Would you play games more if you won stuff for beating them? - General

Hey guys, long time lurker here, I thought you would be able to help me out. Basically I have been asking the above question to myself for a long time, and the company I work for just gave me the option to test it out with an online experiment. So what I am doing is testing if I can significantly increase the total playtime of an online game by offering rewards for playing. At the moment I have a $200 budget of $10 amazon vouchers If you could let me know what you think of the website/landing page, or participate if you like that would be awesome. [url]http://muchogames.co[/url] Thanks

I really like the design of the site.

[QUOTE=WastedJamacan;44644674]I really like the design of the site.[/QUOTE] Thankyou!

One problem..I'm leaving a game up and the time is still rolling through..free stuff doing nothing?

The big issue with something like this is that people [B]will[/B] find a way to game the system

[QUOTE=Starce;44645022]One problem..I'm leaving a game up and the time is still rolling through..free stuff doing nothing?[/QUOTE] It should only increase when you are active, is it still happening for you? [editline]25th April 2014[/editline] [QUOTE=KmartSqrl;44645077]The big issue with something like this is that people [B]will[/B] find a way to game the system[/QUOTE] TBH we are ok with people gaming it at this stage, it's not fully indicative of what I would like the final 'product' to be, its more to get some baseline data to compare future tests to :) [editline]25th April 2014[/editline] [QUOTE=KmartSqrl;44645077]The big issue with something like this is that people [B]will[/B] find a way to game the system[/QUOTE] TBH we are ok with people gaming it at this stage, it's not fully indicative of what I would like the final 'product' to be, its more to get some baseline data to compare future tests to :)

doesn't matter, you could make program or something that holds the right arrow key and get free amazon cards, just saying

Seems legit

I cannot believe I actually just spent nearly an hour playing a weird elephant game I did not quite understand gone midnight. Anyway that was interesting as an answer to your question the result for me was yes I probably would of stopped playing long before the reward button popped up. Was really satisfying to see the reward button reach the end. -------- Edit: Forgot to mention I like the websites simplicity not shoving useless junk in my face. Tired and about to go to sleep I can safely say that the colours caused no extra strain on tired eyes so that is a bonus for you. [t]http://static.dyp.im/6FTygN8ysx/large/ca06c556ef5e51ea459266c57e522ac6.png[/t] Thanks. I will look out for any potential future stuff you guys do.

[QUOTE=terryblanchet;44645084]TBH we are ok with people gaming it at this stage, it's not fully indicative of what I would like the final 'product' to be, its more to get some baseline data to compare future tests to :)[/QUOTE] Still kind of an issue though because it might effect the data you're gathering. I [I]do[/I] think that this will have the intended result. Just take your data with a grain of salt.

If you provide more tangible feedback - perhaps meta achievements/checkpoints/goals for how close they are to gaining points - If people feel like they're actively earning something they will stick around.

[QUOTE=KmartSqrl;44645268]Still kind of an issue though because it might effect the data you're gathering. I [I]do[/I] think that this will have the intended result. Just take your data with a grain of salt.[/QUOTE] OK, thanks for the input, we have some pretty comprehensive analytics so we [I]should [/I]be able to note the outliers and adjust the data to suit. It would definitely be good to have a more robust system for monitoring progress, we just need to have the justification to build it first. We are planning a few more experiments to test other things in the next couple of weeks so we can start to implement a better system as we push on [editline]26th April 2014[/editline] [QUOTE=Netsc;44645326]If you provide more tangible feedback - perhaps meta achievements/checkpoints/goals for how close they are to gaining points - If people feel like they're actively earning something they will stick around.[/QUOTE] This is something we are planning to implement soon, at the moment I feel like the progress bar isn't enough. So yeah, something more tangible seems logical

[QUOTE=WastedJamacan;44644674]I really like the design of the site.[/QUOTE] It seems a bit broken on mobile (Android) though - I can tell there's more text but can't scroll any further down. [THUMB]http://i57.tinypic.com/j7cavq.png[/THUMB] To stop being just holding down keys to get playtime, how about simple maths questions or something every now and again as a temporary solution? Seems like a good concept though, I'll give it a go when I'm back on my PC

If you plan on adding capchas please dont use recaptcha. I find recaptcha to be a real buzzkill because it can at times be long and tedious. I have seen cooler ones like "assemble the picture", "click the open circle", "click on the bed", etc.

dear mr terryblanchet, i would happily play more games if i could win the money back that i spent on the game regards, antlerp

I like the website design, and I did spend more time than I would have playing that game. I don't even like flash games.

