3 ms·

> How is this different from any book, movie, or other form of entertainment? I'd say if you spend millions to make a movie to be shown in the cinema you don't

> How is this different from any book, movie, or other form of entertainment? I'd say if you spend millions to make a movie to be shown in the cinema you don't expect that by default 50% will walk out before the finale. But even more crucial: If that would happen, your ticket-sales would plummet week-by-week. > Case in point: I have not yet watched Game of Thrones, but much of my momentum to watch it was stymied by fan outcry of just how atrocious the final season was. If I do watch it, I will probably stop before I get there. The final season of Game of Thrones was based on the success of the seasons before it, it was produced AFTER Season 1,2,3,4,...

AdmiralAsshat 3y ago
> I'd say if you spend millions to make a movie to be shown in the cinema you don't expect that by default 50% will walk out before the finale. But even more crucial: If that would happen, your ticket-sales would plummet week-by-week. Maybe walking out in the middle of the movie is a bad analogy, but, it would certainly be applicable to the streaming world, where half your audience might watch Episode 1 of New Netflix series but stop watching well before Episode 10.
- themoonisachees 3y ago
  Valid in some way, however there is an additional half of users who never launch the game at all. Several high-profile games on steam have global achievement stats where the achievement you get for launching the game / completing the tutorial /creating a character is only earned by at most 60% of people who own the game.
  - derefr 3y ago
    I've purchased some of my favorite games multiple times — both to support the developer, and because I prefer the newer platform and don't want to have to deal with playing the game on the old platform. But often, after the secondary purchase, I won't actually play the game again. I didn't feel like playing it again in that moment where I purchased it again. I know I will want to replay it one day, which is why I re-bought it. But until I actually do, that second copy will seem to be have been purchased by someone who has never played the game at all.
    - imtringued 3y ago
      The vast majority of games aren't bought twice or released. What happens is that people buy bunch of games at the same time and then don't play the third or fourth game.
  - rickdeckard 3y ago
    That's true. But you can look at specific trophies to narrow down the users who actually engage but then still "walk out of your story" (a ratio which of course varies largely from game to game). Spiderman, one of the high-profile games of PlayStation, has a trophy for each of its 3 Acts of the story. While 67% of the players finished Act#1, only 49% actually finished Act#3. So setting completion of Act#1 as a minimum to measure engagement, 27% of those who "sat down" still walked out before the end. And that is not a sign of failure but a landmark success of that industry. That's quite unique for a product of creativity. And even more odd: it doesn't even mean that those 27% disliked your product. They might even buy your next creation...
- rickdeckard 3y ago
  > Maybe walking out in the middle of the movie is a bad analogy, but, it would certainly be applicable to the streaming world, where half your audience might watch Episode 1 of New Netflix series but stop watching well before Episode 10. What would be "applicable"? The streaming world of a TV series would be comparable to a streaming world of games. Here the gaming industry is largely selling products of entertainment to customers who pay explicitly FOR THAT product, yet a significant portion of that audience actually never fully consumes it. That's how it is different. CREATIVELY different. A team of possibly hundreds of people invest years to create a creative product which only a fraction of their paying audience will ever experience in full. It's like a non-Spotify world where every Artist produces an Album to be sold on CD, knowing that 50% of the paying audience will never hear more than Track 1-4.

AdmiralAsshat 3y ago

> I'd say if you spend millions to make a movie to be shown in the cinema you don't expect that by default 50% will walk out before the finale. But even more crucial: If that would happen, your ticket-sales would plummet week-by-week. Maybe walking out in the middle of the movie is a bad analogy, but, it would certainly be applicable to the streaming world, where half your audience might watch Episode 1 of New Netflix series but stop watching well before Episode 10.

themoonisachees 3y ago
Valid in some way, however there is an additional half of users who never launch the game at all. Several high-profile games on steam have global achievement stats where the achievement you get for launching the game / completing the tutorial /creating a character is only earned by at most 60% of people who own the game.
- derefr 3y ago
  I've purchased some of my favorite games multiple times — both to support the developer, and because I prefer the newer platform and don't want to have to deal with playing the game on the old platform. But often, after the secondary purchase, I won't actually play the game again. I didn't feel like playing it again in that moment where I purchased it again. I know I will want to replay it one day, which is why I re-bought it. But until I actually do, that second copy will seem to be have been purchased by someone who has never played the game at all.
  - imtringued 3y ago
    The vast majority of games aren't bought twice or released. What happens is that people buy bunch of games at the same time and then don't play the third or fourth game.
- rickdeckard 3y ago
  That's true. But you can look at specific trophies to narrow down the users who actually engage but then still "walk out of your story" (a ratio which of course varies largely from game to game). Spiderman, one of the high-profile games of PlayStation, has a trophy for each of its 3 Acts of the story. While 67% of the players finished Act#1, only 49% actually finished Act#3. So setting completion of Act#1 as a minimum to measure engagement, 27% of those who "sat down" still walked out before the end. And that is not a sign of failure but a landmark success of that industry. That's quite unique for a product of creativity. And even more odd: it doesn't even mean that those 27% disliked your product. They might even buy your next creation...
rickdeckard 3y ago
> Maybe walking out in the middle of the movie is a bad analogy, but, it would certainly be applicable to the streaming world, where half your audience might watch Episode 1 of New Netflix series but stop watching well before Episode 10. What would be "applicable"? The streaming world of a TV series would be comparable to a streaming world of games. Here the gaming industry is largely selling products of entertainment to customers who pay explicitly FOR THAT product, yet a significant portion of that audience actually never fully consumes it. That's how it is different. CREATIVELY different. A team of possibly hundreds of people invest years to create a creative product which only a fraction of their paying audience will ever experience in full. It's like a non-Spotify world where every Artist produces an Album to be sold on CD, knowing that 50% of the paying audience will never hear more than Track 1-4.