ABSTRACT
We'll talk about the concept of the “funnel,” which describes the life cycle of a social game user. We'll talk about acquiring new players: both how to do so and how much to spend. We'll talk about virality and how you can turn fans into advocates. We'll look at how Zynga and other top companies turned their disparate tribes into a coherent nation by unifying them under one “family” of games. We'll look at some of the recent data that has come out about the near-collusion between Zynga and Facebook, and we'll explore how smaller shops might stand a chance against the monopolistic might of these bedfellows. We'll consider how to hold on to users once you've got them and how to stay aware of when and why your users quit playing. We'll talk about the ways that leaderboards and other social gameplay features can help user retention numbers and other best practices for bringing lapsed players back into the fold.
