Ownership in Game Design

In the following article we will discuss the topic of ownership. If your game gives your players a lot of ownership it is probable that they will like your game and keep playing a long time. This article will try to explain the concept of ownership and tries to give you an overview of the different kinds of ownership in video games.

When I talk about ownership I don’t mean the legal ownership of a property. It is more a psychological ownership.

“In psychology, ownership is the feeling that something is yours.”

If your game is able to provide that feeling of ownership to your players their engagement will rise and they will be more likely to invest more time, energy and money in your game.

There are 8 different kinds of ownership that can rise in the context of videogames and to be honest I don't think that this list is exhaustive.

• Personal
• Narrative
• Skill
• Strategic
• Virtual
• Visual
• Social
• Investment

As soon as players start to play your game, the 3 following causes of ownership can rise due to the interaction with the game.

1. They will take control over specific things in your game.
2. They will gain knowledge, skill and experience in your game which also leads to a sense of ownership.
3. They will start to invest in your game. Playing your game takes time, energy and maybe they even invested money to buy your game or to perform micro transactions.

A sense of ownership leads to the motivation to prosecute effort ,personal sacrifice, a sense of responsibility and stewardship. All these things are extremely valuable when it comes to keeping players engagement up. These things can lead to a positive feedback loop so players will be more willing to interact with your game that will lead to even more ownership and therefor engagement.

It is also important to mention that as soon as your players start gaining one of these specific kinds of ownerships in your game, their desire of gaining more ownership will rise. As soon as your players see no more possibilities in gaining more ownership they will probably lose some interest in your game. If their interest drops below a certain level they will quit your game and look for another game that is able to awake and fulfill their desires.

Personal Ownership

Personal ownership is about the individual passion of your players. Some players love games of a specific genre. Thus they are already engaged in your game if it belongs to one of their favorite genres just due to the fact that it has something to do with their personal passion. This passion is part of the player and he has already invested in similar things to build this passion. This previous investment can be so strong that he is willing to invest in your game, hoping that your game will bring him more of the desired ownership that suits his passion. This is the reason why brands can be such a strong selling driver. If your game features an iconic character like Batman, a lot of players have already invested in Batman because they read the comics, watched the movies or talked with their friends about Batman. They invested time and energy, gained knowledge about the character and because of this have some kind of personal ownership. This can go so far that if games that feature these kinds of characters in a way that is not in line with their pre-knowledge about this character, players can get very angry. They feel betrayed, as if you wanted to give them a new but fake information in order to gratify their desire for more ownership.

Here is a list with examples for personal ownership:

• Difficult games
• Specific genres
• Specific visual looks
• Boss fights
• Certain brands (Harry Potter, Marvel, Poke´mon)
• Humor
• Asian Games
• Indie Games
• Specific themes (Sci Fi, Western, Fantasy)
• Specific designers (“I love Ken Levin games!”)
• Specific companies (“I love From Software games!”)

Narrative Ownership

This kind of ownership can be increased if your players are engaged in the story of your game. They play a part in the story, they form it with their gameplay and their narrative progression in your game. They gain information about the different characters in your game and maybe you even give them the possibility to make decisions that define certain outcomes of the story in your game. All this can lead to the feeling of an ownership, the feeling that it is their story that is being told on screen. Not every player has a desire for this kind of ownership but a good and interesting story that players can participate in can raise the chance that they develop a narrative ownership in your game. But be warned, if the storyline of your game is told and they see no more possibilities of gaining more ownership in this area their interest in your game will drop heavily if that was their main motivation driver in your game. If your players are open and interested in the narrative elements of your game this can be a strong engagement driver.

Skill Ownership

This kind of ownership is all about the skills your player acquires and trains while playing your game. These skills are literally part of the player and something he owns.The more the player can train the skills that are needed to overcome the challenges in your game the more ownership he will develop for your game. Different players like to train different skills. Some players like it to think strategically and prefer to develop skills that have a mental nature while other players enjoy training their aiming skills or reflexes. One of the reasons why Warcraft 3 had been such a success was that this game needed a very wide skillset from the the players. It wasn’t enough to be a good strategist, you also needed a high apm to perform all the needed micro actions to navigate your units in the different battles. I think that Blizzard designed it that way because they wanted to create a very high skill ceiling out of a very limited number of tools, so ambiguous players could keep training their skills and thus raising their skill ownership for a very long time. So start to think about all the skills you players should be able to train in your game and give them the possibilities to express and develop these skills as much as possible. The more skills your players will need the more hardcore this game will probably be. So know your audience and give them the right amount of different skills and granularity in the mechanics that are related to these skills so they can evolve as much ownership as need in this area.

