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[TylerYork]

Hey all,

We wanted to invite all of you to our Game Monetization meetup, "Money Talks." It's going to be held in downtown San Francisco so you will need to be from the Bay Area to attend, though if there is sufficient demand then we will consider doing a live stream as well. I've pasted the description below, and let me know if you have any questions by replying below. Thanks!

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Game Monetization is a hot topic and many developers are willing to learn. We've put together a great set of speakers to teach you how to make more money with your game. These speakers bring a wealth of game monetization experience from some of the most prestigious companies in the industry.

Speakers
Roxanne Gibert
Roxanne Gibert is the Founder & CEO of Spyra Games, a company aiming to bring social strategy games to mobile devices. Her product and monetization strategy experience was cultivated at premier social game companies such as Zynga, Playdom, and Playfirst.

Roger Dickey
Roger Dickey's rapid rise began when he founded his own game company, which was bought by Zynga only 6 months after its launch. Within Zynga, Roger went on to head both Fishville and the incredibly popular (and profitable) Mafia Wars. Roger now serves as an advisor to multiple gaming startups.

Chris Griffin
Chris Griffin is the Founder & CEO of Betable, the only game monetization platform that lets you legally implement real-money gambling & betting into your games. His experience building gambling & betting products gives him unique insight into game mechanics & game monetization. Alongside Betable, Chris is an advisor to numerous venture-backed startups.

Schedule
6:00PM - Drinks, food, and networking
7:00PM - Roxanne Gibert: Creating Lifetime Value
7:20PM - Roger Dickey: Game Monetization Toolkit
7:45PM - Chris Griffin: Challenging the Status Quo
8:00PM - More drinks and networking 

[Christian Knudsen]

Oh dear.

[Glyph]

 

[moi]

At the end of the talk you get a "I'm a zynga-student" badge. But more importantly you learn to grow out of childish nostalgia games and focus on: what makes games more engaging for the repeat consumer, optimizing your ARPU, monetization, and "how to setup business and get bought by Zynga in 6 months" .
So stop being a loser and get a step into the future!

[Falmil]

"Existing methods of game monetization are starting to get stale.  Virtual goods have become a commodity, in-game advertising intrudes on the user experience, and level packs require continuous time investment to create new content. Game developers are constantly challenged to finding new ways to increase their revenue."

God forbid you take time to make game content in return for cash.

[deathtotheweird]

certainly not enough   in the schedule for me.

also, fuck off.

[Xardov]

How to make money like Mafia Wars:

1.  Make game without any real time fighting or sprite animation.
2.  Name it something interesting like Mafia Wars to get people to try it out.
3.  Make people pay for more energy or money in order to do stuff that isn't even exciting.
4.  $$$!

The reason I hate Mafia Wars so much is because its text-based, and there's no actual fighting.  There's no skill involved.

[TylerYork]

At the end of the talk you get a "I'm a zynga-student" badge. But more importantly you learn to grow out of childish nostalgia games and focus on: what makes games more engaging for the repeat consumer, optimizing your ARPU, monetization, and "how to setup business and get bought by Zynga in 6 months" .
So stop being a loser and get a step into the future!

Oh god, I hope not

I think there's a stereotype in the game industry right now that:
a) that people that have been very successful with social game monetization have done so at the expense of gameplay
b) those who are trying to sell you game monetization solutions are generally vultures
c) Zynga in particular is the big bad fortress of soulless evil, and is basically where Bowser would live if he could

While I can't speak for the last one, 1 and 2 are definitely not true in all cases. Like any industry that has found itself at the center of a gold rush, the gaming industry is now surrounded at all sides by salesmen (both  :gentleman:and  ) trying to grab a piece of the pie. I definitely understand how this can be frustrating

At Betable, we spend a lot of time and effort focusing on providing a great resource for game developers rather than just blasting you with marketing messages all day. Our meetup series is a big part of that education, and we firmly believe that game monetizaton doesn't have to mean selling your soul to the cow-clicking devil. Like many indie game devs, we think game monetization is best done when it feels natural for the player and fits into the game in a way that is almost invisible

[1982]

Why don't you talk about how to make good games?

[LiquidAsh]

though if there is sufficient demand then we will consider doing a live stream as well.

I'd like to see a stream of this!  And I assure you that I am sufficient .

[mikejkelley]

The link doesn't work and I don't see a date. If it's not too late, I'd like to see a stream too.

[Zaphos]

fixed link:
http://www.meetup.com/SFGameMonetization/events/35629432/

[Theophilus]

I think there's a stereotype in the game industry right now that:
a) that people that have been very successful with social game monetization have done so at the expense of gameplay
b) those who are trying to sell you game monetization solutions are generally vultures
c) Zynga in particular is the big bad fortress of soulless evil, and is basically where Bowser would live if he could

STEREOTYPES?

[Falmil]

I think there's a stereotype in the game industry right now that:
a) that people that have been very successful with social game monetization have done so at the expense of gameplay
b) those who are trying to sell you game monetization solutions are generally vultures
c) Zynga in particular is the big bad fortress of soulless evil, and is basically where Bowser would live if he could

I don't think that at all.



I think Bowser has way more soul than Zynga.

[Evan Balster]

It's too late in the day for snark.

Therefore,




In more serious terms, I'm uncomfortable with making myself a student to the developer of a game I only know about because it's caused my acquaintances to harass me over social networks.  Its impact on my life has primarily been making me question whether using such services as a connective media are worth the constant influx of informational noise and the discomfort of attributing that noise to friends and family.

My suspicion is, modern social games subvert social interaction rather than facilitating it.  Counterpoints are welcome.

[TylerYork]

@1982 Our goal is to facilitate the creation of cool, innovative new games that also monetize effectively. Monetization is actually an important tool for creativity because more money gives developers more flexibility on how to build and market their game.

@LiquidAsh, @mikejkelley There will be a either a live stream or a video recording of the event and we'll post it on our blog the next day as well

@Jimmy thanks, I didn't realize changing the date changed the link

@Theophilus ack! thanks for the heads up

@Evan Balster Social game monetization is certainly not a topic for everyone. Unfortunately, social games do leverage frustrating viral marketing techniques, but part of the reason why they do this is because these games need millions of players to sustain a viable business. I play Lucky Space and it doesn't force this spam on you at all, because they are tailored to a hardcore audience and do not require a ton of players

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

relevant: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-57322150-17/zynga-to-employees-give-back-our-stock-or-youll-be-fired/

[Chromanoid]

pls record it, i will probably not be able to watch it live. edit: lol when looking at the date, it was really not possible ^^

for everyone who wants to get in the mood for this stuff some lectures from http://casualconnect.org/ might be interesting

any recordings available?

[TylerYork]

As requested, we have put the video of Roger's presentation at "Money Talks" up on Vimeo. This is a great talk and definitely worth watching. You can find the video here:





Roger has given us permission to make this video public, so when you share it with your friends, be sure to thank him on Twitter as well at @rogerdickey.

We have also written a summary on our blog for those of you who like cliff notes:
http://blog.betable.com/roger-dickeys-hacks-for-game-monetization/

Cheers,

Tyler