[casual_games] Casual games user groups (player side)

Wed Sep 28 18:33:18 EDT 2005

Hi Wade

This is something we've thought about and it is a potential problem with
MOG. We are about to introduce a new main category on the site for
downloadable games which will help I think, and there is nothing to stop you
putting download in as a keyword, however that's not much use if people who
like downloadable games don't use the site.

I'm hoping that in time we'll see the demographics of the site broaden. I'm
guessing that the current users are mostly those who 'get it', but as sites
like del.isio.us and flickr.com and hopefully MOG become more mainstream and
more of your everyday Joes 'get it' then I think the site will get a broad
range of users including those who like downloading and buying games,
especially if the site is a good source for those games.

Our challenge is in usability. Looking ahead when we've 50,000 games on
there we need to find a way of making sure a user is as few clicks away from
the games they want as possible and we've got a bit to go on that I think.

On a separate note, I think one of the challenges of the industry is to find
ways of getting game sales from a younger demographic and I think this comes
back to marketing, payment systems and an attractive offering for them.
'Kids' spend fortunes on music, console games, ring tones, and other stuff.
We need to find ways of making them part with their cash for casual games.

Colin

Colin Cardwell - Director - 3RD sense Australia Pty Ltd
T. +61 (0) 2 9959 1008     M. +61 (0) 401 888 322   
E.  <mailto:colin at 3rdsense.com> colin at 3rdsense.com    W.
<http://www.3rdsense.com/> www.3rdsense.com

 <http://www.playaholics.com/> www.playaholics.com - play games and win
stuff
 <http://www.chickstop.com/> www.chickstop.com - for girls who like to play
 <http://www.millionsofgames.com/> www.millionsofgames.com - source, save
and share your favourite online games

  _____  

From: Wade Tinney [mailto:wade at largeanimal.com] 
Sent: Thursday, 29 September 2005 1:13 AM
To: colin at 3rdsense.com; 'IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List'
Subject: RE: [casual_games] Casual games user groups (player side)

MOG is a great idea and very well executed. Congratulations on getting it
off the ground. I've got the little "Mog it!" button on my tool bar and have
been using it. 

I'm curious about the demographics of MOG users. I realize you are not
explicitly gathering this information, but I'm wondering if you have any
sense of it, nonetheless. My intuition leads me to guess that the people
featured on the WildGames page I referenced (
http://www.wildgames.com/ECS/htdocs/contests.aspx?dp=wildgames
<http://www.wildgames.com/ECS/htdocs/contests.aspx?dp=wildgames&bw=high>
&bw=high) are probably *not* likely MOG users, and that your users are
probably significantly younger; more like a Miniclip audience. Correct me if
I'm wrong (either Colin, or anyone else reading this), but I don't think
this younger audience is purchasing downloadable casual games. They may be
playing them, but I don't get the sense that they are paying for them (at
least not in significant numbers). That audience seems like a perfect one to
monetize via advertising, but not to sell the "classic" downloadable,
single-player game to. 

Taking this assumption further, it seems that while a site like MOG is a
tremendous resource for gauging the success of one's web-based (read: ad rev
generating) game offerings, and to see what is working in that market, it
may not be such relevant data for try-and-buy downloadable games, because
its just not the same audience. In other words, I can't assume that the
games that are popular with MOGgers (online, download, or otherwise) are
going to be popular with those people who are actually buying games. Also,
if my site doesn't have a way of monetizing traffic outside of game sales
(i.e. no advertising), then it doesn't help me to attract lots of traffic to
my site (via MOG, Newgrounds, or whatever), since I'm only going to spend
more money serving up games to people who will likely not buy them. 

To tell the truth, I hope that I'm wrong about all this; I just wanted to
throw it out there and see what people think. Hopefully someone has some
data/insight which will disprove this theory. 

Thanks!

