Office Hours Recap - Engagement

Game dev can be hard. There’s a lot to learn, social networks to build, and always new problems to solve. Microsoft wants as many game developers to succeed as possible, and we want to help you on your journey. That’s why, every Friday morning at 11:00 AM Pacific, we invite the game development community to join us on our official Discord for Office Hours.

By creating an open and welcoming community space, one where you can make connections with real industry professionals and ask questions about the issues that are most important to you, we’re making more resources accessible to developers of all sizes from across the globe.

Each week, we invite an experienced game developer to join us, tell their story, and answer any questions you might have about their work. If you’d like to keep up with who will be joining us and what topic we’ll be covering, join our Discord server and keep an eye on the #announcements channel for calendar updates!

On September 26, we opened the floor to talk to our community about what the word “engagement” means. Engagement is a huge topic for developers! It can mean how long your audience keeps playing your game, how many sales you make long-term, and how much staying power your community will build.

We examined the concepts of engagement specifically in relation to both gameplay and social media marketing, how the definition changes, looked at some industry examples, and discussed how these two areas interact with one another. This topic generated a lot of conversation within our community, so we continued it in our October 3 Office Hours and captured the highlights of both sessions below.

The following information isn’t an official Microsoft or Xbox “how-to” guide on engagement. This is a collection of notes and questions from an open community discussion from our Discord server, as driven and hosted by Community Manager Brandy Camel, an industry veteran with over 15 years of experience in marketing and game development.

The term “engagement” can mean a lot of things. For the context of this discussion, we talked about two types of engagement: the kind that happens on social media and the kind that happens in game design.

In social media, “engagement” is defined as any way a user interacts with your content. This can mean a like or reaction, a comment, a repost, or on some platforms, whether they clicked through a link in your post. If they “engaged” with your post in some way, that’s tracked as an engagement in data.

In game design, engagement is typically defined as how long a player stays in your ecosystem or community. This can mean a lot of things, depending on the type of game it’s describing. From the amount of time a player has spent playing to how long they talk about your game in online communities, all of this could be considered engagement.

Unlike in social media, game design engagement can be more difficult to measure. Even with systems like data telemetry, you might have players who stay engaged outside of your gameplay but within your greater community, such as those watching a stream or video of your game or those who generate fan content. They might not be actively playing, but they may still be an engaged part of your audience.

These two types of engagement are related. Having excellent engagement strategies in game design can organically generate social media engagement. With some planning and forethought, it can be designed with that intent.

Let’s look at a big, engaging game like World of Warcraft. Engaged players spread the spectrum here. Some are casually engaged and might only play with a small group of friends or perhaps play entirely on their own. Some might be taking a break from actively playing but follow their favorite streamers or other players as they race to be the first to defeat a new raid boss. Still others might consume auxiliary content, like books or videos, and not play the game at all. They’re still engaged with World of Warcraft, even if they aren’t players.

It’s worth thinking of social and design engagement as two sides of the same coin. Your goal with either is to capture the attention of your audience. Ask yourself what through line exists between these two environments when it comes to your title. What parts of your game naturally lend themselves to discussion? Are there mechanics or game features you think your players will be compelled to share with their friends on social media?

Some games have “share a screenshot” features or camera modes for this reason. Players can spend hours fine-tuning their character or trying to find the perfect item. They may want to have a quick way to share that with other players, their friends, or their social media feeds, especially if it’s a way to share their personal accomplishments.

Lowering the barrier for players to share with others helps facilitate word of mouth advertising. As any marketing expert will tell you, this kind of advertising is the most coveted and often the most effective. While this may not work for every game, it’s important to take a close look at your audience and determine whether that kind of engagement interests them and avoid forcing it. Players should want to engage rather than feel compelled or required.

In addition to designing share-friendly systems, take a close look at the core gameplay loop of your title. Does anything about it naturally generate a strong emotion or allow a player to express themselves?

Systems that allow you to make a character, customize your look, or create your own content naturally create personal resonance. Players will feel closer to a character they had a hand in shaping or might be especially proud of structure they built from the ground up.

Minecraft is a game that’s exceptionally good at fostering player creativity. Entire communities have been built around different kinds of Minecraft players. Whether they enjoy making big, complex buildings or modifying the game to create their own content, Minecraft is a sandbox environment that encourages creative expression. Sharing that creativity might inspire another new player to check out your game so they can try their own hand at it.

Another way to engage an audience is by capturing their attention through the stories you want to tell. Some stories stick with us forever. Think of a game that really hit you in your heart and ask yourself why it resonated with you. Was there something in the story that hit close to home? Were the characters and events they were experiencing so fantastic and interesting you couldn’t turn away? Did you feel immersed in the story or its world?

Narrative design can accomplish this in a number of ways, from having a well-designed quest that asks you to deliver a heartfelt gift from one lover to another to including a cinematic so beautifully written and animated that it could have been its own short film. There are many ways to approach this, so be sure to think about what best serves the experience you want players to have (and be sure to consider how difficult it might be to implement).

The following are the questions taken directly from our community and the answers that were provided.

Q: I’ve often seen in job listings “the ability to engage users holistically.” Can we outline what that means in the current, more device agnostic market?
A: Studios are often looking for designers who can engage on every level. Highlight the skills you have or projects you’ve worked on that catch people’s attention and can keep it. Multiplayer skills are good to highlight; playing with friends is usually one of the best drivers for continuous engagement.

Q: Do you think GaS (Games-As-a-Service) are the best future platform for games, or just the most cost-effective?
A: GaaS isn’t a one-size-fits-all platform; it’s a monetization model. Just like software as a service, live service games are a way to monetize video game after their initial sale or to support a free-to-play model. Games released under this model typically receive a long or indefinite stream of monetized content over time to encourage players to continue paying to support the game.

In short, every game can take advantage of GaaS as a model, but not every game needs to fully adopt the Live Service model, especially if it doesn’t fit for the genre or story.

Q: How do I build a system or piece of content that draws on emotions?
A: Build a sense of belonging. As an example, in World of Warcraft, having strong stories around the Horde and Alliance factions and compelling class fantasies give players a way to express themselves and a path to relating to their characters as well as one another. It’s natural to feel a sense of camaraderie with someone from the same faction, and you’ll know that someone who plays the same class as you will share common ground.

Q: How do I ensure my game has enough engagement? Is it possible that players get too advanced and no longer find it fun?
A: Game engagement is difficult! New players and existing players are two different audiences that often have different needs. They can coexist, but you must be mindful of what each player finds engaging. That may change as they go from being a new player to a veteran one!

Some games do this by allowing or facilitating user-generated content (UGC), such as Minecraft’s open modding support. This has allowed its engagement to extend well beyond entry level players without sacrificing the new player experience in the process.

Similarly, games with long lifecycles, like World of Warcraft or other MMORPGs, make a point to always be adding content that appeals to both types of audiences. That can be a lot of work and a tricky balance to maintain, but it does create broader appeal and an more invested audience.

If you want to take a critical look at your own projects and assess their engagement, here are some questions you can use to conduct that exercise:

• What kind of game do you have and what are your criteria for considering a player to be engaged?
•  Is there a part of your game that naturally lends itself to generating discussion? What stories do you tell other people about when you’re describing your own experience with your game?
• Is there a particular story your game wants to tell? How can you make it easier for players to tell that story to each other?
• Do you have any mechanics in your game that encourage or allow self-expression? Is there room or feasibility for adding this kind of support?
• What emotion do you most associate with your game? What elements of your game evoke that emotion?