The Future of Sustainable Engagement and Monetization

Diving deep into intrinsic and social strategies and product positioning approaches has taught me a ton about how you can build successful products in truly propagative ways — on top of which educating my readers about these things has done the same, compounding ongoing discoveries and insight developments.

One topic that has been born through these explorations is what we’re covering in this article — intrinsic and social live ops in truly intrinsic and social ways vs. how these are currently run in games. On top of this, where I believe intrinsic and social aren’t fully enough, we cover some emergent and systematic mechanisms a bit to complement overall the gaps intrinsic and social could have alone, as I think great experiences need more or less these mechanisms as well vs. not having them at all.

Once again, buckle up! It’s going to be a bumpy yet insightful ride over these topics!

Building on Strong Foundations: Principles and DNA for Long-Term Success

To start with, to truly maximize the potential of Live Ops being run with intrinsic and social means, the product itself must be built on strong intrinsic and social engagement principles.

Many games attempt to fit (/retrofit) engagement and monetization strategies onto an otherwise shallow core experience, which can lead to short-term revenue spikes but ultimately unsustainable future. There are literally thousands (and thousands more) of games that are having their life-cycles’ end points reached quicker vs. what their true potential could have been, if they would have based their strategies over what I’m covering here. Instead of repeating these games’ journeys, Live Ops should amplify what has already been discovered working, e.g., player motivations, deep social connections, and systemic/emergent gameplay that fosters long-term engagement.

When a game is designed with intrinsic engagement and social systems at its core (with systematic and emergent tie-ins), Live Ops becomes an extension of that experience rather than a patchwork of disconnected monetization attempts. The goal of what I’m covering here, is overall, with all things said already, to create a self-sustaining ecosystem (/product) where players continue engaging due to meaningful in-game motivations and relationships, not just because of artificial retention mechanics (/tactics).

The Role of Intrinsic Engagement in Live Ops

Intrinsic engagement means players stay in the game because they are naturally motivated by its core experience — extending to its systems, challenges, and social interactions in a way autonomy, competencies, and relatedness parts are strongly in motion in terms of using intrinsic strategies. This is in contrast to extrinsic engagement, which relies on e.g., rewards, leaderboards, and external incentives to keep players coming back.

In terms of getting this right, and as already covered a bit, I also think there is a need for a layer of emergent and systematic mechanisms in these types of games to achieve self-sustainability — more or less.

In Live Ops, intrinsic engagement can be enhanced through:

• Evolving Core Gameplay: Continually expanding and evolving core systems through new mechanics, progression layers, and surprising emergent/systematic elements that reward player curiosity and mastery.
• Dynamic Experience: Creating systems that adjust dynamically based on players’ behavior, allowing for an experience that always feels fresh and rewarding.
• Player(s)-Driven Experience: Incorporating user choices and emergent experience-building that evolves based on e.g., player as well as community actions; fostering deeper investment from personal level to playing with others.
• Content Depth and Replayability: Encouraging multiple playthroughs/sessions and continued engagement by introducing mechanics that are systemic and/or evolve based on player choices (or, instead of evolving, at least reacts to these) and/or systemic interactions.

Social-Led Live Ops: Maximizing Community Engagement and Monetization

Social engagement is one of the most underutilized levers in Live Ops. While many games have social features, few take full advantage of the deep social motivations that drive players to stay engaged. What is a deep social experience? You can read more about such a thing from these articles:

Social-Led Live Ops Strategies:

• Player-to-Player Economies and Collaborative Play: Encourage interdependence by enabling trading systems, cooperative objectives, and/or meaningful alliances that make social play more or less a necessity, not just an option (though, on this side, social shouldn’t be forceful unless your whole experience is based on that, as giving autonomic choice for social participation can be also a good thing for players vs. forcing it fully).
• Social Ecosystems: Games should foster social bonds through (persistent) groups, evolving social hierarchies, and long-term community-driven goals.
• Community-Driven Content: Allowing players to contribute to game events, influence development decisions, or even create e.g., in-game assets enhances long-term investment. On some extend, I believe customizable character systems, etc. drive UGC-driven nature of games further, which is also proper point regarding the community-driven point here, as when it’s executed right, it kind of creates a game experience that is fresh by the community and other players you meet in the game — on top of which lots of theorycrafting, and such, can be achieved.
• Social Group Monetization: Designing systems that leverage social dynamics for monetization, such as gifting, group purchases, shared event progression, and (competitive) social mechanics (e.g., team-based incentives, which can be monetized through positive perception and reception when they’re truly done right). More on this topic below.

