Learn from PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds’ 5 detonation buttons to capture users’ attention and keep them hooked

【51CTO.com original article】PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is an FPS (first-person shooter) game that has sold over 20 million copies worldwide and has broken several Guinness World Records. Through the PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds effect, the proportion of Steam users who speak simplified Chinese has increased from 8.6% to 64.35% (36 million users) within one year (as of November 2017).

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Source: Bluehole Studios

Why is PUBG so popular with cheaters? In this article, I have summarized 5 triggers that make PUBG capture players' attention. You can use the same triggers to acquire new users and increase engagement.

Introducing PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds has been described as The Hunger Games without Jennifer Lawrence. The game begins with a parachute landing on a deserted island with up to 100 real players, finding hidden weapons, and fighting until the last player left wins. I invited Robin Tan, founder of Cloudzen (a cloud gaming platform), to provide his insights into game design.

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Robin's insider evaluation: Players are already familiar with FPS games, such as Quake, CounterStrike, and Team Fortress. I learned about PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds through a friend in April 2017. The friend also said that this game will be very popular. From a technical perspective, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds's huge world map and 100-player battle royale are not new and have already appeared in other games. Cloudzen also happens to be developing a similar cloud streaming mobile game.

The secret to PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is its careful design. This game does two things well:

• Remove unnecessary game (product) elements, such as attacking certain locations or rescue missions.
• Just focus on providing great game (product) elements. Author's note: The next paragraph will introduce these details.

When Robin talks about game elements, non-game readers can understand that as features associated with the product. You may not have noticed, but memorable product designs often start by removing certain features!

To understand how the game PUBG captures players' attention and hooks, I used the framework of Ben Parr's (a former editor-in-chief of Mashable) book, Captivology: The Science of capturing people's attention.

How to get players' attention and fascination instantly

(1) Each time a 100-player free-for-all begins, you are on a plane with 99 other players. It's the equivalent of a weigh-in before a boxing match. In this case, the anticipation and tension of the players will quickly rise. You choose when to land on a huge deserted island.

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The tension before a player's parachute jump. Source: Bluehole Studios

Framing button: We process information using existing frames of reference. Our past experiences, national culture, and interests will influence our frames of reference. PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds cleverly builds up anticipation and uneasiness before each game begins.

Your product team can build “anchor experiences” that quickly engage users with your product and structure initial interactions to introduce the core product.

(2) PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds offers countless sensory differences. From the initial parachute jump, abandoned buildings, waterways, and long grass, you will be immersed in an immersive environment. Your decisions and other players' responses will provide sharp contrasts and different results.

Automaticity button: Our brains rely on salient sensory cues such as color, behavior, and sound to recognize danger warnings and things that need attention in daily life. This button works in two ways, through contrast and connection (for example, if someone shoots, you will definitely look back). PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds has successfully used sensory experience differences to attract players.

To attract higher click-through and engagement rates, your product team can use eye-catching images, such as images that face the camera directly in banners and pop-ups. These banners and pop-ups must do more than just shout “Buy Now!” because users are likely to automatically find them offensive. Your team should also use eye-catching photos instead of boring stock photos when you publish content on your blog or share it on social media.

(3) PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds forces players to take action, keeping them within a shrinking map radius. If they are not within this radius, the game itself will kill them. Therefore, players cannot hide and sneak, and must focus on goals other than survival. This also creates tension, as players have to balance their "I must keep moving" and "stay in this position!" instincts.

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The shrinking action zone forces the player to take action. Source: Bluehole Studios

The Disruption Button: Not only does something have to be novel to catch the eye, it also needs to break user expectations. Previous shooters had simpler missions that didn’t involve shifting targets. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has added a new twist to their game that ensures all player strategies will come with some risk.

Product teams need to realize that a new design alone is not enough to capture attention. Therefore, the design needs to break expected expectations with a focus on the three seconds of disruption - surprise, simplicity and significance. For example, Apple's iPod design is more memorable relative to other MP3 players because it is simpler and easier to use.

(4) Players can form alliances with others in PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, a highly social game. In addition to the game, players form online communities to share tips and experiences. Even the best players may be parachuted into a location without weapons and need to form alliances to survive.

The Acknowledgement Button: The need for recognition is one of the most important human needs. We crave to be recognized and acknowledged by others. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds keeps players coming back through the challenges of collaboration, overcoming unpredictable factors, and beating other players’ expectations. Have you noticed that doing these things well will attract other players’ attention?

Therefore, product teams need to identify and understand the target user base. Based on my experience, I can simplify it to using consumer insights, interests, goals, and pain points to create space for users to interact. Such products are more empathetic and more likely to elicit user engagement (likes and comments).

(5) The ultimate reward for the player is to be the last player standing and win the game. However, there are other rewards for players, such as finding hidden weapons and successfully setting up an ambush.

Reward Button: All animals are specialized creatures that seek rewards for completing goals. When satisfied, our brains release dopamine, which helps us feel happy. Rewards come in two flavors: extrinsic (tangible benefits like praise from other players) and intrinsic (the feeling of accomplishment after winning a game of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds).

Captivology: The Science of Attention argues that the reason why we attach so much importance to our mobile phones is that information is updated every second, which meets our need for novelty and produces tangible benefits. It can be seen that PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds and mobile phones also quickly release doses of Dopamine to enhance our feelings of happiness. Since users have limited patience, product teams need to quickly answer the question "What does this have to do with me?"

Summarize

It is the mission of the product team to get the user's attention instantly, because this will mean the success of acquiring users and establishing interaction. But many companies often fail to study this scientifically, but pay too much attention to the products of other experts. I think paying attention to the above-mentioned framing effect, automatic effect, surprise, recognition and reward button will definitely make your product reach a higher level.

In addition, these buttons can also be used in your content marketing. For example, you can use the framing effect to quickly put your product features in front of your target users, and use reward buttons to provide practical suggestions.

About the Author

Junxun Tan is the Principal Consultant of Momentum, and holds a Master's degree in Marketing and Consumer Insights from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. The company is good at planning excellent content marketing programs for customers through the analysis of Asian consumers. Whether you are a large company or a startup, please contact Momentum ([email protected]) to work together to use content marketing to accelerate your business expansion.

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