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How the Business Model of Customizable Card Games Influences Player Engagement

Hodge, V.J.; Sephton, N.; Devlin, S.; Cowling, P.I.; Goumagias, N.; Shao, Jianhua; Purvis, K.; Cabras, I.; Fernandes, K.J.; Li, F.

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Authors

V.J. Hodge

N. Sephton

S. Devlin

P.I. Cowling

N. Goumagias

Jianhua Shao

K. Purvis

I. Cabras

F. Li



Abstract

In this article, we analyse the game play data of three popular customisable card games where players build decks prior to game play. We analyse the data from a player engagement perspective, how the business model affects players, how players influence the business model and provide strategic insights for players themselves. Sifa et al. \myNotes{found} a lack of cross-game analytics while Marchand and Hennig-Thurau identified a lack of understanding of how a game's business model and strategies affect players. We address both issues. The three games have similar business models but differ in one aspect: the distribution model for the cards used in the game. Our longitudinal analysis highlights this variation's impact. A uniform distribution creates a spread of decks with slowly emerging trends while a random distribution creates stripes of deck building activity that switch suddenly each update. Our method is simple, easily understandable, independent of the specific game's structure and able to compare multiple games. It \myNotes{is applicable to games} that release updates and enables comparison across games. Optimising a game's updates strategy is key as it affects player engagement and retention which directly influence businesses' revenues and profitability in the $95 billion global games market.

Citation

Hodge, V., Sephton, N., Devlin, S., Cowling, P., Goumagias, N., Shao, J., …Li, F. (2019). How the Business Model of Customizable Card Games Influences Player Engagement. IEEE Transactions on Games, 11(4), 374-385. https://doi.org/10.1109/tg.2018.2803843

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Feb 1, 2018
Online Publication Date Feb 12, 2018
Publication Date Dec 31, 2019
Deposit Date Feb 9, 2018
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal IEEE Transactions on Games
Print ISSN 2475-1502
Electronic ISSN 2475-1510
Publisher Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 11
Issue 4
Pages 374-385
DOI https://doi.org/10.1109/tg.2018.2803843
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1334967

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