Long-term entertainment, like video games, requires a different level of skill and design. Unlike a movie, which follows specific story beats and, to this day, only goes over the four-hour mark in special collector’s editions, long-term entertainment demands countless hours or even days of a person’s time.
When the person in question loves the media their engaging with, they’ll happily spend 100+ hours on a game, and no, it doesn’t have to be a sweeping RPG epic to accomplish this, either.
Which Long-Term Entertainment Has the Highest Play Times?
While there are some RPGs that offer 100+ hours of story and content, it’s not the story-driven games that see the highest levels of long-term engagement from their players. Rather, it’s player v player games like Call of Duty, Fortnite or builder games like Minecraft.
These player v player games can be solo, too, with mobile games from puzzles to slots and casino games like KanuunaKasino offers, also capable of topping the charts for most hours spent on a game or platform over time. The difference with mobile games, of course, is that the individual play sessions typically tend to be much shorter, but this is made up for the convenience of being able to play whenever, and wherever, and even for just a few minutes at a time.
What Makes Long-Term Engagement Possible in Entertainment?
So how do you go about engaging audiences with long-term media, or encourage them to commit dozens, if not hundreds, of hours to your game?
The Near-Win
One of the most powerful ways games, in particular, encourage long-term engagement is by using the near-win effect. This is popular in RPGs, even in player v player games, and, of course, slots and other casino games. Getting close to winning, whether that’s almost making the last jump in a platform puzzle, or getting two jackpot symbols and not the third) actually triggers a huge dopamine release, followed by frustration.
This near-win effect essentially works to encourage players to try just one more time, and see if they succeed. It applies the same regardless of whether that turn is based entirely on luck, or is based on player skill.
Engaging Cause-and-Effect
While yes, audiences for television shows can binge a series for hours or even days, that viewing is more often than not passive viewing. They’ll be doing something else, they may only have it on in the background, and so on.
Games, by their very nature, require the ongoing attention and engagement of the player, regardless of whether that’s a slots game or a shooter game. Requiring the player to do things, however, isn’t enough. It needs to be fun. The action a player makes should have excellent cause-and-effect, whether that’s as simple as fun, exciting graphics when you pull the digital lever or the ability to break the background sets on a game level, especially when you didn’t expect to be able to.
Gamification
Gamification is a powerful tool that can be used to make every element of a game more fun, simply by either requiring participation and strategy, or by limiting capabilities behind a levelling system, which rewards players the more they play.
Missions and quests are used in all types of games, while a digital store that uses non-cash currency to buy skins, cosmetics, or even bonuses provides a more robust series of ways to “succeed” and level up in the game, even if there are no actual levels (for example, in luck-based games).
Leaderboards
Another way that games, in particular, continue to engage and encourage players to keep playing is through a social leaderboard system. This is used on every type of game, even RPGs (though this is done through badges and in other off-game stats). A leaderboard system is a great way to reward participation by highlighting the best players, the players with the highest wins, or even tournament champions.