Strategic Ownership

With strategic ownership I don’t mean the strategic skill your player can develop in your game. It’s more the result of the strategic skills of your players. It means the amount of different viable strategies your players can develop in your game. If players learn or develop these strategies, they learned something about the possibilities in your game, an action which is very important to evolve ownership. If they came up with a strategy on their own, the feeling will be even stronger because it was their idea and strategy. Something that relay belongs to them. To create this feeling your game needs to be deep. The deeper your game is the more outcomes are possible and with this more strategies can be developed and owned by your players. So try to make your game deep enough so your players can have a sense ownership to their strategies that they learned or developed by themselfs. Even in more casual games like Hay Day or The Settlers Online players love the feeling of having their own strategies to be as efficient as possible. Like everything else not every player needs the same amount of ownership to be satisfied but the most valuable players that play your game for years will probably have a high interest in having the possibilities to learn or develop strategies.

Virtual Ownership

Virtual Ownership means all the  extrinsic and prestige rewards that players can earn in your game. This can mean anything from Experience Points over Equipment to Currencies or Achievement Badges that players can earn in your game. They invested in these rewards and they own them in this virtual world. Players can feel proud about these rewards. The relationship to the feeling of ownership to these rewards is easy to see, as they literally own them in a virtual way. To make this feeling stronger you have to be able to give your players rewards that have a high value in your game. Rewards of different rareness can help to  promote the value the rewards in your game. There should be a proportionality between the effort and the reward in your game. But you should give a broad range on which level players can earn these rewards. There need to be rewards for the new player and rewards for the experts in your game. As long as there are rewards that they can earn the higher the chances that they keep playing. The feeling of ownership will increase the more rewards your player already earn as long as these rewards have a value to him. Due to this you need a system that gives your rewards the highest amount of value possible.

Visual Ownership

Visual Ownership is often found in RPG’s and more casual time management games. It describes the ownership of a visual creation the player can create with the mechanics in the game. Building a wonderful city or creating a character with a unique look. There are a lot of players who love this kind of expression and keep investing in their appearance. No matter if it is the design of a town, an avatar or something else. A lot of players love expressing themselves. They invest time and energy which causes ownership of this specific field. Mine Craft is one of the most famous examples that gives players the possibility to express themselves in a visual way. Players spend 1000 of hours expressing themselves with wonderful artworks build out of blocks. A lot of players even share these artworks via platforms like youtube, facebook, twitch etc.. This shows the joy they pull out of the visual ownership that the games provides to them.

Social Ownership

Social Ownership is one of the strongest engagement drivers. It is the ownership of the relationship that players have between each other. If you want to make use of this kind of ownership you need to give your players the possibility to communicate with each other. If you provide possibilities that they can help and support each other and achieve things that they wouldn’t be able to do by doing them alone chances are good that they will create bonds that are so strong that they will keep playing just because their friends do it too. Provide platforms like a forum, chat, message system etc. so it is easy for players to interact with each other. The more they do the better. Try to reduce negative communication to a minimum so players do not leave due to harassment by other players. A friendly and helpful community is the best ground to grow strong social bonds that give your players the highest possible amount of social ownership.

Investment Ownership

This is the ownership that will rise when players invest time, money, emotions and energy in your game. In some free to play games, players spend more than 50.000$. Their investment is so high that they will keep playing for a long time no matter what. The more time or money someone invested in your game the higher is his investment ownership. Because of this the successful free to play games have so much content that is able to keep players engaged for years and can cost them thousand of dollars and more. In a lot of box titles that cost 60$ or more players will play at least a few hours even if they do not like the game due to the power of investment because they already spend 60$ to buy the game.

Summary

There are a lot of different kinds of ownership possible in video games. I’m not even sure if my list is exhaustive. It is important to have them in mind when you’re designing your game. Try to know what kind of ownership you want to give your players with your game and strive for the most possible amount. It is also important to say that each ownership that was described could be a whole topic of its own. This list just wants to give an overview of the different kinds of ownership and how to look at each ownership that drives players motivation. Maybe the next time when you play a game on your own you will see how the different ownerships affect your engagement for the game.