"How do games": a two-hour talk about the monetization of online games
On December 8, the release of the podcast "How to make games" about monetization was released. For two and a half hours, the presenters and guests discussed the main monetization metrics, user segmentation, analytics and problems of player motivation, schemes and different monetization models. Below is the full release and key points from it.
Presenters: Sergey Galenkin (Epic Games, Steam Spy) and Mikhail Kuzmin (Herocraft).
Guests: Pavel Golubev (Appodeal), Igor Karev (Tatem Games), Evgeny Sudak (Wargaming).
Monetization is the process of getting money for a product or service one way or another. Subscription, fritupley, insurance policy - all these types of monetization.
Monetization should line up around the audience. You must always understand for whom this or that project is being created. Anyone who is involved in games from the point of view of metrics is worth keeping next to him a person who will look at what you are doing from the perspective of an ordinary consumer.
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To evaluate your actions, pay attention to DAU / MAU, ARPU and their derivatives - ARDAU (ARPU + DAU / MAU), ARPPU (average profit for each paying user). In addition, the conversion is important - you can earn decently, having 0.001% of paying users.
At the heart of any good fritupleynoy games are two things - core gameplay loop and compulsion loop. Sometimes they intersect, sometimes not. Core gameplay loop is a gameplay loop. Compulsion loop - repeatable actions, both inside and outside the core gameplay loop. These are things that a person repeats unconsciously, they are part of the game, but not the gameplay itself: a transition between levels, re-equipping fighters between missions, updating equipment. It is at that moment when the brain, accustomed to the cycle, does not give itself an account of what it is doing, you can throw an advertisement with a special offer into a user, for example.
Another important point is the endorphin swing. In a good game, the complexity curve does not grow, but resembles a stepped sine wave. When a player is on the endorphin wave - he has passed a difficult level, won several rivals in a row - or vice versa, when he falls into a hole, he can be offered something.
Possible parameters for audience segmentation:
Most often, game design is responsible for monetization. At the development stage, it is the game designer who determines which of the mechanics in the game will be monetized and how. And then, when the game goes to the stage of operation, analysts are connected to the work and adjust monetization to the available data. But in general, monetization should change and develop throughout the project’s lifetime.
Motivation can be encouraging and punishing. A punitive is when a player feels “bad”, and they offer him to do “good” for money. The positive is “this is good for you now, and we can do even better,” for example, additional content and bonuses to existing achievements.
There is also a theory of a three-component monetization model. The three main reasons why players pay are social pressure (social), the desire to stand out (vanity) and convenience (utility). For example, the character's skin is “the desire to stand out,” boost is basically “convenience”, but there can be “social pressure” if you play in a group with people.
It is worth remembering that a person usually has a limited amount of money that he is willing to spend on the game. If you often offer the user shares, after a while he will stop paying into the game without shares. At a discount, you can give in-game items, but the currency in the game should always be stable. Video promotion (rewarded videos) can be a reward option for users. Proper implementation of rewarded video — when advertisements are seen by users who definitely won't pay — can increase the total game revenue by up to 20%.
Participants of the issue:
Presenters: Sergey Galenkin (Epic Games, Steam Spy) and Mikhail Kuzmin (Herocraft).
Guests: Pavel Golubev (Appodeal), Igor Karev (Tatem Games), Evgeny Sudak (Wargaming).
What is monetization and how to set it up?
Monetization is the process of getting money for a product or service one way or another. Subscription, fritupley, insurance policy - all these types of monetization.
Monetization should line up around the audience. You must always understand for whom this or that project is being created. Anyone who is involved in games from the point of view of metrics is worth keeping next to him a person who will look at what you are doing from the perspective of an ordinary consumer.
')
To evaluate your actions, pay attention to DAU / MAU, ARPU and their derivatives - ARDAU (ARPU + DAU / MAU), ARPPU (average profit for each paying user). In addition, the conversion is important - you can earn decently, having 0.001% of paying users.
When is the right time to monetize?
At the heart of any good fritupleynoy games are two things - core gameplay loop and compulsion loop. Sometimes they intersect, sometimes not. Core gameplay loop is a gameplay loop. Compulsion loop - repeatable actions, both inside and outside the core gameplay loop. These are things that a person repeats unconsciously, they are part of the game, but not the gameplay itself: a transition between levels, re-equipping fighters between missions, updating equipment. It is at that moment when the brain, accustomed to the cycle, does not give itself an account of what it is doing, you can throw an advertisement with a special offer into a user, for example.
Another important point is the endorphin swing. In a good game, the complexity curve does not grow, but resembles a stepped sine wave. When a player is on the endorphin wave - he has passed a difficult level, won several rivals in a row - or vice versa, when he falls into a hole, he can be offered something.
Possible parameters for audience segmentation:
- by tutorial speed
- the frequency of launching the game
- by reaction to promotional offers and promotions
- on the speed of the first purchase
- by frequency of purchases
- average check, etc.
How to motivate a player to pay?
Most often, game design is responsible for monetization. At the development stage, it is the game designer who determines which of the mechanics in the game will be monetized and how. And then, when the game goes to the stage of operation, analysts are connected to the work and adjust monetization to the available data. But in general, monetization should change and develop throughout the project’s lifetime.
Motivation can be encouraging and punishing. A punitive is when a player feels “bad”, and they offer him to do “good” for money. The positive is “this is good for you now, and we can do even better,” for example, additional content and bonuses to existing achievements.
There is also a theory of a three-component monetization model. The three main reasons why players pay are social pressure (social), the desire to stand out (vanity) and convenience (utility). For example, the character's skin is “the desire to stand out,” boost is basically “convenience”, but there can be “social pressure” if you play in a group with people.
It is worth remembering that a person usually has a limited amount of money that he is willing to spend on the game. If you often offer the user shares, after a while he will stop paying into the game without shares. At a discount, you can give in-game items, but the currency in the game should always be stable. Video promotion (rewarded videos) can be a reward option for users. Proper implementation of rewarded video — when advertisements are seen by users who definitely won't pay — can increase the total game revenue by up to 20%.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/319254/
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