digging any deeper, we need to understand our core player’s motivation.
As an industry, we have invested a lot of time and effort into converting the social players into real money players, with less than stellar success. A real money player may have motivation and grand visions of winning the jackpot, but the social player will have no illusions of winning any cash – they can’t in this free to play , virtual goods environment.
But despite this , we know they play. There are 173 million active social gambling players per month who do so without the prospect of a real money payout.
Why do they play?
Quite simply: Because it is entertainment! Their motivation is simply “to keep playing and to stay in the zone where nothing else matters.”
What is Gamification?
Understanding this motivation means that the number one objective must be engagement. Time is the most valuable currency our players have to give.
Gamification is taking the best of traditional video game design, loyalty programs and behavioral economics to increase the recency, frequency, duration of the players. In other words, to increase engagement.
In the context of casino games, gamification means building a meta-game around the core games. For example, a classic slots game is a core game mechanic with a tight compulsion loop at the heart of it . The meta-game around the slots game is the one that gives the game the depth and complexity. It gives meaning to a game that never ends. It captivates the player with rewards that meet or exceed the value they place on financial gain. And in the meantime, it builds perceived value in the items the player earns. Broadly speaking, this balanced control progression uses the following categories:
Points: Experience Point (XP), reputation, skills, etc. Persistent score keeping that the player earns and retains for their lifetime as a player
Achievements/Trophies: this allows the player to achieve more purposeful goals then the simple win/loss. It’s as important of a motivator for two of the 4 typical gamer personas: the achievers and the collectors.
Levels: in order to keep the player engaged, there must be some sort of perceived progression. This can be simply numbered levels, or a real meaningful representation. For example, the belt system in Martial Arts.
Rewards: in the physical casino world, we earn rewards by playing after we sign up for a loyalty card at the casino. In the virtual world, we can still offer the same intrinsic rewards. Our goal is to give out something of value that can be converted either into time (coins for the slot machine) or converted into something physical in the outside world (gift cards, discounts, giveaways, hotel credits).
What is Social Gamification?
Social Gamification extends the gamification principals of single player game to a multiplayer game.
Broadly speaking, there are five categories
Identity: how does gamification shape or promote a player’s social identity and social importance rather than personal identity? What is the player proud of? What would they want to brag to their friends about after they leave a physical casino?
Privacy: this is important in the context of Facebook; the player is disclosing personal information, for what purpose? And do we really need to post on the user’s behalf?
Connections: What are the common grounds between the players? When we first meet a person in real life, we start by searching for common ground, how do we gamify this experience?
Relationships: Relations are built through lightweight interactions over time. How do we bring low friction ways of this interaction to our game? In a physical casino, buying a person a drink, a high five, a congratulations, all show appreciation and reinforcement. Can we gamify this experience.
Communication: we’ve been telling stories to one another since the beginning of time. This story telling combined with the gamification and achievements moments is very powerful. However, we must concentrate on why the player wants to share this and not just creating an inauthentic message that is auto-generated.
The Next Chapter
In the upcoming months, we will dig into how to apply these powerful social gamification principles to your casino game to transform these games into experiences that are truly social. Everything from levels, achievements rewards, brands, to viral channels and social innovation.
Kenny Huang is the CEO of BlueBat Games – the innovator of BlueBox Engine.
BlueBox is a social gamification engine for casinos that increases player engagement via proven social gamification strategies and mechanisc. It was specifically designed from the ground up for online casinos , enable casino operators to leverage the social network effect and hook players into real life rewards.