If you could work in any industry in the 2020s, which would you choose?
You could do a lot worse than the gaming industry, which has seen something of a boom over the past few years. The COVID pandemic started in March of 2020, and by June – just three months later – Statista was reporting a 39% global increase in time spent playing video games.
But the pandemic didn’t just boost our appetites for entertainment. It made us hungry for social contact as well. That could be why, drilling down into the increase in gaming time, the stats also show the following:
Figures like these make one thing clear: When it comes to gaming, people don’t just want to play. They want to connect as well. Giving players the ability to communicate with one another right in your platform – without having to seek connection on external platforms like Discord – is one of the best things you can do to increase user engagement in gaming today.
On that note, here are three ways to drive communication in video games.
Learn more about how in-platform communication can drive user engagement here.
One-on-one or multiplayer gameplay already takes players part of the way to establishing the connections they seek. Reacting to one another’s in-game moves and actions is arguably a form of connection itself.
You can take them the rest of the way there by adding web real-time communication (WebRTC) to your platform, providing players with a more intimate and direct way to interact. Lots of games already recognize this, and provide in-game text chat modules as a native feature.
But if your game doesn’t already have features like this, there are software development toolkits (SDKs) that provide an easy way to add them to your product through quick, low-code integrations. And it doesn’t have to stop at text-chat – audio and video SDKs can empower players not just to read each other’s comments and messages, but to hear and see each other as well.
If going the integration route, make sure the SDKs you choose are flexible enough to add fluid communication functionality to your platform while maintaining your unique UI. The last thing you want is for in-game communication to come at the cost of a clunky, degraded interface.
Try out Aircore’s SDKs on your platform here.
The data on Twitch stream engagement over the past few years shows there’s a pretty big appetite among gamers for live streaming. People love watching an expert display virtuosic talent as they tear through their favorite game. It’s entertaining, and a great way to nerd out. It’s also a chance for viewers to learn skills and tricks that can help them overcome roadblocks in the gameplay that they’ve been struggling with, and take their abilities to the next level.
After all, this is still the era of the influencer, and the expert-led live stream may be gaming’s manifestation of that. By making your game a streaming destination, you can turn your platform into a place where influencers and their fans come together.
Just remember: Whatever you do, don’t confuse streaming with WebRTC.
Communication SDKs give your users the power not just to communicate, but to curate the communities that form on your platform. That’s why many of them use these communication features to create invite-only spaces where they can connect directly with friends and people they already know.
But there’s no rule that says it has to be this way. While private, protected environments have their place, creating a public forum open to all players is a great way to broaden the conversation. It also improves players’ ability to share and learn new game strategies from other players, which can drive further engagement with the game itself.
If you go this route, it might be a good idea to include some level of moderation in any forum you create, just to make sure conversations stay appropriate and hurtful language can be filtered out.
More and more, today’s gamers are seeking experiences built around community. Giving them the power to communicate in an authentic way within their favorite gaming environment should be a top goal for every gaming platform. Get in touch to learn how Aircore can get you on the fast track to achieving that goal.
