The Importance of Personalization in Gaming

Segmentation has long been a cornerstone of success in the gaming industry, particularly for top-grossing titles across various genres. The ability to analyze player data, categorize users based on specific behaviors, and tailor their experiences accordingly is a well-established best practice. With AI and machine learning continuing to evolve, this practice has become even more sophisticated, offering dynamic personalization at an unprecedented scale.

However, personalization does not have to be solely reliant on automated algorithms. There is another, often overlooked, yet equally powerful approach: empowering players with choices. Allowing players to actively shape their experiences through in-game options provides a layer of customization that is perceived as more engaging and rewarding. While still requiring extensive data analysis to design these options effectively, the act of letting players choose creates a deeper sense of agency and investment in the game.

Why Giving Players Options Works

At first glance, the concept of presenting players with choices may seem overly simplistic. Yet, this approach offers several significant advantages:

• Keeps the experience fresh: By providing multiple ways to interact with the game, players can experiment with different styles of play. This flexibility encourages replayability and extends the game’s lifespan.
• Shifts responsibility to the player: When players actively select their path, they are less likely to blame the game for a negative experience. Of course, it is important not to create options that will make any player feel miserable. As long as each option is well-balanced, players will have the freedom to refine their choices over time.
• Enhances the feeling of control: Players feel more in control when they can directly choose from all available options. Since games thrive on interactivity, giving players meaningful choices enhances engagement and adds a layer of personalization to their experience.
• Supports experimentation: Developers can test new mechanics or features by integrating them as player options rather than making sweeping changes to the entire game. This allows for organic feedback without disrupting the core experience.

That said, offering too many choices can be counterproductive, leading to player confusion and decision fatigue. The key lies in striking the right balance by providing a limited but meaningful selection of options.

Although each game can offer options to their players through many different ways, there are some games that have already implemented this strategy successfully.

Doubling the Stakes

Merge games, while categorized as puzzle titles, share strong similarities with simulation and Social Casino games. They involve time-based mechanics and resource management that appeal to optimization-focused simulation players, and a high frequency of randomized item generation that appeal to risk-inclined Social Casino players.

Games like Gossip Harbor and Travel Town leverage this by allowing players to multiply their stakes during random item generation. Players can opt to spend more energy at once in exchange for a greater chance of obtaining higher-tier items. This mirrors, and is very likely to be an adaptation of, the multiplier feature found in Social Casino games, where players can increase their bet per spin.

This seemingly minor mechanic grants players control over the speed and risk level of their gameplay. While it may shorten average session times, the perceived value gained from the experience remains consistent, or even enhanced, thereby maintaining engagement without negatively impacting overall retention or monetization.

Catering to Different Players

Social Casino mechanics extend beyond risk-taking and into cooperative events, where different players have different priorities. Monopoly Go! has innovated on this front with its collaborative events, such as Snow Racers.

Instead of providing fixed rewards, players are given a choice from multiple options, including in-game currency, collectible cards, event-specific boosters, or additional progress toward the event. The strategic aspect here is that players can tailor their rewards based on their personal or team goals.

By offering players multiple reward options, Monopoly Go! ensures that each participant can tailor their event experience to their own priorities, even within a team setting. Some players may focus on maximizing personal gains by selecting in-game currency and collectible cards, though this could slow their overall event progress.

Others may prioritize event-related rewards to advance further, but this approach might leave them with fewer resources for long-term play. Each choice comes with trade-offs, making the event more dynamic and replayable. And the ability to experiment with different strategies each time the event runs keeps the experience fresh and engaging.

Customizing Season Passes

Season passes have become a staple in free-to-play games, but Candy Crush Soda Saga takes it a step further with its Reward Pass event, offering three tiers of engagement: small, medium, and large.

These small, medium, and large passes offer increasing amounts of rewards within a limited timeframe, allowing players to select a tier that matches their level of commitment. Those looking for a more casual commitment can opt for a lower-tier pass, while highly engaged players can choose the most demanding pass for maximum rewards. This prevents the one-size-fits-all problem that often plagues season pass structures, ensuring that all player types find value in the system.

It’s surprising that this event structure isn’t more common in other games. While offering multiple pass tiers could reduce the number of players purchasing the standard season pass, a well-balanced selection of options would likely lead to higher overall participation and, ultimately, stronger long-term performance.

Creating Your Own Bundle

This Candy Crush Soda Saga example shows how personalization can also extend to IAPs (in-app purchases) beyond gameplay mechanics. Some top-grossing games have also experimented with giving players control over their individual purchases.

Merge Mansion and Triple Match 3D offer great examples of this approach. Merge Mansion previously ran a Build a Bundle event, where players could customize their bundle from a set of options, turning the purchasing process into a mini-game itself. Meanwhile, Triple Match 3D goes even further by allowing players to create bundles from scratch, complete with dynamic pricing!

This personalization tactic makes the shopping experience feel more player-driven rather than a rigid, pre-set offering. While Merge Mansion has since scaled back this feature, Triple Match 3D continues to leverage it successfully, suggesting a potential area of growth for other games looking to enhance their monetization strategies. Of course, each combination fits within the game’s existing bundle options, yet the ability to create custom bundles introduces a unique and unconventional purchasing experience.

The flexibility of custom bundles means that players are more likely to spend money in a way that feels rewarding rather than transactional. When implemented effectively, this approach can significantly boost IAP revenue while reinforcing player satisfaction.

Changing How the Game Feels

Animation speed plays a critical role in shaping the moment-to-moment gameplay experience, influencing how fluid and responsive a game feels. While there are established best practices and benchmarks for animation timing, player preferences can vary once they become accustomed to a game’s mechanics. Some players may prefer a faster-paced experience, while others enjoy the default pacing.

As mentioned before, many Social Casino and Merge games address this by offering boosters that speed up sessions, but Candy Crush Saga takes a more subtle yet effective approach. The game includes a small button that allows players to increase animation speed, specifically affecting how quickly the board settles after making a move. Since this feature does not impact decision-making time, it introduces no gameplay disadvantage while providing a faster and smoother visual flow. For players who prefer quicker transitions and a snappier feel, this simple addition significantly enhances their experience without altering the game’s core mechanics.

For many players, small friction points in a game, such as waiting for animations to complete, can subtly impact long-term engagement. While individual moments of delay might seem insignificant, over the course of dozens or even hundreds of levels, these minor inefficiencies add up. By giving players the ability to increase animation speed, Candy Crush Saga ensures that those who favor a more rapid gameplay flow can reduce unnecessary waiting time without disrupting the intended experience.

How to Continue Personalizing the Player Experience

I still think data-driven segmentation remains an essential practice for any successful game, allowing developers to tailor experiences to different player groups based on in-game behavior. As a game scales, its audience naturally diversifies into multiple segments, each with distinct expectations and playstyles. A robust segmentation system, built on comprehensive data analysis, is crucial for addressing these differences effectively.However, segmentation alone can still feel like an invisible background process rather than true personalization.

As segmentation is a step forward from offering the same experience to everyone to differentiating it between certain groups, personalization is another step further ahead that puts the player in the driver’s seat. Instead of simply being categorized into predefined groups, players should have the freedom to shape their own experience. When games provide players with the same opportunities to experiment as developers do through segmentation, the result is a more engaging, self-directed experience. An experience that enhances long-term satisfaction without requiring constant developer intervention.