PX Audience, Content & Free Pie (charts)
Photo by sheri silver on Unsplash
When I started formulating the idea of creating Player Experience content, it quickly dawned to me that I was not going to write merely for myself. Before I could plan content and experiment with channels and topics, I had to understand my audience.
So, I got to work. I was on a mission, not only to figure out who would be interested in Player Experience content, but also, how it needed to be delivered, the topics and the format. A few months ago, I sent out a survey - one that many of you were eager to complete - and I can’t thank you enough for the valuable input provided. So, here’s some pie (charts)!
Now that things are taking more shape with The PX Hub, I think it is the right time to share the results of that survey. For context: 65 submissions, participants from my direct and indirect network.
How would you best describe your current employment?
55,4% work at a game development studio
15,4% work at a service provider that works with games
10,5% do not work in positions directly related to games, but want to learn more on the industry
7,7% state to be a freelancer working with games
6,2% works at a game publisher or gaming platform
4,6% identifies as either a board member, advisor or investor
Not surprisingly, a large majority of respondents (69,3%) works directly in games; either in development, game publishing or as a freelancer. Those employed at service providers working with games, make up the second largest audience of the poll with 15,4%. 10,5% report to be interested in game development while not working within the industry. Almost half of the people in this particular segment associate themselves with educational institutions. One of the more surprising results of the poll is that almost 5% of respondents identify as either board members, advisors or investors.
How would you best describe your current role?
35,4% describe themselves as leads or managers with a team and/or focus
21,5% are a specialist, but not a senior employee
18,5% identify as senior employees, but not leads or managers
12,3% of all respondents state to be founders
6,2% are C-level managers
6,1% other (students, junior employees, flat hierarchy)
When looking at the results on the respondents’ role within their organisations, we clearly see two larger segments with an interest in Player Experience. 41,6% of respondents identify as having leadership positions and 40% report to be working as experts in their field respectively. 12,3% of the survey’s submissions were completed by company founders, showing that Player Experience is a relevant topic to video game entrepreneurs.
How would you best describe your interaction with players on the job?
21,5% work mainly in a player-facing role
20% interact with players, but it is not their core focus
15,4% don’t interact with players themselves, but their team does
15,4% don’t interact with players themselves, but someone else in the company does
12,3% don’t interact with players in their role
9,2% state not to have roles that interact with players just yet
3,1% report not to have roles that interact with players
More than half of the people surveyed (56,9%), respond to interact directly with players (41,5%) or work in a team that interacts with players (15,4%). The second largest segment of respondents, with 27,7% of all submissions, identify as neither working in a role, nor as part of a team, that interacts directly with players. When we look at the segment reporting to have no player-facing roles (12,3%), we see 9,2% of all respondents state they plan to add player-facing roles towards the future, while only 3,1% report not to have roles that would interact with players.
Why would you be interested in Player Experience content? (Pick as many as apply)
72,3% are eager to learn how others handle Player Experience
61,5% want to improve their own knowledge on Player Experience
58,5% want to help their team grow professionally
52,3% want to improve the way Player Experience is handled at their organisation
13,8% state not to know much about Player Experience, yet
One of the main topics in the poll is the motivation behind the respondents’ interest in Player Experience content. Curiosity on how others handle Player Experience is by far the most popular driver (for 72,3% of respondents), followed by improving one’s knowledge on Player Experience (61,5%) and aiding their team to grow professionally (58,5%). More than half of the pollers (52,3%) would like to find ways to improve the Player Experience at their organisation. Finally, we have 13,8% of respondents who are very eager to learn a lot more about Player Experience.
What Player Experience topics are you most interested in? (Pick at least 3)
73,8% of respondents are interested to hear about industry best practices
66,2% would like to learn more on player research, behaviour & motivation
50,8% are interested in the business benefits of Player Experience
47,7% are curious about player-centric development cultures
40% choose operational KPIs & analytics as a topic of choice
38,5% want to learn more on growing, retaining & managing communities
38,5% are interested in tools, AI & automations
32,3% would like to know more on setting up PX from scratch
24,6% want to hear more about scaling & outsourcing
23,1% care about recruitment & PX employee development
23,1% of respondents are curious about online safety & fair play
15,4% want to learn more on service providers
4,5% choose Others
In continuation of the previous question, it comes as no surprise that the majority of respondents have an interest in industry best practices; 73,8% choose this option. Coming in second, with 66,2% of the pollers selecting the topic, we have a large interest in player research, behaviour and motivation. In third place, we have 50,8% of respondents, who want to know more on the business benefits of Player Experience. 4,5% choose other options, and at least 1 person mentions they want a topic called “Pascal’s tips and tricks!”. Maybe. No promises.
What types of content do you prefer to consume in general? (Pick at least 3)
75,4% prefer to read blog posts
72,3% read news & articles in general
61,5% like to watch video content
50,8% prefer to attend events & conferences
36,9% list podcasts as one of their choices
35,4% read up on polls & survey results
32,3% are interested in webinars
20% prefer white papers
10,8% read up via newsletters
1,5% are interested in academic writing
We clearly see from the results above that written content is by far the most popular choice. Blog posts (75,4%), news & articles (72,3%) and video content (61,5%) are the top three picks, followed by events & conferences (50,8%) and podcasts (36,9%). I am a little bit surprised by the low results for newsletters (10,8%), considering the results of the next question.
Pick the top 3 preferred channels you currently use to discover new content in general.
67,7% chose LinkedIn as a preferred channel
67,7% discover content recommended by peers
53,8% state Youtube plays a big part in content discovery
52,3% refer to Facebook as a channel
30,8% prefer reading Newsletters
15,4% use Twitter for content discovery
12,2% cite other sources including Reddit, Medium and platforms such as Slack or Discord
The answers from this question show that both online and offline professional networks are detrimental for the discovery of new content. LinkedIn is by far the preferred channel, with a lead of almost 15% over any other social media platform, and more than 50% over Twitter specifically. Surprisingly, 30,8% of respondents discover new content via newsletters, which provides a stark contrast to the results in the question above where only 10,8% of respondents stated newsletters as a preferred type of content.
There you have it. A lot of information came to light that will help me create even more content. It might be interesting to have a do-over of the survey in time, once the audience of The PX Hub has grown some more. What do you think? Did the results surprise you? Let me know in the comments!
