Time to Get Serious About Social Gaming
Quick Summary:
This article emphasizes the increasing importance of social gaming in out-of-home entertainment venues due to the rising epidemic of isolation and loneliness, exacerbated by the “mass distraction industry” (social media, streaming, and mobile devices). The article argues that many entertainment venues are losing the “attention battle” because they don’t offer a strong enough combination of social gaming, attractions, as well as food and beverage, at a reasonable price.
The article highlights the broad decline in out-of-home entertainment revenue, citing examples like Movie Theaters, Dave and Busters, Lucky Strike, Top Golf, and notes that restaurants are also seeing a significant decrease in onsite dining traffic.
To succeed, out-of-home entertainment venues must significantly improve and expand the variety, quality, and uniqueness of their social gaming experiences, making it far more enjoyable for their guests to socialize.
Key strategies include:
Variety of Social Gaming Experiences: Offering 4-6 different types of Social Gaming.
Multiple Units: Operating more than just 1 or 2 units of each type of Social Gaming experience to accommodate both medium and large groups.
Low Skill Level Variance: Games should be easy for first-time players to understand and play.
Social by Design: Games that naturally encourage interaction.
Perennial Games: Familiar games that guests already know how to play.
Team Play: Prioritizing team-based games to foster teamwork and bonding.
Lots of Perennial Games to Play: A wide selection to keep guests engaged and more games than they can play in just one visit. This helps to facilitate more return visits.
Alternating Play: Players take turns playing the game, which enables the participants to cheer on their teammates, chat with fellow guests, as well as eat and drink when it’s not their turn.
Eating and Drinking while others are playing: Integrating food and beverage service.
Dedicated Social Gaming Manager and Staff: Essential for facilitating and enhancing each social experience as well as maximizing the revenue generated from multiple types of Social Gaming experiences and multiple units of each one.
The end of the article also outlines exclusivity opportunities based on the number of Social Gaming units purchased (Krazy Darts, Krazy Axes, and LASERTRON’s newest addition Krazy Arrowz), offering radius protection for various durations based on the total number of units purchased.
Time to Get Serious About Social Gaming
When it comes to the success of out-of-home entertainment, it’s hard to overstate the importance of Social Gaming.
A large and growing number of people (i.e. our prospective guests) are struggling with an epidemic of isolation and loneliness. While the covid pandemic was an accelerator of this problem, it wasn’t the actual cause of it.
The real driver was the rapid growth of the mass distraction industry (i.e. Social Media, Streaming Services, Mobile Devices, Gaming, etc). In addition, the rapid expansion of all forms of home delivery made it possible to never leave your home.
The goal for these mass distraction companies is NOT to provide experiences that make their users lives better or to socialize more with their friends, family, or coworkers – it’s to steal every second of their attention so they can sell it to the highest bidder or to stream an unending flow of distraction for a recurring monthly fee.
The reality is that many out-of-home entertainment venues are losing the attention battle and it IS the mass distraction industry that’s winning.
Far too many venues are NOT providing a strong enough combination of Social Gaming, Attractions, as well as Food & Beverage at a price point that enables our guests to visit our venues more frequently or at least as frequently as they used to.
We have to recognize the fact that what worked yesterday is NOT going to work today or at least not at the level we need it to.
It’s important to note that the broad downward decline of out-of-home entertainment revenue and visits is happening across virtually all types of entertainment venues.
Movie Theaters this year are going to earn less than half the revenue they earned in their peak year (inflation adjusted), which was in 2002!!! The number of tickets sold is down even more.
Dave and Busters has seen continuous quarterly declines for over 2 years.
In fact, D&B is not the only large out-of-home entertainment provider facing ongoing quarterly and annual declines.
Both Lucky Strike and Top Golf have been seeing ongoing declines in their same store sales for well over a year.
The restaurant industry is facing the same challenges. According to Technomic, sales per restaurant chain are up 24% since 2019, but menu prices during that same time period are up 31%, which implies that traffic is down 7%.
Unfortunately, the traffic story is probably much worse for restaurants because takeout and home delivery has increased dramatically. This means restaurants are seeing substantial declines when it comes to onsite dining.
While humans may desire to gather together to bond with other humans, that desire can be easily inhibited by things like pandemics or the Crack Dealer Industry of Distraction via injection through the eyeballs.
Out-of-Home entertainment has to significantly raise the bar if we are going to be an important part of counteracting the epidemic of isolation and loneliness.
BEST Social Gaming Experiences Are Those That Make It EASY for HUMANS to Socialize
Socializing is a deep need for most humans, but it can also be a bit scary. The reality is that many people are introverts when it comes to socializing in public.
In order to succeed, we have to provide our prospective guests with the very best Social Gaming experiences – ones that make it super easy and fun to SOCIALIZE!
How Do We “Get Serious” About Operating the BEST Social Gaming Eperiences?
