If you’re running a gaming business, then encouraging players to come back for more should be a primary concern. It’s far more difficult to draw in a new player than it is to tempt back an existing one.
By providing a compelling experience and pushing a few specific psychological buttons, game designers have the opportunity to drive player loyalty in a way that other businesses can’t. Let’s take a look at a few specific ways of doing this.
Game mechanics
To begin with, the mechanics of the game will need to be sound. This means thorough testing. The game will need to be challenging enough to be stimulating, but not so challenging that it’s boring. The player will need to be constantly re-engaged, and persuaded to take action, through in-game cues.
When the rewards are slightly random and varied, players become much more likely to play. After all, when the rewards are predictable, we’re likely, on a subconscious level, to take them for granted. When they’re varied, we tend to be much more motivated to hoard – as we might not know when the resource will dry up.
Player connection
Getting a player emotionally engaged in a game can sometimes be difficult, especially if the game in question is more abstract and numbers-based. Narrative-driven adventures which have storytelling and characters as standard tend to have an easier time forging a deeper connection. In many cases, those more abstract experiences are increasingly making use of narrative elements borrowed from other genres.
Progression systems
When the action persists from one session to the next, players are given a reason to come back. What if you were on the cusp of a new achievement, level, or event? What if you’ve recently crossed such a threshold, and you’d like to explore the implications? In both cases, you’ll have a good reason to come back. It’s no accident that the best Megaways slots games tend to use a combination of layered progression features to keep players coming back for more.
Community features
When you can interact with other players and engage with a vibrant community via chat rooms and leaderboards, you might have a social reason to come back, which is only faintly related to gaming. In some cases, the friends you make, and the rivalries you build, can lead to a given virtual space becoming an important and valued part of your identity. In short, it feels good to play – and, ideally, to play with other people.