Wade

Wade Tinney
partner, game designer
Large Animal Games
 <http://www.largeanimal.com/> http://www.largeanimal.com
wade at largeanimal.com

 -----Original Message-----
From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org [mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org]
On Behalf Of Colin Cardwell
Sent: Tuesday, September 27, 2005 9:54 PM
To: 'IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List'
Subject: RE: [casual_games] Casual games user groups (player side)

As some of you know, we've launched MOG (www.millionsofgames.com) in the
last couple of weeks. The very purpose of the site is to provide a community
for casual game fans. Although at the moment Moggers (our members) can store
their favourite games and rate them, they will soon be able to add
comments/reviews of games. We also track game plays and who has Mogged a
game. The data is time based so once we have sufficient volume of usage,
we'll be releasing daily, weekly, monthly charts overall and in each game
category, hoping to give everyone who is interested in casual games a very
valuable source of useful data.

The growth of the site I think is interesting. It has been picked up by
quite a lot of news sites, the home page of Slashdot helped a lot. What's
key for us though is that almost 900 games have been added in only 3 weeks
by our Moggers and if that rate continues, we'll pretty soon have the
largest list of online and casual games around, which is our goal. Add to
that reviews and the other data we're collecting and you can begin to see
the potential of the site. 

I'm not just trying to tell you how wonderful our site is by the way, I'm
just trying to explain some of its potential, it certainly still has a long
way to go. We very much want this to be a community site so we would be very
interested in views/ideas/feedback/requests from this group in particular.
If this site builds to the level we anticipate, it will be a great place to
promote any new games you have (and old ones for that matter), get ideas for
games, see who likes what, find out what doesn't work, etc etc. 

I hope this was useful.. 

Colin

Colin Cardwell - Director - 3RD sense Australia Pty Ltd
T. +61 (0) 2 9959 1008     M. +61 (0) 401 888 322   
E.  <mailto:colin at 3rdsense.com> colin at 3rdsense.com    W.
<http://www.3rdsense.com/> www.3rdsense.com

 <http://www.playaholics.com/> www.playaholics.com - play games and win
stuff
 <http://www.chickstop.com/> www.chickstop.com - for girls who like to play
 <http://www.millionsofgames.com/> www.millionsofgames.com - source, save
and share your favourite online games

  _____  

From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org [mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org]
On Behalf Of Wade Tinney
Sent: Wednesday, 28 September 2005 12:30 AM
To: 'IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List'
Subject: RE: [casual_games] Casual games user groups (player side)

Just to clarify, James. You are asking about groups/sites where casual games
are discussed and/or reviewed by players, right (and NOT links to sites that
simply distribute said games)?

It's a very good question. I've had a tough time finding such sites in the
past. I'd love to hear what you uncover. 

There is a lot of player-to-player interaction on Pogo, of course, but it
happens in real-time during play. 

Also, if you've never checked out the contest winners pages on WildGames,
those are pretty interesting/entertaining as well. At the bottom of this
page, you'll find a whole set of "view winners" links: 
http://www.wildgames.com/ECS/htdocs/contests.aspx?dp=wildgames
<http://www.wildgames.com/ECS/htdocs/contests.aspx?dp=wildgames&bw=high>
&bw=high

I realize it's not exactly what you're talking about, but if you're looking
to better understand the casual audience, I think its pretty useful. 

-Wade

-----Original Message-----
From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org [mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org]
On Behalf Of Jack Pearson
Sent: Monday, September 26, 2005 4:16 PM
To: Andy Makely; IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List
Subject: RE: [casual_games] Casual games user groups (player side)

www.tournamentgames.com  online pay to play tournaments. All DirectX casual
games online since since 1997.
236 million games played to date.  350,000 played each week

Jack Pearson, CEO
Tournament Games Inc,
www.TGPool.com
www.TournamentGames.com 
jack at tournamentgames.com

-----Original Message-----
From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org [mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org]On
Behalf Of Andy Makely
Sent: Monday, September 26, 2005 1:39 PM
To: IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List
Subject: Re: [casual_games] Casual games user groups (player side)

www.jayisgames.com is a great games blog that covers primarily web games,
but also touches on downloadables sometimes.

-- 
andy

On 9/26/05, James Baker - WDDG/Inferno <james at wddg.com> wrote: 

I'm trying to put together a database of user-groups and/or websites on
the user/player side that are dedicated to casual games.  Anything from
forums dedicated to word games to yahoo groups to newsgroups to websites 
would help me out.

Thanks!

James Baker
Principal
WDDG/Inferno/Funtank
212-219-9222
james at wddg.com
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