The following are important keys to providing our guests with the very best Social Gaming experiences,
Variety of Social Gaming Experiences
To be successful long term, an out of home entertainment venue needs to have a variety of the best Social Gaming experiences – not just 1 or 2. The optimal number is probably between 4 to 6 different types of Social Gaming experiences.
Multiple Units
Operating multiple units of each type of Social Gaming experience is critical to maximizing the attraction‘s revenue.
Having only two or even three units of a Social Gaming experience is going to limit its maximum revenue potential. That’s because Social Gaming’s biggest target market is groups.
If you only have two units with a capacity of 6 to 8 players per unit, then the only groups that can play it together are small groups of 12 to 16 players.
We can easily cut the revenue potential of our Social Gaming experiences by more than half if we don’t provide enough capacity for our groups to play them at the same time.
Low Skill Level Variance
Games optimized for casual play must have a low skill level variance – low skill level variance enables first time players to feel confident that they will be able to play the game. For example, they are able to score points quickly and easily, which enables them to start contributing to their team’s success.
Social by Design
By playing a game that is designed to be social, it’s much easier for everyone to engage with each other.
A great Social Gaming experience gives everyone something to talk about. Plus, guests can encourage their friends and family when it’s their turn to play. It’s all about the little things, that are often big things, like being able to high-five a teammate when they get a great score!
It’s through playing games that our guests are able to feel more comfortable when it comes to socializing. It helps to facilitate the bonding process of all the participants that make up the group.
Perennial Games
Our guests don’t want to learn how to play an unfamiliar game when they go out to socialize. They want to play something they already know how to play or at least plays very similar to a game they have played before.
Perennial games are always the best ones to offer when it comes to optimizing the fun and excitement of our guests’ visit.
Team play
Everyone against everyone is not very social – especially when it comes to optimizing a Social Gaming experience.
It’s not much fun to high-five yourself and that’s why defaulting all games to team play is so important to maximizing a group’s bonding experience.
Lots of Perennial Games to PLAY
While most people want to play games that look familiar, they also want the ability to choose from a wide variety of their perennial favorites.
Lots of games to choose from keeps our guests engaged far longer and ultimately creates the opportunity for a deeper bonding experience with friends, family, and coworkers.
It’s also important to have more games than our guests can play in a single visit. This is a great way to encourage them to come back for another visit to try our other games.
Alternating Play
Players take turns playing the game. This enables the other players to cheer on their teammates.
Most importantly, it gives participants multiple opportunities to talk with each other and to catch up on important things that are happening in each other’s lives. This is how a great bonding experience actually happens!
Alternating play also gives participants the opportunity to eat and drink in between turns.
Integrating Eating and Drinking While Others Are Playing
Eating and drinking are a perfect fit when it comes to Social Gaming.
While alcohol consumption is on the decline, it’s still an important ingredient when it comes to increasing the levels of socialization.
And as we all know, eating is something our guests need to do on a regular basis to simply survive. 🙂
Lets make our food and drinks a great experience as well, by providing great tasting food along with great service.
Dedicated Social Gaming Manager and Staff Members
Yes, we want to minimize staffing requirements, but we can’t forget the importance of facilitating and enhancing the Social part.
It’s critical to have a highly capable fulltime Manager who is scheduled to work alongside a well trained Social Gaming Staff.
The goal is to ensure that ALL of our guests have the best social experience possible with their friends, family, and coworkers.
Why a Dedicated Manager?
The manager’s job security has to be dependent on the success of the Social Gaming experiences they are responsible for operating and promoting.
This obviously doesn’t pencil out if you have one Social Gaming experience with only one or two units. It only works if you have a strong variety of the best Social Gaming experiences as well as multiple units of each one.
For the best Operators, the wave of new and/or improved Social Gaming experiences are becoming a significant revenue source.
Plus, the best Social Gaming experiences attract more people, which helps to maintain and increase our arcade revenue.
It can not be overstated how important it is to have a dedicated Manager who is 100% responsible for the success of our Social Gaming experiences.
In conclusion,
Our entertainment venues are a critical component to saving the world from an epidemic of isolation and loneliness.
We can do this by creating the best out-of-home entertainment venues that bring people together to share meaningful experiences with their friends, family, coworkers, and the people that make up their community.
Exclusivity Opportunity
Basic
Purchase 4 units of our new Krazy Darts, Krazy Axes, and Krazy Arrowz and receive a 6-month exclusive radius protection for up to 150,000 in population or 5 miles, whichever is reached first.
Silver
Purchase 8 units of our new Krazy Darts, Krazy Axes, and Krazy Arrowz 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
Purchase 12 or more units of our new Krazy Darts, Krazy Axes, and Krazy Arrowz 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.
Platinum
Purchase 16 or more units of our new Krazy Darts, Krazy Axes, and Krazy Arrowz or a 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.
As always, I’m available to discuss any of the above or other topics related to creating the best Social Gaming venues.
Thanks for reading!
Jim Kessler