Great talk on data and statistics, and how to use them critically! For those who get stuck on the fact that some people spend "huge" amounts of money on games: excluding streamers, who can write it off as a business expense, we are talking about a hobby. Hobbies tend to cost money, and the total costs per year are surprisingly similar, regardless of hobby; e.g. you could buy a bunch of game content, a netflix subscription, or a gym membership with the same amount. It's all about personal choice and preferences, and it only becomes a problem if it affects other aspects of one's life negatively.
This is why it's important to understand the difference between correlation and causation, lol. I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt and assume she misspoke, but ice cream and drowning ARE correlated, since they both go up in hot weather. What she meant to say is that there is no causal relationship between the two.
I understand that data is important and there are many good points in this video. However, I think it's more important to focus on how to make the game good than on how to make it produce as much money as possible.
?Por que no dos? I mean, why not both? If you work in a company big enough to have a marketing department that has access to numbers, then it's good to get them to watch this video. If you're in a company small enough that you are wearing both marketing and dev hats, then the steam page makeover or the slime rancher talk about making gifs is about all you need.
I think he's referring to the Ubisoft phenomenon where they have reduced every single thing down to metrics, which is probably a reason why their games are so mediocre@@spritelessGirl
@@RictorScale Yes. I am aware that it happens. I am interpreted the video as a call to change things. And, if you change things, why throw out the useful bits when you can do both?
Everybody's pockets are different. I spent $300 for the whole Total war:Warhammer game with the DLC. Just few days ago. But of course those new "mini-transactions" F2P games are really prone to cause gaming addictions, i believe. It should exist a limit imho, to the money you can spend in the game. What do you think?
Partly because some people just can't do anything about it, even if they don't have the money, if combined with more money it could go really high. Also, there's another factor, possible playtime - for example I'm playing Path of Exile for 3 years, I spent like 3.5k hours in the game total, and spend around 300 euros on it. But on a playtime/price basis it's not even a huge amount of money spent.
Indeed. This means that some players are addicted. They have the data, they could isolate those players and help them. Instead, the company milks them as much as possible. This is just sad.
Ladies and gentlemen, you see here the modern enemy of gaming as we know it. Instead of focusing on the passion of gaming, they focus on analytics of exploitation.
I don't want to be judged as a "quality player", but rather a "high-paying player". There's just too much judgement in the terms she uses. (And too much bla-bla, but that's a separate topic)
I understand that data can be a cold way to study people but : 1 : There are games airing worldwide, and studios can not use stratégies to know who plays their game without data. It would ask about as much time as the game development itself 2- data are implemented to know you better, where do you die ? How many time do you take before mastering the inputs ? Are levels/collectables/puzzle passed/obtained/resolve easily ? Even if, I have to admit, the most perceptibles ones are about the monetization system 3- there are UX people liké Celia hodent and many more who are militating for banning "dark patterns" From the UX framework. The fact that it exists doesn't mean it is everywhere, chill out comrade
I will never understand why anyone would ever spend $40,000 on any 1 game. Even if you're rich, there's no game that's worth wasting that much money on. I understand that the "whales" are extreme outliers but the fact that no game will last forever because video games are ultimately just entertainment and the industry will always move on as soon as the next big trend hits. I myself do occasionally buy into some micro-transactions for a game I'm really enjoying and I'd even say it's likely I've spent upwards of around $1000 on a single game before but I spend that over the course of a games entire life, not in a relatively short period of time, it's just insane to burn money like that for something that only exists in a digital form and for a product that's garaunteed to be worthless in just a year or 2, MAAAYBEE 3 yrs for the truly biggest and most popular games. This was an interesting talk though, i also love me some data. xP
Why people buy a Ferrari or Lamborghini car? Why people buy Rolex watches? I mean.. a simple $20 watch should be more than enough to look at what time it is.. The reality is: You look at a new cool item/weapon/character -> OMG it's so cool.. -> how much is the price? -> just $19.90.. -> who cares, i really like it! (click couple times to buy it). :D right?
