With the cloud gaming market anticipated to attain $18.71 billion in market volume by 2027, online gaming is shaping up to be the future.
As such, it is important for online gaming platforms to retain their players to grab a slice of that pie. One way to ensure that is to keep players satisfied. Here’s how:
Reward Players With Personalized Gifts
Everyone loves a little pat on the back for a job well done. Some gamers get adrenaline rushes after completing a task or crossing the next stage. Showing them their efforts are valid and noticed can significantly influence their psychology in a way you wouldn’t imagine.
Furthermore, you can also help them ward off in-game fatigue by setting little milestones and rewarding them for it. Most online games award gaming points, tokens, and coins. Some even allow them to cash out these gifts as NFTs that can be resold. You can decide on your preferences.
The same can also be said for the casino gaming industry. Here, bonuses are becoming more lucrative all the time as sites offer bigger and bigger sums to attract new players and keep old ones coming back. Personalization for existing players often comes in the form of some free plays on favorite games – or on games they haven’t yet tried and the casino thinks they might enjoy.
These rewards also help maintain a certain level of competitiveness amongst players, ultimately playing a major role in boosting their satisfaction.
Optimizing The User Experience
Boosting players’ satisfaction in online gaming begins with ensuring that they enjoy every interaction with the game. Every game developer probably understands the fun part of the game they’ve built. However, the game’s user experience measures how much of that fun the player enjoys. It’s the actual gaming experience from the player’s end— and if you’re interested in boosting the player’s satisfaction, you must ensure they feel pretty good when playing.
So, how do you make them enjoy every part of the game?
Different factors contribute to the user experience. They include gaming uptime, speed, design, content, guides, etc. Every aspect of the game which a player directly or indirectly interacts with contributes to the game’s user experience.
Putting all these together begins with identifying the game’s target audience. Are you building a hardcore PC online game or a casual mobile game? This insight will help you choose the right tools for developing the game. Some common gaming frameworks and engines include Godot, GameMaker Studio, Unity, etc. Like most businesses, the developer’s role in the digital experience is quite profound.
After making initial choices, you must continuously test, collect feedback, and iterate to refine the options. This continuous process will help you identify and fix all glitches and bugs that might give players a negative experience.
Ultimately, you want to ensure that all aspects of the game are responsive, easy on the eye, and simple to navigate. You also need to ensure that the game has a robust online server infrastructure that’ll keep your game running with zero downtime. 44% of UK gamers switched to online games because it gave them instant access; as a result, online gaming platforms are not expected to lose their audience.
A simple hack to ensure this is regularly asking your team and players, “Why will players not enjoy this game?
Build an Online Community Around The Game
Optimizing user experiences should never stop. That, and more, is why you should also build an online community around the game. For one reason, online communities are one of the surest ways to get unbiased analysis about your game.
Incorporating gaming leaderboards, organizing online gaming tournaments, active online forums, and a solid social media presence are common ways to foster community building. This feature is popularized and has yielded positive results in online gambling, with many online casinos having an active online community.
But, merely creating these platforms is not enough to build an online community strong enough to boost players’ satisfaction. You must also have an active customer support and social media team ready to engage players and solve their queries quickly. Furthermore, you could improve player engagement in these communities by rewarding players who solve questions for others through loyalty points.
The catch is that people tend to validate their enjoyment of a game when they see others enjoying it. With an online community, you ensure the fun continues even after they stop playing the game. By doing so, you’re not only boosting their satisfaction, but you’re also turning your current players into influencers to attract new gamers.
Remember, the community of gamers can be emotional and passionate about their preferences. Use that!
Fortify Player Data Security
Players will be far from satisfied if their personal information and credit card data get into the wrong hands because they used your platform. As an online gaming platform, you’re responsible for securing all personal information that players submit to you. You might be exposed to serious legal implications if they get into the wrong hands through your platform.
As a result, it is advisable to fortify your players’ data security using high-quality security programs. An excellent place to start is the encryption of all sensitive information and a strict alignment with all player protection rules imposed by the relevant regulatory authority. Furthermore, it is crucial to install secure payment gateways to shield scammers from players’ financial information during payment.
However, the responsibility doesn’t entirely fall on the operator. Players also need to use strong, unique passwords for their gaming accounts. This should be suggested during the account creation process to encourage players. To augment this step, the platform should also make provisions for two-factor authentications (2FA) to provide an extra security layer.
Creating a safe and secure gaming environment will boost players’ satisfaction. After all, no player will be satisfied to be a victim of identity theft, phishing, or any other cyberattack.
Provide Various Gaming And Compatibility Options
Variety, they say, is the spice of life.
The same applies to online gaming. Players have diverse interests and preferences — and they’re constantly changing, too. Most online games lose their audience when the gamers get bored with a particular game and switch to another platform.
You don’t want that.
Instead, you want players to switch between gaming genres, styles, and options to keep their experience fresh every time. In addition, allowing players to switch between mobile and computer devices helps them personalize their gameplay experience to their preferences, thus giving them maximum satisfaction. For example, in China, the mobile gaming market is worth $30 billion, which is almost as much as the next two countries with the biggest mobile game markets combined (Japan and the USA). Yet, the console market is ‘only’ worth $2.29 billion in China. So, you need to look at what players want and ensure you give them it.
So, you must offer various games to keep the audience engaged longer. You don’t have to develop all the games in-house. It’s okay to collaborate with other gaming developers to access more games.
Lastly, a diverse gaming option helps you promote inclusivity as players from different walks of life can feel noticed, represented, and catered for in your online gaming community. This and a vibrant online community are critical to boosting players’ satisfaction.
Keep The Game Competitive at All Levels
Keeping the game competitive at all levels is all about balance.
Depending on the target gaming audience, the satisfaction gamers derive from playing a game is tightly linked to how challenging the experience is. This is where it gets tricky: striking the balance between “too easy” and “near impossible.” This balance is vital because players might get bored and uninterested if they breeze through every stage, knowing they’ll always win. They will also get disappointed if they get exhausted while trying to win.
So, your players’ satisfaction can be significantly increased if the game is challenging enough for the target gaming audience. Collecting multiple feedbacks can help adjust this accordingly.
Another metric closely similar to competitiveness is the gaming session. Again, this also depends on the target gaming audience. A younger audience might be willing to play longer because they have no primary responsibilities. On the other hand, an older audience might need something shorter to enjoy while on a quick work break or a bus while coming from work. Getting it just right significantly improves the players’ satisfaction. Again, the gambling industry is one that excels here – people can casually spin a few rounds on a slot machine whenever they want, or they can sit down for an hour at a virtual poker table.
One way to ensure this is by comparing your online game’s competitiveness and duration with competitor games in the gaming market to see what the audience is familiar with.
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