Social Gaming
Why is Social Gaming so important to the success of the out-of-home entertainment industry?
The out-of-home entertainment industry is in a death match with the dramatically larger and more powerful in-home and mobile entertainment industry. Think YouTube, Netflix, Disney+, TikTok, X, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, and the thousands of In-home and Mobile Gaming options – all of them are maniacally focused on locking people into their fake digital worlds of distraction.
The best way to describe the In-home and mobile entertainment industry is an army of digital crack dealers pedaling an endless supply of addictive hits of dopamine delivered through the eyeballs of billions of humans every single day.
If our industry is going to have any chance at all of surviving and thriving, we have to offer experiences that provide our guests with a lot more of what they truly crave, which is the ability to play, connect, and bond with others in-person.
Our Shared Mission:
Saving HUMANITY from the ABYSS of Loneliness and Isolation
Our out-of-home entertainment venues are in the unique position of being able to provide the communities we serve with the ability to play, connect, and bond with their friends and family as well as the ability to make new friends – THAT IS OUR SUPER POWER!
The in-home and mobile entertainment (i.e. the distraction industry) CAN’T DO WHAT WE CAN DO!
Important note: We CAN’T compete Head to Head with in-home and mobile entertainment by simply selling more empty and emotionless hits of dopamine – especially since the in-home and mobile entertainment industry is already delivering a firehose of dopamine for pennies per hour or even free 24/7/365.
AND, why the hell would we want to join them in their ongoing nefarious efforts to dehumanize and destroy the human race by providing an endless stream of distraction and disconnection?!?
Key question, How do we Fully Develop our SUPER POWER, which is our ability to provide our guests with the best venues to come together to play, connect, and bond with other REAL humans?
We do it by continuously doing the hard work of developing the very best out-of-home entertainment venues. Our venues have to provide our guests with the right environment along with the best out-of-home entertainment experiences along with great food and beverage service that enable our guests to connect and FEEL real human emotions.
We do this by making it as convenient as possible for our guests to socialize in our venues and, most importantly, to have REAL experiences Face to Face with their friends, family, and the members of their community, as well as providing them with experiences they CAN’T do at home.
Definition of REAL experiences Face to Face:
In-person experiences that enable humans to gather, socialize, play, laugh, eat, drink, and bond – unobstructed by devices or any other technology that causes separation or inhibits face to face connection – virtual or otherwise.
Benefits of Providing our Guests with the Best Social Gaming Experiences that CAN’T be done at home or on a mobile device
Icebreaker
Most people are NOT comfortable with communicating with other people – especially if it’s with people they don’t know or haven’t seen in a while.
Social Gaming can significantly minimize the uncomfortable silences that often occur when people meet for the first time. For example, a first date, corporate event, group meeting, family reunion, or any type of gathering that brings people together.
If designed with the right elements, Social Gaming helps to reduce the social anxiety of meeting with friends, family, or even strangers. It does this by focusing everyone’s attention on the game. The game becomes the focal point and gives everyone in the group something to talk about.
As players communicate with each other about the game, it creates opportunities to talk and ask more personal questions, which can lead to more meaningful conversations. This is why Social Gaming is such a great Icebreaker.
Fun Social Distraction
Social Gaming experiences provide a fun distraction and gives our guests the opportunity to enjoy the company of their friends and family.
Enjoying a Social Gaming experience with others helps our guests to shake off a tough day at work or to forget, at least for a while, an ongoing personal struggle.
Team Play
All our Social Games are designed to be team-based. While 4 players can play on 4 individual teams (Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow), it’s a much better experience if players divide up into teams.
By being a part of a team, players become more connected with the common goal of working together to beat the opposing team or teams.
Each player’s individual score contributes to their team’s score. Teammates encourage each other and provide tips to score even higher points.
Teamplay helps to facilitate the bonding of our guests by sharing a common mission and working together to achieve it.
Bonding
Social Gaming experiences provide players with the opportunity to bond with the members of their group.
Coming together with friends, family, or colleagues to play different types of fun Social Gaming experiences can enable a much deeper bonding experience to occur.
This can only happen if our Social Gaming experiences are designed to fully maximize a group’s ability to interact, connect, and bond. We can do this by creating highly engaging gaming experiences – ones that help our guests to bond at a higher level.
What else NEEDS to be done to Create the Best Social Gaming Venues?
Multiple Units Drive MORE Walk-in and Group Revenue
A little bit of this and a little bit of that is NOT going to work. Multiple units drive more revenue. If you don’t think this is true, why aren’t entertainment venues opening up with just two or three bowling lanes?
I think everyone would agree that installing only two bowling lanes is a very Crazy Bad idea. Well, it’s just as crazy to do two Axe Throwing lanes or two Krazy Darts. The same is true for any other strong Social Gaming experience. And, if it’s not a strong Social Gaming experience that’s going to stand the test of time, don’t do it!
WHY do multiple units (4 or more) of the same Social Gaming experience? If you want to generate the maximum revenue possible, we need to install at least (4) in order to be able to capture the significant revenues generated by medium and larger groups.
Groups of 16 or more want to Bowl or Throw an Axe ALL at the same time – they don’t want to take turns because there aren’t enough Bowling lanes for their group to ALL play at the same time. The reality is that groups are organizing their outings so they CAN PLAY TOGETHER at the same time in the same space – it’s called a “Shared Experience” for a reason.
Change IS Happening – NOW!
It’s important to note that there are a few Social Gaming experiences that are starting to earn or will be earning a lot more revenue per square foot than traditional Social Gaming experiences.
The rapid evolution of Social Gaming is here and the best of the newer Social Gaming experiences are going to drive much higher guest traffic – especially when they are implemented with the same level of commitment and investment as the older Social Gaming experiences.
