A Player-centered Look at Spending and Advertising in Mobile Games
Channel: GRUX SIG
Date: 2018-10-10

Mobile games are played by more players from more diverse backgrounds than console or PC games. Mobile games also often monetize gameplay through a combination of in-app purchase and ads. While a lot of widely-shared research and industry commentary has focused on effective and ethical strategies for getting players to make in-app purchases, relatively little has been shared about how to design user-friendly and effective in-app ad experiences.

This talk will present recent findings from Google UX research across several product areas, focused on why mobile players choose to spend on mobile games, and how they engage with ads in mobile games. In particular, the talk will emphasize how key aspects of player’s gaming backgrounds and gaming motivations, combined with ad strategies used within mobile games, drive both positive and negative experiences with in-game ads.

Allen Bevans & Pat Samermit, Google

Allen Bevans is an experienced games researcher and educator who has presented at other UX conferences on both games research and UX research practice in general (e.g. Radical Research Summit 2016, internal EA UX Con). Allen loves using a wide set of player-centric research tools to help teams design experiences around player's needs and motivations. He will also talk about the problematic ways the gaming industry uses the terms "hardcore" and "casual".

Pat Samermit is a Ph.D. Candidate of Cognitive Psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her dissertation work is on embodied cognition and humor. She was also a UXR intern on the Consumer Display and Video Advertising UX team during the summer of 2017.

#gamesUR Conference
Games User Research focuses on players’ psychology and their behaviour via techniques such as playtesting, analytics, expert analysis, and others. Game User Researchers aim to help game developers deliver players the best gaming experience possible.

The #gamesUR Conference is a biannual gathering of the world's top professionals in games user research. For more information visit www.gamesurconf.com