This case study highlights how we can increase a player's life cycle on an online casino by adding specific features that increase retention and engagement with the online platform.

"Find 5 minutes of fun, and make it repeatable."

Engagement Vs. Addictiveness

There are two major ways entertainment hooks us. Engagement requires us to actively use our brain, Addictiveness lulls us into a passive state of enjoyment. For the sake of this case study we will be focusing only on engagement.

Examples of Engaging Entertainment

• Playing a Football Match with friends

• Playing FIFA

• Strategic Sports Betting (trading)

• Movies like Bandersnatch (Black Mirror Project)

Examples of Addictive Entertainment

• Watching a football match

• Opening Fifa loot boxes

• Slot machines

• Binge watching Netflix

Attributes that make an Engaging Product

Five main "Engagement" attributes identified are as follows; Flow, Novelty, Mastery, Goals & Mental Challenge. Each main attribute is made up of smaller, measurable elements of the whole experience.

Flow: The Rythm within Play

Attribute: Pacing

Pacing describes the relationship between the activity, the intensity of that activity, and the duration of the activity.

How to Measure:

• Tempo (Actions per second) across a gaming session.

• Plot Intensity against time.

• Average session time.

• Average onboarding time.

• Idle time in a middle of session.

Attribute: Anticipation

Build up the event and broadcasting the result.

How to Measure:

• Time it takes for an action to be converted into a tangible result.

• Average time it takes to reach next level (if you have a leveling up system)

Attribute: Variation

The user is engaged in different activities during a single gaming session.

How to Measure: Time user activity is changed during a typical gaming session. (Gaming session must be a repeatable pattern)

Novelty: Curiosity and exploration

Attribute: Mystery

Fore-shadowing of a feature months before release.

How to Measure: How many features are your users looking forward to in the upcoming 30 days.

Attribute: Idea Introduction Rate

Introduction of new games/categories without altering the core gameplay loop. Foreshadow the new idea before the launch.

How to Measure: Plot available games/providers/game categories vs how many players diversify the slots they play on.

Mastery: knowledge coupled with execution

Attribute: Dynamic Difficulty

Start easy to win, gets harder as the game progresses.

Action: Introduce players to more challenging/complex tasks on your site.

Attribute: Skill Judgement

The number of disciplines a user is being tested on to be successful.

How to Measure: Time it takes for an action to be converted into a tangible result.

Goals: if you climb a mountain, find a bigger mountain

Attribute: Long Term Goal

The exit strategy. What is the end goal and what is the player wants to achieve ultimately? We want this to be a moving goalpost.

How to Measure: Churn rate after a 1day/3days/9days.

Attribute: Short Term Goals

Offer a roadmap to achieve the end goal. Offer frequent feedback and inform on progression.

Action: Understand at what milestone are your players churning, form hypothesis and test those out.

Attribute: Achievements

Show off badges and other items that the user might have achieved. Works better in an online multiplayer setting.

Action: Add achievements that players can show off to peers.

Mental Challenge: explore and understand the inner workings of a game system

Attribute: Strategy

Planning and researching the game meta.

How to Measure: Time spent planning before execution. This includes any research done on other websites and forums.

Attribute: Trill of exponential growth

Present an opportunity to experience big rewards after playing for some time.

How to Measure: How many features we have that allow players to win big.

Attribute: Optimize

Ability to automate the boring parts so a player can focus on more interesting activities.

How to Measure: Time doing repetitive tasks

Attribute: Depth

How easy it is to fully comprehend all options offered in the game?

How to Measure: Skill tiers (number of different personas is a good indicator)