It’s time to make room for the future if we want our venues to exist in the future.
These changes are happening RIGHT NOW and that’s because these newer Social Gaming experiences are being designed to appeal to a much wider range of guests.
The big key for a few of them is that they have a much lower skill level variance. Our definition of “Skill Level Variance” is the degree of difference between a first time player and a skilled one – the bigger the variance the less likely the Social Gaming experience will be successful in an out-of-home gaming venue. When “most” people leave their homes for a fun night out, they don’t want to play a game that makes them look like they have little to no skill compared to other players. In other words, they just want to play games that are fun and easy to play.
In addition, a few of the new Social Gaming experiences have more room to make additional improvements. These changes include a much wider range of fun games to experience as well as the ability to dial in the existing games to maximize repeat play.
The reality is that a number of these older Social Gaming experiences as well as the newer ones are going to lose some of the space they currently occupy and a few are going to be completely eliminated.
Another big advantage for some of the newer Social Gaming experiences is that they have a much smaller foot print – this enables them to generate significantly higher revenue and profits per square foot.
This new 2.0 Social Gaming evolution is going to accelerate. There are going to be multiple new Social Gaming experiences coming online over the next 5 years.
The reality is that nobody knows for sure which ones are going to be the most successful. With that being said, the key to figuring all of this out, and hopefully sooner than our competitors, is to be fully immersed in the process of learning how to promote and operate these new out-of-home entertainment experiences!
Profit Per Square Foot
What’s the best calculation to use for return on investment for a Social Gaming experience?
It’s not just the return on the total capital invested – it’s the profit per square foot of the occupied space.
The most expensive cost after payroll is the cost of the real estate. Whether we are renting, buying, or developing our venue from the ground up, we have to select the Social Gaming experiences that are going to generate the strongest profit per square foot both today and into the future.
Adult Focus
Adults are by far the biggest opportunity for Social Gaming. It’s not that kids can’t participate in some of the best Social Gaming experiences – it’s just that the biggest opportunity is focusing on what Adults would want to play – especially since Adults make up the majority of the population in the communities we all serve.
Adults can spend more money and visit more often, but only if we make our venues truly great places to visit .
10x Social Gaming experiences IS KEY
To generate the best profit per square foot, we have to draw a lot of people out of their homes and away from their mobile devices.
In order to do that, we have to build dramatically more impressive, FUN, and truly Social Gaming Experiences. They have to be as close to 10x as possible when compared to the alternatives, and if possible, they have to be exclusive to our venues.
Exclusive with Radius Protection
In an industry where everyone can buy the same games and attractions, it’s important to figure out the best ways to elevate our venues as far above the competition as possible.
The only way we can do this is by owning and operating entertainment experiences that are exclusive to our venues and by operating them at a very high level!
Best Owners/Operators
Our mission is to work with the Best Owners/Operators by providing them with truly unique and proprietary Social Gaming and Attraction experiences that can only be found in their venues.
Our Responsibilities
Our Manufacturing company’s task is to create the best Social Gaming and Attraction experiences – ones that are truly unique and 10x better than what exists today and hopefully far into the future.
Our Operating company’s focus is to figure out how to operate our Social Gaming and Attraction experiences at the highest level possible in our venues and our client’s venues. Our Operating company provides ongoing, real-world operational and guest feedback, which enables our Manufacturing company to accelerate the ongoing improvement of our Social Gaming and Attraction experiences.
Finally, our goal is to offer our Social Gaming and Attraction experiences to the Best Owners/Operators and provide them with the same opportunity we provide ourselves, which is to operate them exclusively within their own protected market areas.
Partnership Opportunity Details
Basic
Purchase 4 units of our new Krazy DartsTM, Krazy Axes VIP, and Krazy (next one coming soon) and receive a 6-month exclusive radius protection for up to 150,000 in population or 5 miles, whichever is reached first.
Silver Partnership
Purchase 8 units of our new Krazy DartsTM, Krazy Axes VIP, and Krazy (next one coming soon) or 4 of each and receive a 2-Year exclusive radius protection for up to 300,000 in population or 10 miles, whichever is reached first.
Gold Partnership
Purchase 12 or more units of our new Krazy DartsTM, Krazy Axes VIP, and Krazy (next one coming soon) or a combination of 4 or more of each to get to 12 units and receive a 5-year exclusive radius protection for up to 500,000 in population or 15 miles, whichever is reached first.
Ability to protect (1) additional market area for 12 months
Platinum Partnership
Purchase 16 or more units of our new Krazy DartsTM, Krazy Axes VIP, and Krazy (next one coming soon) or combination of 4 or more of each to get to 16 units and receive a 10-year exclusive radius protection for up to 750,000 in population or 20 miles, whichever is reached first.
Ability to protect (2) additional market areas for 18 months
Radius protection extensions can occur when an Operator purchases (4) additional units of a newly released or existing Social Gaming experience (which is not already protected in the designated area) prior to the expiration of their current radius protection. The owner operator can do this every year, which will enable them to maintain their Radius Protection perpetually for all of their Social Gaming and Attraction experiences.
Important note: when we introduce a new Social Gaming experience (for example, Krazy (next one coming soon) or Krazy (next next one)?) and an operator decides to pass or hold off on a purchase, the new Social Gaming experience can be offered to other operators within their protected area, which means it may no longer be available for purchase in the same market for (x) months or (y) years.
As always, I’m available to discuss all the above or any other topics related to creating the best Social Gaming venues along with great food and beverage service for out-of-home entertainment venues.
Thanks for reading!
Jim Kessler
Email: jkessler@lasertron.us