The global video gaming market is expected to experience significant growth, with projections indicating it will reach $473.7 billion by 2027. This growth, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.2% from 2022 to 2027, is primarily driven by several key factors. Technological advancements in graphics, cloud gaming, and virtual/augmented reality have substantially enhanced the gaming experience. Additionally, the rise of multiplayer and social gaming, coupled with the increasing popularity of gaming among casual users, has continued to shape the industry and expand its reach.
In video gaming, There are many different game genres, from puzzle games to action-packed shooter games to strategy games. Games are not only a “way” to entertain people in their daily lives, but also have certain “benefits”, some leads indicating that certain games can support cognitive skills, healthy behavior, or prosocial behavior.
In terms of “prosocial”, one of the core features of mobile games like Evony: The King’s Return, is the social elements – joining an alliance and having the opportunity to build relationships with players around the world.
Evony’s player alliance system has an easy-to-use interface. It lets players share resources and gifts. They can also use features like attack reminders and honor notifications. The Evony Team values simplicity and friendliness in these interactions. They make alliance building and resource sharing easy for all players.
“We maintain a single central server for the entire Evony player community. It makes talking and making friends easier for players around the world,” the Evony Team says. Our 25-language translator tool helps break down language barriers. It also aids global player communication.”
They can even connect with players from different servers. In Server Wars (SvS), players dedicate a chat channel to strategy. It’s also for friendly banter. These various chat channels enrich the social dynamics among players in Evony.
Players like to build relatedness between each other, which is about having meaningful relationships with other people in a game. multiplayer games often offer compelling relatedness. This can be either through competition or cooperation. Although cooperation is often more engaging, which is why most competitive games offer cooperative options (e.g. Join the Alliance and teamwork to the SvS war in Evony).
Online games constantly need updates
When players don’t get something new every now and then (new characters, maps, or events), they typically get bored and leave the game to play something else. Online games constantly need updates, new campaigns, modes, skins, or seasons to meet players’expectations, which often makes it hard for the development team to keep up, and they typically end up doing overtime regularly. (e.g. The Evony team regularly hosts weekly events, and also releases holiday and special events, as well as collaboration events, to activate the community and engage players.).
For example, Evony recently released the Triumphal Celebration events and 5 package tiers every day include Snow Raven Gold Coins, Merit Jade, Glory Golden Twigs, Forge Master Certificates, Blood Crystals, Subordinate City Clue Chests, and Premium Gear Chest (Dragon Head)! There is also a chance to receive the new Epic Historic General Gunther from the 5th package tier, as well as Meteoric Stones and Lv7 Premium Gear Chest (Dragon Head)!
The UX mindset in gaming
Whether it’s the social elements or the constant in-game updates, the focus is on the game developers’ UX design, which, as we’ve mentioned in previous articles, UX is a dynamic process that needs to be considered throughout the game’s development and requires constant adjustments. The CEO David Guo and VP Benjamin Gifford highlight the important role of UX in development progress, have repeatedly emphasized in interviews that the team’s focus is on user-oriented development, with the goal of building a long-lasting gaming community.
Benjamin marked, “Led by our CEO David Guo’s vision, we prioritize user experience, innovative gameplay, and community building. We operate on a ‘design, build, and break’ philosophy, rapidly identifying and capitalizing on game industry and technology trends, focusing on quick iterations to refine our offerings based on real-world feedback.”