Actually in some cases it can make sense, e.g if you're a youtuber and you spend $10k opening packs for a video that makes $20k, then it's a business expense
people spend thousands of dollars on drugs because it gets them high and they are addicted to it, or it is part of their lifestyle. does not matter if the drug is damaging their body or not. the same can be said about games: provides entertainment, some are addicted to it, some people identify as "gamers" and it is part of their lifestyle. shouldn't be hard to understand.
@@sepg5084 Precisely, you've pointed out exactly why I don't play or support mobile games. Someone who's addicted needs help and these mobile developers are equivalent to the drug dealers, instead of recognizing how destructive letting someone spend that kind of money in their game is for a person, they instead choose to take advantage of them just like a drug dealer. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing inherently wrong with DLC or micro-transactions, but it's gotten to the point that it's almost overtly predatory. All of this is supposed to be ADDITIONAL, not the core element by which a game is completely designed around. I would argue that at that point your game no longer qualifies as art because it's actually just a "prize machine" like "the crane game" which is designed with a shitty claw on purpose to make sure that on avg ppl will always have to play multiple times to win. Mobile games are this same concept just applied in a different way and the crane game is not art, and neither are these games. To quickly address the other response about ppl who buy Lamborghini's and such. A vehicle or, really any physical item isn't comparable because the fact that the Lamborghini will still retain great value long after the purchase means that a secondary motivation to buy one will always be that it's also an investment in the total value of your assets. The $10,000+ worth of digital items in a game that's, say, 5 yrs old have NO VALUE to practically everyone at that point, so even though your counter is a good attempt, they're just not comparable in the same way.
According to the data, most people skip to 5:00 when she makes her first point.
in this era of overinformation and players shoving numbers at each other as absolute proof of their claims (mostly reddit) this video was very needed
Plebbit*
I'm any era , and in any medium.
Great talk on data and statistics, and how to use them critically!
For those who get stuck on the fact that some people spend "huge" amounts of money on games: excluding streamers, who can write it off as a business expense, we are talking about a hobby. Hobbies tend to cost money, and the total costs per year are surprisingly similar, regardless of hobby; e.g. you could buy a bunch of game content, a netflix subscription, or a gym membership with the same amount. It's all about personal choice and preferences, and it only becomes a problem if it affects other aspects of one's life negatively.
incredible talk
Hey! Does anyone, by chance, have the deck that she used for this presentation?
This is why it's important to understand the difference between correlation and causation, lol. I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt and assume she misspoke, but ice cream and drowning ARE correlated, since they both go up in hot weather. What she meant to say is that there is no causal relationship between the two.
Amazing presentation!!
I understand that data is important and there are many good points in this video. However, I think it's more important to focus on how to make the game good than on how to make it produce as much money as possible.
?Por que no dos? I mean, why not both? If you work in a company big enough to have a marketing department that has access to numbers, then it's good to get them to watch this video. If you're in a company small enough that you are wearing both marketing and dev hats, then the steam page makeover or the slime rancher talk about making gifs is about all you need.
I think he's referring to the Ubisoft phenomenon where they have reduced every single thing down to metrics, which is probably a reason why their games are so mediocre@@spritelessGirl
@@RictorScale Yes. I am aware that it happens. I am interpreted the video as a call to change things. And, if you change things, why throw out the useful bits when you can do both?
What makes a game good and how can you measure it? Games are entertainment products.
Very True Good Video about data about which she is exactly totally right. I like the Detective analogy which I use daily in my data job.
Today statistics scholars don't see p-values as a goto parameter of significance anymore
If anyone in here doesn't know overwatch 2 would take 450 years to get all the content for free.
Holy shit, why is it possible for someone to spend over 40K on one game? Hell, even 1000 seems too much.
Everybody's pockets are different. I spent $300 for the whole Total war:Warhammer game with the DLC. Just few days ago. But of course those new "mini-transactions" F2P games are really prone to cause gaming addictions, i believe. It should exist a limit imho, to the money you can spend in the game. What do you think?
Lol, you are sooo naive
Partly because some people just can't do anything about it, even if they don't have the money, if combined with more money it could go really high. Also, there's another factor, possible playtime - for example I'm playing Path of Exile for 3 years, I spent like 3.5k hours in the game total, and spend around 300 euros on it. But on a playtime/price basis it's not even a huge amount of money spent.
