As you can imagine, photo mode is exciting for us gamers because it allows us to interact with our games and its characters in a different way than ever before. For example, God of War fans took advantage of photo mode to bring out the softer side of the grumpy main character, Kratos (below). Additionally, photo mode allows those of us who play single player games to get involved in gaming communities by sharing photos we have taken. How am I supposed to believe you demolished that boss if you didn't take a picture and share it?
Apart from being a whole lot of fun on our end, including photo modes in video games has huge benefits from a marketing perspective. Photo mode encourages participation from gamers, even those of us focused on single player games. Online games such as The Elder Scrolls Online or Call of Duty offer numerous forums and communities for players to meet and group-up along with the in-game social features. Single player games, by nature, offer less social interaction and less community building on their own. Enter photo mode! Photo mode is an excellent way to take advantage of the groundswell and encourage sharing, community, and participation among players, especially those of us who play single player games.
Game developers can encourage photo sharing and user participation by incentivizing the use of photo mode. For example, PlayStation Blog encourages participation through their Share of the Week challenge in which they ask us to share our photos on Instagram or Twitter for a chance to be featured on the PlayStation blog. The most recent challenge encouraged players to utilize the photo mode in Marvel's Spiderman. To enter a photo in the Share of the Week challenge, players must post their photo to Instagram or Twitter and use #PS4Share and #PSblog. The chance to be featured on the PlayStation Blog keeps gamers posting weekly and using the tags requested by PlayStation.
The creation and sharing of user-generated content by players is essentially free advertising and markets the game directly to potential customers. Has someone you followed on social media ever shared a photo of the delicious-looking dinner they ordered and all of a sudden your stomach is rumbling? That is exactly what the sharing of photos can do for the video game industry. Photo modes and the sharing that comes with it allows potential customers to be sold on the amazing graphics, realistic landscapes, and terrifying enemies by us, their fellow gamers, instead of the game developers themselves. Soon after, they may be running out to pick up a copy of the game to test out for themselves!
Do you play any games with photo modes? I would love to see your original content in the comments below! Here is mine:
Hello Ryan, I like your post. I think it's great that video game lovers have the opportunity to capture photographs of the most exciting moments of the games. What better way to shares with other lovers of video games and to make people like me know that there is much more behind video games. Now I want to start playing and capture moments with Photo Mode.
ReplyDeleteAs someone who plays a fair amount of video games in his free time, I've come to love the photo mode. It's always cool to see what creative ways players can utilize the tools provided. I honestly can't wait to see the future of gaming and how they find new ways to innovate something as simple as a screenshot.
ReplyDelete