Make your game worth playing.

[sniko]

How to make your game worth playing? Introduction...

This is simple to answer, but can become complex to put into a game, especially one which is out of pre-production, but can be done. Basically, you are trying to target an audience by primarily offering fun, but how does that differ from anything else on the internet in the same genre as you? Simple. It doesn't. And fun is so vague, how can you cater for that person in particular, when you are offering the same thing to a wide audience? You can't.

The uses and gratification theory targets a wide audience as well as the individuals - at the same time. This theory basically states function to target individuals and society, grabbing their attention and gaining more traffic (sales, as it is used on tv advertisements, but it can be easily implemented to anything).

In 1974 Blulmer and Katz expanded the theory. The expansion is what i think will benefit a game owner more as it includes better functions to attract your target audience.

 

How to make your game worth playing? The How To...

I've seen many advertisements stating that this game is the best ever and such, but i doubt it attracts a lot of people, yes it will attract some, but it doesn't actually state how or why, does it? So, it attract more people, you need to say how and why your game is different to those out there on the internet (which is a big place) and you need to get people to choose your game over others. This is simple. You need to state the following;

 

Diversion - escape from everyday problems and routine.

Personal Relationships - using the media for emotional and other interaction, eg) substituting soap operas for family life

Personal Identity - finding yourself reflected in texts, learning behaviour and values from texts

Surveillance - Information which could be useful for living eg) weather reports, financial news, holiday bargains

 

How to make your game worth playing? An Example...

 

* Referring to the section above

Take Torn for example, a very successful game. But why so successful? Because it has implement all the function of the uses and gratification theory. For example, you can escape from everyday problems and routine by entering the world of Torn (similar to the real world, by offering real life things, such as a very detailed precise newspaper system, which is linked in with the game, such as the Stock Prices feature, which shows a graph of decremental and incremental of the values of stock. They also offer personal identity, as you can do anything in Torn which is available in real life, such as the gym.

 

 

How to make your game worth playing? How to go about doing it...

 

Simple. You need to invest time and imagination, whilst reflecting on real life things, but in a fictional manor. More over, if you do it successfully, you most probably don't need to spend a lot on advertisements, as word of mouth works like a charm. You could also look into physiological things to implement into your game, such as awards, when to awards and how often.

 

But above all, you need a friendly atmosphere for players which offers real time help (interactive tutorials etc) and the player needs to get some kind of award from playing your game, but not the kind of reward of bribery, like at the end of the year, you can win a Ps3. You need to structure your game to make it unique and worth playing because why play something if its not worth your time, as time is very scarce to a human, why would they waste it....?

 

I hope you enjoyed reading and gained something from it.

 

-sniko