Gamescom goes green and so does Affogata and Dots.eco. Environmental protection and climate protection play an important role in the games industry. So how can you also join? Hello everyone and welcome to Affogata’s podcast: Let’s talk customer feedback. We had the pleasure to be doing a special episode with three very special guests. We had Daniel Madrid and Nadav Gros, founders of Dots.eco and Caro Solari, Head of Marketing at Affogata talking about their partnership at Gamescom in Cologne this year.  Listen to what this partnership is all about and how you can make an impact in the world too.

Battle Royale is one of the most popular gaming genres, as it attracts millions of players all over the world. But what are some of the trends and attractions in this genre? What are the challenges four of the leading games in this genre face? Hello everyone and welcome to Affogata’s podcast: Let’s talk customer feedback. We had the pleasure to be doing a special episode with two very special guests. We hosted Chris Zerathe, a veteran gaming expert and Anaelle Nelken, Affogata’s Account Executive who created just recently an in-depth professional Battle Royale analysis report. The report discussed in this episode, is one of the services we offer to our customers at Affogata, showing what players think and talk about the games that they play. For this specific one, Affogata tracked and analyzed the four leading and most popular video games of this genre, covering a one month period worth of countless player conversations about them from all over the open web. The games are: Fortnite, Apex Legends, PUB-G and Call of Duty: Mobile.

How does player feedback impact product decisions and how yo choose what feedback to implement? Hello and welcome to Affogata’s podcast: Let’s talk customer feedback. We had the pleasure of hosting Rizwana Rahman, Technical lead product manager at Intel.  Her career started as an engineer. Her interest to leverage her engineering, analytical and creative skills led her to opportunities where she saw the products at the cusp of engineering, design, product, and marketing end. She has had the privilege of experiencing different industries including automotive, finance, appliances, healthcare, and gaming as she was given opportunities at Siemens, Barclays Wealth Americas, GE, Sony, and now Intel. Each of these experiences is super valuable to her as she learned at each of these organizations about product development, processes, and how customer needs are met. Talking more about her current gig, she is currently a Technical Lead Product Manager in the Gaming Graphics and Product section of Advanced Graphics Group at Intel. Gaming is evolving really quickly, and Intel is at the forefront of that change. She is also on the Advisory Council for the Executives programs at California State University. The council is composed of a diverse, innovative and extremely well-connected network of top executives. This council helps CSU’s value to build the business community by preserving and enhancing the reputation of executive education through strategic reviews, offering expert guidance to faculty and students, and promoting the program goals of linking industry to academia. For large enterprises, product development, revision, and improvement is a never-ending process. New features are constantly being rolled out, bugs are being identified and eliminated, and tweaks are applied to make each product as easy to use and valuable as possible. But it can be challenging to bridge the gaps between the product team, who are ideating and innovating, and the end-users themselves, who encounter friction as they use the products and can spot room for improvement. How can the analysis of customer feedback aid with this?

Hello and welcome to Affogata’s podcast: Let’s talk customer feedback. We had the pleasure of hosting Philip Hubner, Chief Business Development Officer at Challengermode We usually have the pleasure of hosting game developers, designers, or product and marketing managers at gaming companies who talk about how they leverage player feedback in their day-to-day job and the importance of listening to player feedback. But this episode is really interesting because Philip, apart from now being the Chief Business Development Officer at Challengermode, he was a huge Esports player and influencer, which is the other side of the feedback, the one who gives it mainly, and not the one receiving it. How do core players feel about having their voices heard? Do players really feel they can influence games? Where can companies find the most valuable feedback from their players? Here's what Philip had to say!

