Casual community

August 7, 2006 on 1:01 pm | In The Casual Games Business |

Let’s start with the obvious: people enjoy playing casual games because they are, well, casual. They require no commitment. They offer instant gratification. There is no need to read manuals and no need to buy the latest hardware.

It’s no surprise then that casual gamers seem to steer clear of community — all that human/online interaction can be a bit too much like hard work, a bit too much commitment. Most casual game sites have no community features whatsoever. There are notable exceptions, like Pogo’s Club Pogo and Puzzle Pirates — you could even argue that Habbo Hotel represents the merging of social software with casual gaming. But on the whole, casual game sites keep it casual.

Here at 3RD sense, two of our sites — Playaholics and Chickstop — have optional community features, but of their million or so players per month, less than 10% them are registered members.

So, why then have we spent the last nine months creating new versions of these sites that, when they are launched, will focus on providing new community features? Would it have made more sense to just plough the money into writing more games?

Soon, these sites will offer:

• An integrated high-score system that is consistent for all games, so you can measure your performance against others
• Personal stats so you can see how well you do on each game and how you improve
• User created mini-leagues so you and a small group of people can play against each other for a highest score over a 24-hour period
• Avatars that can be personalised with millions of different combinations and options
• Public profiles so that players’ performances will be on display
• Forums so you can discuss games, locate cheats and talk about how to get a higher score

Of course, both sites will still be open to ‘casual’ visitors, who don’t want to join a community in order to play some casual games. However, at 3RD sense we think that social competition can be one of the most attractive aspects of a game. Rightly or wrongly, we have faith that with the right community features, more and more players will be prompted to become members over time, which would be tremendously beneficial to our business.

The Little Gamer