This is part one of a three-part series where we’ll go hands-on with the essentials of liveops. I’ll show you the fundamentals and walk you through the exact ways different studios find success with liveops. 

First up? The content and events you need. 

Ready? Let’s jump in.

Here’s the thing: LiveOps have been happening for some time. We just haven’t been talking about it a lot. 

The engagement tactics we’re familiar with today -- in-game competitions, holiday-centric cosmetic changes, player vs. player challenges -- are the same tactics that games have been using for years. The only difference? More proactive scheduling. And a hell of a lot more strategizing.

If you’ve been wondering how to take the principles of player engagement and level them up -- how to excite, surprise, and sustain your community through a set of concrete actions -- then you’ve come to the right place. Because that’s exactly what I’m here to tell you.

Our industry is crowded. Only the smartest, most prepared games will prevail. 

This rundown is here to give you the staples, the thinking prompts, and the actionable steps you need to be one of them. 

Today, I’m breaking down the foundation of every successful LiveOps strategy: its content.

What it is, how to use it, what it can do for your game -- it’s all on the table for you to read, digest, and truly understand. Because once you have understanding, results are quick to follow. 

Let’s get learning.

Meet Your Content

The fuel behind your LiveOps strategy -- regardless of your game characteristics, audience, and overall intentions -- is your content. What do I mean by content?

Simple: the events, tactics, and features you’re using to spice up the game for your players. 

I’m going to break down your options, and then I’ll show you how to take them and make them distinctly impactful for your game. 

Let’s get into it.

An Introduction to Events

In the world of games, the possibilities for configuring events are just about endless. They can be as uncomplicated as a cosmetic change -- where all characters are adorned in Christmas apparel for 24 hours, for instance -- or as involved as a massive server-wide challenge, or even a crossover challenge with another game. 

The beauty of events is that however you approach them, they’re up to you. And that means that you can -- and should -- customize your events for your game’s specific needs.

Because at the end of the day, the success of your event will come down to how well it understands, and speaks to its audience. So while you can plan events based on event frameworks, timespans, or features, every decision you make should be based on what you know about your playerbase.

In other words: you need to have an impeccable read on the people you’re looking to engage before you take any steps to plan or execute an event.

What excites them? What motivates them? What drives them to choose your game over the next guy’s?

The more you understand their likes and behaviors, the better equipped you’ll be to plan the right game. 

You with me? This is key.

Nice. 

Let’s keep going and check out some of your options…

The Six Event Types

The first box you’re going to want to fill out when planning an event is its format. Who will it serve? Who will they be competing against? How will it be made exciting -- and alluring? Let’s look at what each type of event entails:

#1 - Individual Events: 

About as straightforward as it sounds, individual events make each player the hero, giving them a new way to interact with the game without requiring that they coordinate with anyone else to do it. That means it’s the individual player competing against the game whenever it’s convenient for them, and any prizes (or glory) they receive will be for them and them alone.

Examples of individual events:
Special missions, individual tournaments, and leaderboards. 

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#2 - Group vs. Group Events:

Here’s where the coordination comes in. Group vs. group events pit groups of players against each other, with every player on the winning group’s side receiving the reward. (And, of course, glory.) In order for this event type to work logistically speaking, all players need to be active at the same time -- which takes more marketing initiative from your end. But that effort tends to pay off, because nothing fuels engagement like cooperative competition.

Examples of group vs. group events: 
Guild wars, alliance leaderboards, boss raids, and group tournaments.  

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#3 - Faction-Wide Events:

Think of it like your coworkers’ last team-building event -- faction-wide events enable players of the same faction to work together, cheer each other on, and be part of the same mission. By arranging them against one common opponent or challenge, next-level bonding is brought about naturally. Each player is left with a deep sense of camaraderie -- and an even greater desire to win (for their team).

Examples of faction-wide events:
New group-oriented missions (like battles or challenges), or point-driven frameworks -- i.e. if they get to 10,000 points in 15 minutes, they win the top reward.

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#4 - Server-Wide Events:

As likely the biggest event undertaking on the market, server-wide events operate within a specific timespan, encouraging all players -- yes, all players -- to try to accomplish a certain goal. Their incentive? Unlocking a game feature or reward that’s only obtainable through participation. This type of event builds community, camaraderie, and urgency without even trying -- because there’s something truly igniting about knowing people across the globe are after the same thing you are. At the exact same time.

Examples of server-wide events:
Special missions, races to unlock a new character or feature, and massive leaderboard challenges.