Indeed. This means that some players are addicted. They have the data, they could isolate those players and help them. Instead, the company milks them as much as possible. This is just sad.
streamers
Ladies and gentlemen, you see here the modern enemy of gaming as we know it. Instead of focusing on the passion of gaming, they focus on analytics of exploitation.
us designers and developers want a decent wage too yk ):
Cool. Reducing players to revenue providers. They are just data.
Video Games are the largest single sector vertical for the entertainment industry as a whole. They definitely aren't a charity. What do you expect?
Are you sad
I don't want to be judged as a "quality player", but rather a "high-paying player". There's just too much judgement in the terms she uses. (And too much bla-bla, but that's a separate topic)
Crazy. It's almost like video games are made by corporations and sold for money. Fucking nuts *bong hit*
I understand that data can be a cold way to study people but :
1 : There are games airing worldwide, and studios can not use stratégies to know who plays their game without data. It would ask about as much time as the game development itself
2- data are implemented to know you better, where do you die ? How many time do you take before mastering the inputs ? Are levels/collectables/puzzle passed/obtained/resolve easily ?
Even if, I have to admit, the most perceptibles ones are about the monetization system
3- there are UX people liké Celia hodent and many more who are militating for banning "dark patterns" From the UX framework.
The fact that it exists doesn't mean it is everywhere, chill out comrade
I will never understand why anyone would ever spend $40,000 on any 1 game. Even if you're rich, there's no game that's worth wasting that much money on. I understand that the "whales" are extreme outliers but the fact that no game will last forever because video games are ultimately just entertainment and the industry will always move on as soon as the next big trend hits.
I myself do occasionally buy into some micro-transactions for a game I'm really enjoying and I'd even say it's likely I've spent upwards of around $1000 on a single game before but I spend that over the course of a games entire life, not in a relatively short period of time, it's just insane to burn money like that for something that only exists in a digital form and for a product that's garaunteed to be worthless in just a year or 2, MAAAYBEE 3 yrs for the truly biggest and most popular games.
This was an interesting talk though, i also love me some data. xP
Why people buy a Ferrari or Lamborghini car? Why people buy Rolex watches? I mean.. a simple $20 watch should be more than enough to look at what time it is.. The reality is: You look at a new cool item/weapon/character -> OMG it's so cool.. -> how much is the price? -> just $19.90.. -> who cares, i really like it! (click couple times to buy it). :D right?
Actually in some cases it can make sense, e.g if you're a youtuber and you spend $10k opening packs for a video that makes $20k, then it's a business expense
people spend thousands of dollars on drugs because it gets them high and they are addicted to it, or it is part of their lifestyle. does not matter if the drug is damaging their body or not. the same can be said about games: provides entertainment, some are addicted to it, some people identify as "gamers" and it is part of their lifestyle.
shouldn't be hard to understand.
@@sepg5084 Precisely, you've pointed out exactly why I don't play or support mobile games. Someone who's addicted needs help and these mobile developers are equivalent to the drug dealers, instead of recognizing how destructive letting someone spend that kind of money in their game is for a person, they instead choose to take advantage of them just like a drug dealer. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing inherently wrong with DLC or micro-transactions, but it's gotten to the point that it's almost overtly predatory. All of this is supposed to be ADDITIONAL, not the core element by which a game is completely designed around. I would argue that at that point your game no longer qualifies as art because it's actually just a "prize machine" like "the crane game" which is designed with a shitty claw on purpose to make sure that on avg ppl will always have to play multiple times to win. Mobile games are this same concept just applied in a different way and the crane game is not art, and neither are these games.
To quickly address the other response about ppl who buy Lamborghini's and such. A vehicle or, really any physical item isn't comparable because the fact that the Lamborghini will still retain great value long after the purchase means that a secondary motivation to buy one will always be that it's also an investment in the total value of your assets. The $10,000+ worth of digital items in a game that's, say, 5 yrs old have NO VALUE to practically everyone at that point, so even though your counter is a good attempt, they're just not comparable in the same way.
R poo poo