Hooked #1 — Pubg

A product that introduces a fresh perspective in the gaming industry

(figure 1)

Nir Eyal, the writer of the book “Hooked” is quite popular for his contribution on Behavioral Engineering & the model proposed by the author is a great tool for the designers/product managers & companies in developing a habit-forming product — A product that makes a user come back and interact with it frequently. This is a 4 step process (figure 1).

I was never a game freak until I came across this multiplayer game called Pubg (figure 2) a few months back and tried to understand why this game has been on an increasing trend over the period of its launch (20th December 2017). It has got a mobile version & a PC Emulator, And according to the survey, there are more than 400 Million downloads to date.

“It’s a battle royal game in which 100 players land on an island and the last squad/person standing becomes a winner.”

(figure 2)

After reading the book “Hooked by Nir Eyal”; This is how I relate Pubg game with the Hooked model:

TRIGGER:

Storytelling is a great tool that increases the attention span leading to great engagement. This is an important catalyst that enhances the user anticipation leading to the question (What is next/ what to do next?). Pubg has got good storytelling embedded in it and few days are left for Pubg Season 10 (Click on this link to know more about season 10). Buying of Royal Passes & Skins acts as an external trigger in this game.

Feelings like boredom, greed & boasting act as an internal trigger.

ACTION:

Any action to be executed requires these 3 things:

1. Motivation (Energy to do a particular behavior)
2. Ability (Capacity to do the behavior)
3. Trigger (which we have discussed earlier)

Every product development process should start not with motivation but with an ability — the hard or something is to do the less likely people do it. And this game has got that Flexi & an intuitive feature which enables the user to do that particular behavior. Also, it has been seen that a noob starts playing this game watching other users(his own friends) playing this game (this creates a feeling of ease to play the game). And these factors energies the user to play the game.

REWARD:

Nir Eyal has described that there are three types of rewards — Reward of the tribe(reward that feels good, that has an uncertainty & come from other people like competition, cooperation & empathetic joy — it feels good because others feel good), the reward of the hunt(Primal need for material possessions) & reward for self(feel good).

In Pubg this is how rewards come into the scene:

1. The reward of the tribe — Hits & Gifts from your friends & Strangers too. If a clan member buys something you get points, in-game currencies & many other perks.
2. The reward of the hunt — Titles, Legendary outfits, Royal Pass collection
3. The reward for self — Good Feeling

INVESTMENT:

Everything in the physical world loses its value due to wear & tear but the habit-forming product does the opposite, the value of the product increases with time & becomes better when the user engagement is more.

Pubg notifies you once you complete playing for 6 hours a day. The game is getting better and flexible, it has brought up new modes like Payload & TDM which is getting more engaging (keeping in mind the other competitors).