GUEST BLOG: The digital pinatas.

Creating a game itself can be understood as an act of psychological study. For games are digital piñatas, stuffed with rewards that satisfy deeply ingrained human needs. Or rather, a given level, stage or in-game task is a conceptual piñata of its own, and as each is cracked, the contents tumble forth, showering the player with a bounty that replenishes our internal reservoirs of mental wellbeing. 

Will Freeman, freelance games journalist and former editor of Develop 

We humans crave interaction, freedom over our own actions and the ability to achieve; they are what keeps us happy, and games can satisfy all those needs. Game designers may not consider it to be so, but in every choice they make as a project takes life, there is an element of predicting how to best satisfy those base-level human desires. And so it is that psychologists, like F2P Summitspeaker Berni Good, have applied their craft to games design, helping developers to better understand how to make players enjoy their games.

But game psychology is not only about making your games more playable; it can also make them more bankable. Designing game mechanics to encourage the player to commit to microstransactions is rightly a much-debated topic, and there is a paper-thin moral line that must always be considered with this kind of approach. From A/B testing to academically elaborate methods, psychology’s application to free-to-play and monetisation must always be considered in a firm ethical framework.

Yet that does not mean it is inherently wrong. From advertising to packaging, psychology to sell is a long established model that can – and should – be applied in a way that is not exploitative. Indeed, game psychology can be called on to better a freemium title’s ethical standing. And, most intriguingly, applying psychological theory to free-to-play game design is no longer the strict reserve of the model’s giants, who have long paid handsomely for academics to assist in making their creations turn a profit.

Free-to-play can, of course, today serve as a vital monetisation model for start-ups, and for small teams it makes for a hugely tempting way of bankrolling a studio’s first months or years in business. But those teams are unlikely to have the budget for much in the way of psychologist, be they on staff or in a consultant capacity.

But, Good, who is always a fascinating speaker at conferences, once again looks set to reveal that the tricks of understanding the human being are well within the realm of the layman, as she this time takes a look at the psychological perception of the value of purchasing online game items. She will explore how human traits like jealousy and envy impact the player’s buying process, and it should serve up vital lessons for designers looking to better understand their player’s minds.

If a start-up can add psychology to their arsenal of game design tools, they may well make not just more profitable releases, but creatively superior ones. Indeed, psychology could be the key that unlocks that ultimate in free-to-play creations; a title where gameplay and monetisation mechanics are inseparably fused, for the benefit of the game as a creative endeavor, the player and a developer’s need to pay the rent, all within a ethical credible framework. It’s something every studio should pay attention to.

This blog was written by Will Freeman, former games journalist and former editor of Develop. Berni Good is speaking at F2P Summit, 10 October 2013 at RichMix in London. www.f2p-summit.com 

WHY I LOVE FREE TO PLAY, by Andy Lane, dad of three.

My name's Andy. I'm a dad of three. And I love free to play games.

Why, you ask? Why not, is my reply.

Seriously, what's not to love about free to play? The first clue's in the name. They are free to play. And when you have three kids, the word 'free' is always a pleasure to hear.

Don't get me wrong. I am not averse to spending money on games. Good games that offer hours and hours of unputdownable gameplay are absolutely worth the £40 price tag. If I thought otherwise, I'd have been in the wrong business for the last 20 years.

But, as a dad, when there are so many other things competing for that £40, you need to know that you're spending it wisely. That it's being spent on a game that will keep the kids - all of them, of different ages - truly immersed, engaged and entertained before you put your hand in your pocket.

It offers you the chance to try before you buy - you can decide if you like it before you're asked to consider parting with any cash. Or not.

What's more, I also love that they have the power to appeal to different age groups and both genders in a way that console games generally don't, which means all three of my kids can play the same game, and I can also compete against them. So in spite of us playing games on individual devices, the games are oddly successful in bringing us together to play as a family.

And finally, there's a lot to be said for the quality and variety of free to play games. Being free means the market is uber competitive. Players have made no investment in the game, so there's nothing to stop them turning off after 30 seconds and moving on to the next one. This means the quality of most free to play games is incredibly high. The cost of development and ease of self-publishing has also made free to play an incredibly accessible marketplace which means the variety and quantity of titles on offer is mind blowing.

Sadly, though, not everyone is so happy to wax lyrical about free to play in the same way. Back in April, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) launched an investigation into whether children were being unfairly pressured into paying for additional content. It followed a number of high profile cases where children had racked up bills in the thousands playing iOS games because their parents had failed to lock their Apple IDs and, therefore, their accounts.

It's important to note, I think, that the OFT never implied micropayments were wrong. At the time, the OFT was quoted as saying: '[We are] not seeking to ban in-game purchases, but the games industry must ensure it is complying with the relevant regulations so that children are protected.'

As a parent, and as someone who works in the games industry, I do think it's important that developers are transparent about payments and parents & children are not misled. In fact, I think it's such an important topic that, at the F2P Summit in October, we're hosting a panel debate about the extent to which it's OK to market in-app purchases to kids. Where do you draw the line? How pushy can you be? What's morally acceptable and what's not? 

Of course, I also think if we're going to avoid any repetition of earlier scandal that parents also need to take a little responsibility in understanding the technology they're putting into their children's hands and learn how to manage their child's access to their billing and payment information better. With marketers and parents working together then there's no reason why our kids can't continue to enjoy the fantastic entertainment that free to play offers. 

Andy Lane is managing director of Tandem Events, which organises the F2P Summit at RichMix in London on 10 October 2013. www.f2p-summit.com. The debate about free to play and marketing to kids is the focus of one of our panel sessions. Come along - have a voice.