Indie-Resource.com

Stickyness - something that draws you to interact/click for the first time, then click again, and again, until you've actually played the game to an extent (as opposed to just looked at it from the outside)

I was thinking on how to do this, and thought we could throw ideas back and forth.

What I had in mind was something like you start the game and right after log in or such, you have some page with some text and an image that describes some poor innocents about to be attacked by some nasty things.

Now the first thing is, the page uses refresh, the first at about three seconds, with the new update showing the creatures closer! The text saying they are closer! The graphic showing it too. The refresh happens every few seconds, sending the monsters closer and closer!

And the text says your more powerful than these creatures, and there's an attack button.

So we have a bit of in media res, where instead of the player just passively looking at, say, options like shop or explore, somethings happening right now. And a bad thing seems extremely likely to happen unless the player intervenes!

And so that begins the impetutus for that first click!

And after that? Well, I'll wait to see if there are any comments. Are there better (and yet simple) ways to snag that first click?

What are your thoughts?


Also here's a no login needed version of a mini game I added to my pbbg. It doesn't quite have that grab from above - that's what made me think about this stuff.
http://www.driftwurld.herobo.com/tactics/reapol.php

One thing I have kind of kicked around a bit is to offer a "sample" of the game. What I mean by this, is take your game (be it PHP, Flash or whatever) and create an altered version of the game set to go immediately into the action with a generic character facing generic enemies that are not hooked into the database. You would not have to re-write your entire game, since you would likely just be making about a 5 - 10 minute "highlight" mini-game. Put this right on the front page, where they would only have to make one-click to go directly into the action and play.

Why do something like this? For me personally, what turns me away from browser games is that I have so little invested in them, many of them take so long to get going, and there are so many out there to play for free. I am not going to spend an hour, or even 25-minutes playing a game that is not appealing to me when there are so many other options at my finger tips. But if I can see the meat of the game along with some of the best parts of the game in just a couple of minutes, I can see if the game appeals to me. If that portion of the game does appeal to me, then I will likely be excited to make my own character and start on the real game. The game will be much more sticky for me, because even if it takes me a while to get back to the gameplay that was in the sample, I know what is coming and I will be much more likely to stay with it.

It is also about taking away as many barriers to entry as possible. As odd as it sounds, to your average web surfer today, just filling out a form can feel like a big chore. If I am not even sure I want to make use of your service, the static data on the site is going to have to really wow me before I am going to register for the game, give you my email (whether or not you make me verify it), etc.

I totally agree, Jack. As a side idea I think with clever use of session variables, the player might be able to keep some of his offline stats he garnered, as a further incentive.

But the thing is, I agree so much, I'm onto 'what draws the person to click onto the game, instead of stare blankly at it, then hit the stumble upon button (or whatever)'

I'm thinking emotional grabbers? Like I described above. Any other ideas.

Once you get that first click, it's like the first stone of an avalanche - it can develop into a big storm of clicks

Or another is what about clicking to pick up loot, sans any battle beforehand. Haven't we all clicked many times in diablo or torchlight? Could you start off with a bunch of loot to pick up and perhaps identify without actually having a battle first?

Could that urge to pick up loot be made as a simple way of getting that first click and then more/getting the ball rolling?

Callan S. wrote:Or another is what about clicking to pick up loot, sans any battle beforehand. Haven't we all clicked many times in diablo or torchlight? Could you start off with a bunch of loot to pick up and perhaps identify without actually having a battle first?

Could that urge to pick up loot be made as a simple way of getting that first click and then more/getting the ball rolling?

You could use that as an incentive to work through a tutorial. As we all know, tutorials are a pretty solid way to keep players from quitting in frustration, but if your game is complex, then your tutorial may be so long it causes them to quit from boredom. But if they get to open a treasure chest after each segment of the tutorial and get to click to pick up loot out of it, it may keep their interest while you are educating them on the proper use of the game's interface and mechanics.

Jackolantern wrote:You could use that as an incentive to work through a tutorial. As we all know, tutorials are a pretty solid way to keep players from quitting in frustration, but if your game is complex, then your tutorial may be so long it causes them to quit from boredom. But if they get to open a treasure chest after each segment of the tutorial and get to click to pick up loot out of it, it may keep their interest while you are educating them on the proper use of the game's interface and mechanics.

In a PBBG - you could consider using lots of tooltips or hint boxes as an alternative to a complex tutorial. In the actual tutorial you could just explain the basics of the game - attacking, defending, moving etc.

On the original topic: I always thought stickiness actually refers to what gets your players to come back as opposed to just registering and playing for a sort of makeshift demo.

If that is the case, than what you really need are things that make your players almost need to come back to do. Daily quests, events, etc.

As for hooking the new players, I don't think using emotional grabs will work for everyone. If you're game is aimed at text-based PBBG players, than yes, it will probably hook some. But you have to think of all the different types of players (after you've produced a target demographic), and how you will please each of them, without pissing the other groups off too much. (No game will ever satisfy everyone playing)

I'll break down player types into three main groups:
Elitists: Hardcore players belong to this group. These are the guys who eventually set up sites exposing how hit percentage is calculated, providing strategies to get all the best gear etc. They find the best builds and gear, and they love to rise to the top. You can satisfy them with replayability: Give them something to do once they've gotten to the top. Frequently release more end-game quest content. Make PVP available. Make a hardcore (permadeath) mode if possible.

