true social games - ng11 - slides

8/6/2019 True Social Games - NG11 - Slides

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True Social Games

Why social games aren't that, and how they can be


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2Osma Ahvenlampi - Nordic Game 2011

Osma Ahvenlampi


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Worlds Leading Online Hangout and

Social Game for Teens


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Social places for games, self-

expression and communication


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Games with recruitment hooks

Games with social interaction


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Friend

bar

0%

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90%

100%

Async

Live


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Friend

bar

Giftin

g0%

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Async

Live


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Friend

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Giftin

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Visitin

g0%

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Friend

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Giftin

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Visitin

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Challen

ges

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Friend

bar

Giftin

g

Visitin

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Challen

ges

Chat

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-2000

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0

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Big project, Big launch

Upfront investment recouped in a short sales period

costs revenues cumulative profit

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Early launch, iterative improvement

Gradual rise of continuous sales

costs revenues cumulative profit


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Units of change

Ever-increasing demand forcapability to change

From 6 updates a year (2006) todaily live testing

New version to all 11 languagesglobally once a week


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Performance measurement

At daily updates pace, measuring change issub-daily


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Metrics can't tell you what to do

Constant performance measurement is lifebloodfor recognizing both problems and successes

But numbers aren't ideas

Great design comes from vision, skill andexperience


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201020052000 2002 2003 20042001 20082006 2007 2009

210 million registered Habbo-characters

2 million paying customersin last 12 months

1.4 million hours played / day

Source: Sulake Statistics, April 2010

210Million


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new users making friends avg time spent by new users


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Free-to-play economics

Micropayments for virtual items and VIP membership Advertising as a secondary revenue stream

Player-to-player marketplace and trading means a

market which follows common economic principles Exchange volumes 10x primary sales

Non-paying players are also valuableas community members and culture

makers


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What determines an economy?

Participants must be able to exchange valuewith each other

Virtual currencies alone don't create economies

Exchange of goods and services do

Casual visi-tors

Regularusers

Customers Highspenders

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Accounts Time spent


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Casual visitors Regular users Customers High spenders

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Accounts Time spent


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1 No currencies at all

2 Emergent currencies

3 Paid currency4 Tradable paid currency

5 Dual currency

6 Official secondary market

Economic system in phases


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Habbo's emergent economy

The early years...

Direct sales of items to users (P-SMS)

Already allowed transfer of items between users

Introduction of Habbo Coins as stored value

Later, transfer of coins between accounts

Common items as an emergent exchange

currency Beginning of an economy, including (external)measurement google habbo furni values


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Paidcurrency

coins pixels

how to get? buy & trade Earn by playing

good forpersistent goods,

consumables& services

consumables &discounts on theprimary (credit)

market

purpose monetization

retention &conversion,

supporting primarymarket

Earnedcurrency

PHASE 5: Dual Currency


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PHASE 6: Official Secondary Market


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Business implications of 2nd market

Secondary market is much larger than firstsales: perhaps $0.5B annually

Items stay in active inventory

Often even after original owner quits Habbo

Could mean the world fills up, especially ifgrowth slows

Requires special design to avoid the problem


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Design strategies for working market

No trading No market, no permanent value

Items wear out or disappear over time

No market

rentable model

Persistent items & trading

Creates a market, enables collectible value

1% trading fee on value, grow market to 10x size

Fee also helps manage inflation


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2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

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4550

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65Revenue, million


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Osma Ahvenlampi - Nordic Game 2011

Thank [email protected] - twitter.com/osmawww.sulake.com - www.habbo.com
mailto:[email protected]://www.sulake.com/http://www.sulake.com/mailto:[email protected]

true social games - ng11 - slides

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