Maybe you should make it so you win 5$ halfway and 5$ at the end, and put some sort of captcha system in

Thanks for all the help guys, the vouchers are all gone now! We are going to be running more of these in the future, next we are going to be testing if we can further increase the total playtime by letting players choose which reward they will be playing for, at this stage we are thinking of having an amazon vouchers, steam vouchers and itunes/app store vouchers. If you are interested in being part of the next one you should follow the company I work for on twitter, they should tweet when the next experiment goes live. @fieronz Thanks again

This would be a great way to gather statistics

[QUOTE=terryblanchet;44663299]Thanks for all the help guys, the vouchers are all gone now! We are going to be running more of these in the future, next we are going to be testing if we can further increase the total playtime by letting players choose which reward they will be playing for, at this stage we are thinking of having an amazon vouchers, steam vouchers and itunes/app store vouchers. If you are interested in being part of the next one you should follow the company I work for on twitter, they should tweet when the next experiment goes live. @fieronz Thanks again[/QUOTE] It would definitely be wise to do steam vouchers in future as for someone like myself who lives in the UK the amazon vouchers whilst still great are less useful as they can only be used with the american amazon meaning I cannot buy any games for digital download only for delivery as a boxed copy because of their rules. Will definitely follow the companies twitter. Out of curiosity do you have any idea how long it is on average that you do more tests or is it just completely random and just whenever you can sort everything out for another one. I would assume the second one but just thought I might as well ask.

[QUOTE=alexojm;44669736]It would definitely be wise to do steam vouchers in future as for someone like myself who lives in the UK the amazon vouchers whilst still great are less useful as they can only be used with the american amazon meaning I cannot buy any games for digital download only for delivery as a boxed copy because of their rules. Will definitely follow the companies twitter. Out of curiosity do you have any idea how long it is on average that you do more tests or is it just completely random and just whenever you can sort everything out for another one. I would assume the second one but just thought I might as well ask.[/QUOTE] Thanks, I was thinking that steam vouchers would be a good motivator, especially since they are more accessible, glad to see you think the same. Thanks for following us, we are planning the second test at the moment so we are hoping to get it up and running within a week or two. We are going to use a different game next time so if anyone has any suggestions of fun open source games that someone could feasibly play for half an hour (but probably wouldn't), then let me know because we are struggling to find one we are happy with

You should kindly post here as well or also use other methods of social networking, since there are a few people, my self included, that don't use Twitter.

[QUOTE=draugur;44671064]You should kindly post here as well or also use other methods of social networking, since there are a few people, my self included, that don't use Twitter.[/QUOTE] Ok, I'll be sure to make another post here, I can make sure that a post is put up on our Facebook page as well, facebook.com/fierointeractive I may as well plug our website in here too, you can check out some of he other stuff we have been up to [url]http://www.fiero.co.nz[/url]

Seems that you're all out of rewards. Must have worked!

I wish that I could get $10 for every hour playing games... I'd quit my job for that shit... [editline]1st May 2014[/editline] [QUOTE=KmartSqrl;44645077]The big issue with something like this is that people [B]will[/B] find a way to game the system[/QUOTE] I can agree with this as well, I have seen it. I know people that will setup auto-clickers that click your mouse every few minutes. I have used this playing Garry's Mod to keep me from getting kicked for being AFK.

Publicity and advertising is the best way to finance yourself so prizes can be offered more easily to customers\players Yes I'd enjoy such an enterprising initiative.

Playfire is doing something like this. They pay you in GMG credits when you get certian achievements, heard 1.75£ so far

I play games because I enjoy playing video games.

Hey guys we are running the second experiment! We are at the same address, [url]http://muchogames.co[/url] but we have a new game with a different system, please check it out and give us feedback you guys were really helpful last time around :) Cheers!

[QUOTE=terryblanchet;44759590]Hey guys we are running the second experiment! We are at the same address, [url]http://muchogames.co[/url] but we have a new game with a different system, please check it out and give us feedback you guys were really helpful last time around :) Cheers![/QUOTE] The incentive of a reward does help my ability to play, i've finished Flight (pretty sure that's the same flash game everyone gets) before and I had more energy to play it this time. Also the ability to choose your reward is a bonus that encouraged me even more, considering if you wanted different rewards at different times (amazon for extra cash) (Binding of Isaac if you don't have it) you'd be encouraged to return and play again.