Social Types: These are the players who love community. They love features like chat, guilds, marriage systems etc. Roleplayers also belong to this category. To satisfy them make it easy to communicate and find other players for them to get along with. The group can conflict sometimes with the elite players, as sometimes they don't care to put enough effort into knowing the game mechanics, thus "slowing down" progress for the power gamers.

Casual: This is probably the most broad category. Gimmicks and mini-games might attract them. These are the direct opposite of the elite players, and want the game to be simpler. You can satisfy them by providing rewards early on, to give them a sense of accomplishment.

- There are of course, many people who fall in-between.

Anyway that's my short player analysis. Maybe someone can expand on this and we can make a guide!

kaos78414 wrote:In a PBBG - you could consider using lots of tooltips or hint boxes as an alternative to a complex tutorial. In the actual tutorial you could just explain the basics of the game - attacking, defending, moving etc.

The problem with that is that makes the assumption that players will even have an idea of where to mouse over and when. If players have very little invested in your game (and most PBBGs have nothing but a minute or so to fill out a form invested), they are not likely to hunt around the screen reading every tooltip. I really like the idea of having a tutorial hand out large (-sounding) rewards to players with almost every click through the tutorial. It would allow you to educate your players on how to play while giving them constant reward of pushing on.

kaos78414 wrote:On the original topic: I always thought stickiness actually refers to what gets your players to come back as opposed to just registering and playing for a sort of makeshift demo.

Stickiness encompasses everything that tries to keep people from leaving/not coming back, period. It includes, keeping them on your page on first visit, subsequent visits, getting them to even come back for a subsequent visit, etc. You can break that down to whatever you want to focus on, however.

Kaos, I think your gamer types work in terms of like were trying to make nets that catch fish. And a certain type of net catches one type of fish, another sort of net catches another.

But what I want to get into is what is gameplay like, not in a broad overall sense, but from the moment to moment from first contact with the front page, like? In otherwords, what are the exact particulars of the net?

Actually, speaking of that, what sort of 'fish' are going to go past? I'm thinking your casuals are more likely to be 'tourists', along with a smattering of hardcore, who have already beaten another game. I'm thinking the socials don't swim around much and stay in their 'schools'

Actually that reminds me - I've always wondered if wow was shut down for two months, whether it'd get back even half it's player base, OR whether, when they all form social circles on other games, a vast swatch of previous wow customers would just stay there. Which would prove wow player base has nothing to do with game play or game design, it's just where a high number of socials have collected and socials stay where other socials stay.

Anyway, I grant your position that you can't grab everyone. I'm just wondering how to make a net that say, grabs one in twenty passers by to the game? Or is that too high a number to shoot for, perhaps? What do you guys think?

It would be interesting to see what would happen if WoW did close down for a period of time. Personally, I think people stick with it because of the perceived feeling of how much they have achieved in the game, and how much they feel like they would lose. It is one of the addictive elements of MMORPGs: you can't close your account! You would lose everything you have worked for! It would be like burning your house down with all of your stuff in it. Even if, in reality, a second play through from scratch could gain you the same things back in 1/10th the time it took to begin with, or less even (people can get to the level cap in less than a week if they are motivated).

So to me, what would be interesting is actually not if the game went down, but if everything was somehow permanently wiped. How many people could stand to start over after they have lost their entire "digital life"? Some people may even feel relieved, having wanted to explore other games, but felt they had no choice but to stay with their investment. Granted, I doubt anyone would feel that way at first, but I think it would be an eventual realization to some. I held on to my WoW and FFXI accounts for over a year without logging into them once just because of all the time I put into them.

I agree with Jackolantern. My WoW accounts are still around, and active. For no reason at all haha. I haven't logged into them in about a year.

I don't plan to either, but that's just because I don't like how the game has changed. Everyone in my house plays WoW, so I asked what they would do, and the responses were varied:
"If my account got deleted, I would say 'Darn' and make my characters again."
"I'm probably going to close my account anyway."
"I haven't leveled a character to 80 anyway, I just play on the Arena servers." (the arena servers give you a geared level 80 and tons of gold to just PVP to your hearts content)

It's hard to say where all the players would go. I imagine most would begin the hunt, looking for that MMO that can occupy all the time they spent playing WoW. I'm still hunting for that MMO; and have yet to find the one that really hooks me in.

Callan S. wrote:But what I want to get into is what is gameplay like, not in a broad overall sense, but from the moment to moment from first contact with the front page, like? In otherwords, what are the exact particulars of the net?

That's a very difficult question to answer. Getting them to click that "Register" button is difficult in it's own right. Really though, I've signed up for tons of games just because the creator talked about it in some forums somewhere. Giving the creator (you, in this case) a face really helps make players feel welcome. Like they are part of the beginning of something. Having a news stream on the front page could also help show that you are making frequent updates, and can help get a visitor to try out your game.

I think that if the game looks active, people will try it out with the mentality that "Hey, looks like a lot of people like this game!" I do that with Facebook games, the more players they have, the more I am tempted to try it out.

Anyway, I'm only speaking from what attracts me personally to a game, I can't speak accurately for everyone else.