Mobile social gaming is the next frontier for gaming. Social games involve single-player mechanics tied to social interactions through friend networks to encourage collaboration, competition and prolonged engagement. Mobile is a powerful gaming platform because of its large user base, personal nature, ability to understand user context, and potential for generating revenue. To be successful on mobile, games must provide social discovery features, engage users where social interactions are meaningful within the game, and integrate billing and monetization in a way that feels transparent and adds perceived value to the user experience. Metrics and iteration are also important to optimize social interactions and monetization.
16. Some learnings:
-! Single-player mechanics can work...
-! ... if tied into social graph.
-! Reward linked to interaction locks in.
-! Collaboration + Competition
-! Tease, test & iterate to maximise interaction
with friends (keep users longer) & spending
points (grow revenues).
30. Mobile is the most powerful digital
medium to date.
Why?
1. It’s big (numbers)
2. It’s personal (nature)
3. It has more context (Identification
of needs)
4. It can make you money
32. 475,000,000
Daily circulation of newspapers
825,000,000
Registered cars
1,800,000,000
Unique credit card holders
2,250,000,000
Tooth brushes in use
4,000,000,000
FM Radios
4,965,000,000
Mobile phone subscriptions
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Numbers_grid_in_NY.jpg vo sc
33. 28% 25%
72% 75%
No Internet Mobile
Internet No Mobile
1.9 bn users 5.0 bn users
34. V ~N 2
http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs16/f/2007/141/6/1/Size_Matters_by_seenew.jpg Metcalfe’s Law
36. • 91% of people have their mobile within arm’s
reach 24/7. Morgan Stanley 2007
• 60% of married people will not share their
mobile with their spouse! Wired Magazine 2006
• It takes an average of 26 h for a user to
report a lost wallet but only 68 minutes to
report a lost mobile phone. Unisys Survey
• 10% of under-25 year-olds find it OK to text
whilst having sex. Retrevo Gadgetology Report, 2010
38. Mobile is a 1st!
1. Personal mass media
2. Always carried
3. Always on
4. Built-in billing system
5. Present at the point of creative impulse
6. Accurate audience identification
7. Captures social context
8. Enables augmented reality
Tomi Ahonen, Mobile as 7th of Mass Media, 2008;
Alan Moore Jonathan MacDonald, The Glittering Allure of the Mobile Society, 2008
39.
40.
41. Why Context Matters?
Scale alone kills conversations,
because they require dense
two-way interaction.
Clay Shirky, “A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy”, Keynote, ETech,
Santa Clara 2003
59. Engage where it matters!
http://www.windsorfinejewelers.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image//t/a/tacori-platinum-round-diamond-semi-mount-engagement-ring.jpg
60. Engage in the game; It’s
Your Real Estate!
http://www.woodlandmanufacturing.com/imagesb/realestate-signs/real-estate-sign-main-lg.jpg
61. How to Engage:
Interaction where it matters
• Peer-to-peer challenges
• Inclusion of mobile-only features
(contextual, geo-aware, etc)
• Achievements, trophies, rewards
• Avenues to friends: finding, gifting,
comparing.
Encourage exchange with people that matter
62. Don’t let them Go...
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_E5cSkRNNzuk/TGeNR0r2AoI/AAAAAAAAJoQ/IASRQyytDxw/s1600/NeverLetMeGoStill2.jpg
63. As to the Vending Machine...
• Integrate billing events where they are:
- relevant (adds value from a user
point of view),
- transparent (don’t con the user), and
- in context (seamless integration into
game mechanic).
• Provide the perception of real value.