Engage First, Monetize Second

Hi everyone. Before I begin, I'm currently busy working on a table top game so I may miss a week or two of posting on my blog (such as last week).

Now let's get on with it. This week, I want to talk about engaging the audience first before trying to monetize your game. Making profit from your game is fine, but you shouldn't make this the first priority. I know this sounds stupid and perhaps moronic, but what I'm trying to say is... your first priority is to make a game that is engaging. Design your game with the aim to engage, satisfy and hook your players. When you've figured that out, then you can think of how to monetize your game. If you haven't read it already, I previously made a post in the past where I talked about micro-transactions and the do's and don't's. I recommend reading about that before continuing.

So, engaging your audience first... if you can engage the player in your game and hook them in, they wouldn't mind spending more money on your game because they will see the game as worthy of the extra dollars. This is why some people are willing to pay extra for special editions or box sets of a game. This is also how you create game loyalty.

I'm sure you've heard some players asking developers to make a game available on certain systems or re-release a game. For example, some people want Square-Enix to remake Final Fantasy 7 and some want Konami to develop Suikoden 6 or at least make Suikoden II available on the PlayStation Network. These people are willing to spend more money on games that they most likely already played. But the reason why they want this is because they loved the games.

This is your main goal, make the players fall in love with your game. If a person loves something, they won't hesitate to spend money on it (just like partners and hobbies). The thing you want players asking themselves is "is this game worthy of my time and money?". However, be careful that you aren't using the Skinner Box method to falsely engage the players. You want them to truly like your game.

If you don't know what a Skinner Box is, you should watch this video:

Skinner Box

Anyway, I'll use myself as an example. I've played many MMOs and MMORPGs since I started with Ragnarok Online back in high school (back when Ragnarok was free to play). Each one I've played, there was always a Cash Shop where you can spend money to buy extra stuff. But I never did. Then DLC content became popular and even then I wouldn't spend money on them, despite me liking the games. But last year I broke my streak with Guild Wars 2.

I had spent not only around $270 on the Collector's Edition, but an additional $180 through micro-transactions (buying both convenience and vanity items) and I may spend more in the future. Guild Wars 2 is the only game where I have spent additional money on it on top of its retail price. That's how much I love the game. Mind you, the additional content are purely optional. You can do nearly everything else in the game for free from the exploration, living stories, PvP, WvWvW and so forth.

Anyway, that's it for this week. Thanks for reading!