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#5 - League Events:

As the name suggests, league events divide your players (or player groups) into leagues, offering an event only to the players inside each league. There can be one event for each league running concurrently, and the events can include the same challenge, the same features, and the same time-frame -- but where they’ll differ is in who’s competing. And that means that each event should have its own leaderboard -- and its own reward.

Examples of league events:
Scoreboard challenges for individual players within a specific league, group vs. group events within a specific league, and league vs. league events.

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#6 - PVP Events:

Utilized by games of every genre and intensity, PvP (or person vs. person) events offer an extremely customizable way to engage your playerbase -- because how you choose to run the event is completely up to you. Maybe you go the asynchronous PvP route and give your players an AI character to play against whenever they decide to engage. The events are short, there’s not much on the line, and your audience doesn’t feel obligated to exert more energy than they want to.

Or maybe you go in the other direction. Maybe you plan synchronous PvP events, where your players are up against other players in real-time -- so if they lose, they’re losing to another person. The stakes are higher. The intensity is greater. And your players are required to focus, try, and desire the glory harder than they would’ve in an asynchronous event. The variability potential with PvP events -- as you can see for yourself -- is huge.

Examples of asynchronous:
PvP events include playing a match, fighting in battle, or competing in a challenge against an AI-generated character (or a real player, just not at the same time).

Examples of synchronous:
PvP events include matches, battles, or challenges that pit two real-life players against each other at the same time, where the winner receives some sort of reward (and glory).

But there’s always room for creativity. With asynchronous PvP events, for example, your players can compete against each other without needing to coordinate their play; in Board Kings, players are able to steal other players’ coins without those players needing to be active. Obviously, this works to motivate players to keep coming back to the game -- so they can catch up on what they’ve missed.

Creativity in synchronous PvP events can look like round robins, where players compete against another player for a set time period or challenge, and then move onto a different player. Another option? Giving players the chance to form a pair with their friend, and then competing in 2x2 events -- where the best pair wins.

The Different Types of Event Frameworks

Okay, so you’ve figured out who’s competing against who, and who has access to the event itself. Now it’s time to determine the framework for how your players will engage with it. 

How will success be measured? How will the winner(s) be decided? Will there be any new rules for players to learn in place?

The good news is, there are a few staple frameworks that most events operate inside of. And the better news is: I'll try to outline them for you below.
 

#1 - Totalizers 

Where players earn points (or another event-specific resource) by playing the game in a new way, for a limited amount of time. Maybe that means they’re granted entry to a new course for racing, a new realm for their battle against the supernatural, or a new weapon to use in a sniper challenge -- the point is, the totalizer doesn’t start until they’re in that new space (or with that new item).

And when they are, that’s when the totalizer -- or the point counter -- starts accumulating points. The more they win in that specific event, the more points they earn.

Real-game example:
In Transformers: Earth Wars, players earn points by going into battle -- and the higher they climb, the more alluring the prizes become. 
 

#2 —Prestiging Totalizers

Jumping off of the ‘totalizer’ concept, prestiging totalizers are events that enable players to earn the maximum number of points -- or reach the highest level -- available in the challenge, and then reset their standing so they can re-enter from scratch. With every reset, they get a cosmetic token, so they (and everyone around them) are able to identify their prowess.

The prestiging totalizer was first seen in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and it’s since carried some weighty traction in our industry. Games have been adopting it because its framework actually shifts the players’ focus from just completing the challenge to completing the challenge the maximum number of times.

Here’s why that’s significant: without the ability to prestige, a totalizer must be challenging enough to make it difficult for even the best players to reach the end -- and earn the top reward. But with the ability to prestige, the totalizer can be made shorter and easier, making it more accessible (and appealing) to the weaker players/groups in your playerbase.

Real-game example:
In Transformers: Earth Wars, there are extremely short totalizers that can be completed up to 60 times. And here’s where it gets brilliant: as the top reward, players are most likely to receive a gacha crystal… but there’s still a small chance they could earn a new character instead. The more times they prestige an event, the more likely they are to earn that new character. So even the weaker players are motivated to keep at it. 

#3 — Scored Leaderboards 

One of the most common frameworks for any game event is the scored leaderboard. Leaderboards have featured heavily throughout the history of games, but when they’re made temporary (and event-specific), they incite even more engagement from players. And they lend themselves to a pretty straightforward foundation: as players move through the event, their progress is tracked on the temporary leaderboard -- and at the end of the event, rewards are distributed based on that leaderboard standing.

Typically, rewards are divvied up by tiers -- and determining those tiers is a balancing act in itself. On the one hand, you have to make sure players care about landing in the top tiers; on the other hand, you have to include enou