Transcript Document
2015 VIDEO GAMES AND INTERACTIVE MEDIA CONFERENCE Thank You to Our Platinum Sponsors Building a Competitive Game Program Presenters: Steve Fowler – Head of Global Marketing, ArenaNet Joshua Davis – Competitive Events Manager, ArenaNet Who Are We? • • • • • • • Leading creator of online games for core gamers Headquartered in Bellevue, WA Offices in Shanghai, Brighton, Dallas, and Austin Founded by Mike O’Brien in 2002 Launched acclaimed Guild Wars franchise in 2005 Independently run, fully-owned subsidiary of NCSoft Over 350 on-site employees What’s Our Product? Our journey so far… • • • • Over 100 awards and accolades Over 5MM players world wide Fastest selling MMO in history More than 40 free content releases • Pioneering subscription free model • Published in 5 different languages • Recently announced first boxed expansion for Guild Wars 2 Why Competitive Gaming? Why Competitive Gaming? Why Competitive Gaming? Why Competitive Gaming? • From a marketing perspective: • Competitive players have higher than average retention rates • Competitive players tend to play longer than non-competitive game-type players. • Players monetize better the more they play • Lifetime value is higher for competitive players than non-competitive players. • From a community perspective: • Competitive play is evergreen (which factors into the above) • Self-sustaining community engagement through tournaments and content • Storylines and drama Our Obstacles... • Brand Identity • For the uninitiated, what comes to mind when someone mentions Guild Wars 2? • Dragons! • Living World! • Player vs Environment! • Accessibility issues • Aside from Guild Wars 2 primarily being marketed as a PvE/story-driven MMORPG, there are other challenges we face in the competitive game market: • Less development resources are dedicated to competitive features than PvE/Living World content • Conflicting messaging • Price Where Did We Start? • Grassroots movement • Community run tournaments with crowd-funded or sponsored prize pools • Curse’s Masters of the Mists • MMORPG.com’s Invitational • MLG Invitational • Initial events sparked enough interest to devote internal resources to helping organize these events and their staff • Authorized Shoutcaster Program created • Third-Party Tournament Support Program created • Pax Prime Invitational ($10,000 prize pool) What Next? • Problem: Events were only catering towards hardcore players • Solution: expand reward structures to be more appealing to a wider group of players • Tournament of Legends • Featured team rewards for winning a single match-up • Rewards ranged from small personal cosmetic items to some of the most prestigious gear in Guild Wars 2 • ToL1 originally intended to support 8-16 teams per region • Overwhelming interest caused us to extend the tournament to 64 teams • Still could not support all of the interested teams • ToL2 was originally intended to support 64 teams per region • Sign-ups filled in mere hours, and we doubled the capacity per region to 128. • Nearly 100 teams on reserve list Creating PvP End-Game • Partnered with Electronic Sports League (ESL), the world leading competitive platform • Established weekly tournaments for NA/EU with over $1000 in prizes • Monthly finals feature over $3,000 in prizes per region World Tournament Series • Flagship Guild Wars 2 tournament • Three LAN events in first season • Beijing, Boston, Cologne • $50,000 prize pool at each event Lessons Learned • Consistency is key for growth • Treat your pros like celebrities and they will sing your praises! • Personal rewards are a driving motivator for participation • Need tiers of participation for every skill level • Broadcasting drives loyalty • Longer playtime equals more revenue • Avg playtime for a competitive player: 838 minutes/week • Avg playtime for a non-competitive players: 722 minutes/week The Bottom Line Reward changes New map New map Launch Reward changes Reward changes Reward changes Reward changes The Bottom Line ESL Go4Cups Begin Daily Rework WTS - Beijing WTS - Boston Tournament of Glory Lean Core June ‘14 May 14, 2015 The Future… • Providing non-event based incentive for hardcore players • Developing a more cohesive tournament ecosystem • Partnering with dev team on feature development • Participation funnel – moving players into the “Lean” cohort • Increasing Twitch presence • Better PvP monetization • New game mode: Stronghold THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS PLATINUM SPONSORS SILVER SPONSORS