Slides from the GDC Online presentation of 5th Planet Games' Robert Winkler, on "Guilds, Councils and Community: Monetizing Cooperation in Free-to-Play Games"

1. Guilds, Councils and Community: Monetizing
Cooperation in Free-to-Play Games
Rob Winkler, CEO
5th Planet Games
7/12/12

2. Who am I?
Rob Winkler aka Felendis
Co-Founder (2009), CEO
– Lead Game Design on All Products
– Provide Company Direction
– Give Moderately Entertaining Presentations
Gaming Fanatic
– EQ, WoW, D3, Madden Social (I’m a
whale!), Halo, etc.
Husband and Father of 4 Little Gamers

3. 5 th Planet Games
Founded in 2009
Launched first game, Dawn of the
Dragons, in 2010
2010 = 5 people, 300k in revenue
2011 = 15 people, 3m in revenue
2012 = 30 people, 10M in revenue
Where we are at now:
4 games live in 5 different platforms, mobile and
international by the end of 2012
Confidential. Do not distribute.

4. Community
• There was no formula for us
• We made games we would want to play
• Treat our community how we want to be
treated
• Interact with the community on a daily
basis.
• Run contests, giveaways, etc.
• Ask for feedback and implement the
results

5. Councils
• Our players are the most important factor in our success.
• The most intense way we engage is with Councils.
• Councils are different for each game and are held every 9-12 months.
• Council members are asked for direct, no BS feedback on upcoming features
and changes.
• Council members come with their own priority lists.
• Two half/travel days, two days of intense work.
• Council has daily contact with the dev team via Skype.
• Bottom line: They understand the game better than
anyone, even us.

6. Guilds
• Guilds represent the highest level of
engagement
• Players in Guilds play more often
and for longer sessions.
• Guilds systems range from 25 to 250
players, depending on the game.
• Designed to focus on reengagement

7. Monetization
• A bit about our games’ monetization rates… they’re pretty good.
• From Independent Audit by Kongregate (as shown at GDC San Francisco):
• In this example from Clash of the Dragons:
• 40% of our revenue comes from 2% of players who spend >$1,000
• 90% of our revenue from players spending $100+
• Top whale has spent $6.7k

8. Community Monetization
• We have over 1M forum posts
• Dedicated forum moderators and
community managers for each game
• EVERY post gets read and actioned if
warranted
• 25% of our payroll is associated with
community interaction
• How does all this relate to monetization???
• 41 of our top 50 whales (players that have
spent over $500) have at least 5 posts on
our forums.
• 50+% of forum posters with more than 20
posts have monetized.

9. Council Monetization
• Simple monetization example in Clash of the Dragons: Drafts
• Prior to our first “Clash Council”, drafts were won by winning one
battle vs. your opponent.
• Draft monetization stats:
– 19% of game revenue from drafts
– Draft discounts were the 4th best sale we ran
– We were geniuses for having set these rules
• After the Clash Council unanimously told us we weren’t
geniuses, we changed the format to the best two out of three.
– 35% of game revenue from drafts
– Draft discounts are the top sale now (people “camp out” for
these)
– We are geniuses for listening to our players

10. Guild Monetization
• Data for Dawn of the Dragons
• 30% of the MAUs are in Guilds
• 85% of the DAUs are in Guilds
• Players in Guilds are 8.5x more likely to monetize
• APRU in a Guild is 53x higher than non-Guild

11. TL;DR Version
• Building a strong community is good for the players,
the game, and company.
• Direct, intense, focused player feedback is extremely
valuable.
• The better your Guild system, the better your
important metrics will be.
• We are not a product industry, we are a service.
• Deeply engaged users are much more likely to spend
and at vastly higher rates.

12. Questions?