Can AI Facilitate More Cohesive Gaming Communities?

A recent report found that there are over 2.5 billion gamers globally (that’s around 1/3 of our planet’s population), who will together spend over $152 billion in 2019 on their games of choice. Other research has shown that nearly 10% of gamers play primarily for the community aspect of gaming, and player-generated content is so hot that even retail giant Amazon got on board, purchasing streaming gaming content provider Twitch way back in 2014.

At the same time, gamers tend to be fickle folks. So fickle, that day one retention rates for casual gaming rarely cross the 40% mark – resulting in 60% gaming churn.

What’s the connection between gaming volume, community and churn? Simple. Gaming is big business that is highly community focused. And online communities thrive on participants who share about themselves and their experiences.

How Do Gamers Share?

Say what you will about Amazon, but they know their business. The company shelled out more than $1.1 billion for Twitch because they knew even five years ago that gamers are deeply engaged and itching for a platform to share. And they were right. By 2018, Twitch’s peak concurrent viewership had overtaken MNSBC and CNN, and today has overtaken Fox.

Gamers are social creatures and sharing is in their blood. The why of sharing has never been in question, and since Twitch and other sharing platforms came along, the how hasn’t been a problem, either. The problem for gamers? Creating shareable material. Frequently, the overhead of choosing the defining moments in a given game, remembering to record them in the heat of play – not to mention editing and formatting – can be prohibitively complex and time-consuming.

How AI Can Help

AI-driven tools like Blink’s enables gamers to focus on what they love – gaming – while still sharing their experiences with their peers. This creates more cohesive, more vibrant gaming communities that are ultimately more sustaining for gamers and more profitable for game makers.

AI-powered contextual analysis can be applied to automatically detect defining moments in a game, capture them, and package them into engaging, shareable stories. In this way, AI empowers gamers to share their priceless moments with the world – driving engagement and traffic. Moreover, AI helps democratize content creation. Previously the domain of professionals with the resources to document their memorable moments, AI-based automatic tools enable players of all levels to share their stories.

The Bottom Line

Game makers and players alike – each for their own distinct reasons – have an interest in creating and disseminating shareable moments from their favorite games.

For gamers, leveraging AI to create shareable stories offers a solution to a clear need not yet addressed by other platforms – seamless and simple creation of compelling and shareable game content.

For game makers, AI-driven sharing offers the benefits of more engaged, more connected players engaged. This raises player satisfaction, markedly impacts gaming communities, and ultimately lowers churn while growing profitability.

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