Live Ops Monetization: Sustainability Over One-Off Wins

Overall, a game’s monetization strategy, to get things right for intrinsic and social live ops, should focus on intrinsic and group monetization mechanisms. You can read about such strategies for monetization here:

On top of intrinsic monetization and social group monetization, I also do believe a healthy monetization strategy for intrinsic and social Live Ops should focus on granularity and regularity — rather than short-term maximization.

Instead of extracting maximum revenue through aggressive tactics, sustainable monetization should focus on:

• Long-Term Spending Habits: Encouraging gradual, habitual (even a hobby-like) spending through engaging systems rather than sudden high-cost purchases.
• Social-Integrated Monetization: Leveraging social systems where players benefit (although, in some cases altruism can be a strong driver vs. someone benefitting solely from it) from spending in ways that reinforce engagement rather than disrupt it.
• Event-Based Monetization with Depth: Instead of simple FOMO-driven events, build deeper event structures that reward engagement, collaboration, and investment over time.
• Balanced Battle and Event Passes: Designing these with layered engagement loops that encourage daily play while providing meaningful content unlocks and social depths.
• Systemic Monetization Mechanics: Such as stashing systems, progression-based incentives, and unlocks tied to in-game social behaviors rather than purely transactional offers.

Product Marketing: Communicating Intrinsic and Social Engagement

For Live Ops to work in a truly intrinsic and social way — to have a business case- product marketing needs to reinforce these values through messaging, creatives, and positioning.

• Show, Don’t Just Tell: Instead of generic ads that highlight surface-level content updates, creatives should focus on how players engage with the game through social experiences, emergent gameplay, and intrinsic motivations (as well as strategies and gameplay elements).
• Use Community-Generated Content: When you build your game right with intrinsic and social means, influencers, streamers, and organic social phenomena can be “leveraged” (well, it’s not really leveraging anymore as they’re truly there for the experience and wanting to tell about it for everyone) to showcase real player experiences rather than scripted ads.
• Positioning Around Long-Term Value: Instead of focusing solely on new updates or short-term incentives, marketing should emphasize the ongoing, evolving experience of the game and its deeply engaging social dynamics.

With these, I do think there is a way to get not just low CPI but also a steady organic flow of users that comes from the product’s self-propagation.

Marketability and ROAS Optimization Through Engagement and Monetization Alignment

Properly aligning engagement and monetization strategies with marketability ensures that Live Ops not only sustain existing players but also attracts new ones efficiently.

• Leveraging Intrinsic and Social “Hooks” (not artificial hooks at least) in UA: Identifying and marketing the most engaging and socially-driven aspects of the game to attract the right audience.
• Creative Testing for Long-Term Optimization: Continuously refining messaging to emphasize intrinsic and social engagement, allowing for scalable UA strategies.
• Sustained Engagement Leading to Better LTV: Ensuring that players brought in through UA efforts remain engaged due to strong intrinsic and social Live Ops, leading to more sustainable ROAS.

The Path Forward: Live Ops as an Extension of Great Product Design

What comes to intrinsic and social Live Ops strategy overall, and to the product’s design tie-in with Live Ops; Live Ops should not be an afterthought — it should be an extension of a well-designed product that fundamentally embraces intrinsic engagement and social depth. By building games with these principles in their DNA from the start, developers can create experiences that sustain themselves naturally over time — driving both engagement and monetization in a healthier, more sustainable way.

As the industry moves forward, the most successful games will be those that masterfully blend intrinsic product strategies, emergent/systemic mechanisms (where they come needed), social engagement loops, and sustainable Live Ops monetization into a cohesive, player(s)-first experience.