![]() The inherent purpose of a game is to have fun, and that is not the core motivator for most websites. Websites don’t need to become more like video games in every way. Businesses could move beyond transactional interactions with visitors to mutually beneficial relationships, for long-term future rewards. We could make time spent on a website more enjoyable to the visitor by touching them emotionally. It would mean we could present brands in more complex environments and we could sustain interest in a site for longer. Imagine a website where visitors also feel and behave this way: they are engaged and focused, unaware of time, unselfconscious, and feeling rewarded. Players can go into a zone and feel a sense of flow, described as “a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity” 1. Successful video games get users to suspend disbelief, form a visceral connection, and invest themselves in the game world. If you said “yes” to most of these questions, then “game think” could be applied to your site. Is social media and building an online community part of your strategy?.Are you leveraging a marketing campaign that already has audio, animation, and transition styles and a narrative associated with it?.Does your brand welcome customer contributions and self-expression rather than requiring that all content and experiences be curated?.Do you have a significant set of features that might overwhelm first-time users?.Do you want your informational site to be more compelling than a brochure?.Do you need to create strong incentives for your users to complete a certain task or contribute in a certain way?.Do you have universal corporate messages that you would like to communicate to all visitors?.Are you looking to build brand affinity?.No category of site is therefore inappropriate for “game think.” As John Ferrara has demonstrated, games tackle similar tasks as web applications and the HCI considerations still apply. At first glance, advertising sites, RIAs, and some transactional sites seem obvious candidates for engrossing their visitors in the world of the brand enterprise solutions, not so much. When considering whether elements of video game design could apply to a site, you might think the category of your site is your first question. World of Warcraft featured on the Jeopardy game showĬompanies should create rich and immersive website experiences, drawing from some of the techniques for game design to build brand affinity and differentiate their sites. ![]() The televised Video Game Awards is in its sixth year and the influence of gaming culture is increasingly appearing in the mainstream. The $12.5 billion dollar market (NPD Group 2006) continues to grow as game franchises have extended into books, graphic novels, films, merchandise, and communities of devotees. Video games have become sophisticated creations that can take years to develop, weeks to play, and days to go platinum. ![]() The result: elements of the game medium are drifting into other digital experiences. ![]() People gaming on computers and consoles are having a blast and spending big. Consider the launch of Halo 3 on Xbox 360, with unprecedented graphics, sound, and interactivity that called “refined to the point where it delivers only pure unadulterated gaming bliss.” Think of how you feel when you play and who you play with. Take a moment and think about what video games look like, what they sound like, the way you can move on the screen, what “you” can be. Games are fun, addictive, beautiful, and immersive. ![]()
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