Hello and welcome to Affogata’s podcast: Let’s talk customer feedback. We had the pleasure of hosting Fernando Ferri, Communications Manager, Team Lead at Wildlife.  Fernando has been working in the video game industry for nine years now. He started as a Player Support Analyst, and quickly found his passion in helping players and giving them the best experience possible. Riot Games was his first experience in the industry, and he learned a lot about how big developers manage their massive player base and all the challenges that come with it. Fernando now works at Wildlife Studios as a Community Lead, and together they are building the best communities for their players. Players become emotionally connected to games and when companies decide to make changes to the game, implement new features or make new releases, players will start conversations online on multiple channels to discuss their opinions with other players. If companies are not analyzing this feedback, they are missing out on a lot of valuable information. Are companies really putting the voice of the players in their strategic decisions? How do companies cut through the noise to find the most relevant feedback? Check out what Fernando had to say about all this in this amazing episode!

Hello and welcome to Affogata’s podcast: Let’s talk customer feedback. We had the pleasure of hosting William Mayfield, Founder & Lead Producer at FricknFrack Games. The gaming industry is one of the fastest-growing industries of all, but it is also one of the hardest to penetrate with such big competition. What can make your game either make it or break it? Player Feedback! Players are extremely opinionated as players become more loyal and attached to the game. If a character was changed, if the level is too hard, or if the weapon is not working as it should, players will talk about it online and it can become viral. So, how can game studios leverage this feedback? How can it be used to create the ultimate player experience? Check out what William had to say about all this!

Hello and welcome to Affogata’s podcast: Let’s talk customer feedback. We had the pleasure of hosting Riad Djemili, Founder, CEO, Code & Design at Maschinen-Mensch & Codecks Designing a new game is challenging. Creating the perfect balance between winning and losing, developing the ultimate experience, creating engaging features, and not having any bugs or technical problems, are just some of the things game designers and developers need to think about. And there is still one crucial part that sometimes game designers may forget which is implementing player feedback in the creation and optimization of new games. How do Indie games gather and implement feedback? Why is it important? Check out what Riad had to say about all this!

How to improve player lifetime value and therefore, increase player retention? Hello and welcome to Affogata’s podcast: Let’s talk customer feedback. We had the pleasure of hosting Sergey Komar, Senior publishing manager at Lion Studios.  Sergey has been working in the game industry for the last 13 years. He started as a programmer and then switched to game designer, producer, and CEO. During this time, he managed to found four game companies and worked in different corporations as a lead producer at G5 Entertainment, publishing manager, and studio lead at Homa Games. And right now, he works as a Senior Publishing Manager at Lion Studios, at Applovin Corporation. With games earning millions, if not billions of dollars per year, it has become increasingly important to measure every aspect of game performances in order to ensure the right investment. Game analytics is a critical instrument to measure a game’s success and make decisions on how to develop the future of a game. One of the most valued KPIs when it comes to measuring the health of a game is the game Lifetime Value (LTV). But what exactly is a game LTV and how does this metric help game developers and publishers make business decisions?

We had the pleasure of hosting Galina Fedulova, Marketing Manager at Wooga.  Galina works as a marketing manager at Wooga, the Berlin-based game studio of Playtika. At Wooga, Galina works for the game studio’s biggest title, June’s Journey, focusing on product marketing and player research. Joining Wooga more than 5 years ago, Galina has always been passionate about understanding the player community's voice and motivations as well as how player sentiment impacts product marketing strategy. Among her primary responsibilities is collecting and analyzing player sentiment by applying various user research methodologies and working closely with sentiment analysis platforms like Affogata. It’s very important for Galina not only to know how to track player sentiment but also to communicate it in a comprehensive way to various stakeholders, from product managers to designers, so they can apply these insights in their strategies and projects. The video game industry expects another boom year in both excitement and sales, but with such big competition, it seems like gaming studios need to adapt quickly to the fast-changing industry and players’ needs.

We had the pleasure of hosting Carlos Moreno Bruzón, Head of the Community Team at King games. After over 8 years of managing and building communities within the gaming industry, Carlos has managed to obtain a great knowledge of the multiple ways there are for communities to be brought together, the differences between genres and platforms, and also what value community and player feedback can bring to some of the best studios in the gaming industry. With billions of gamers around the world, gaming is a fast-growing, high-revenue industry. But, there is a critical piece of the market that many developers and marketers aren’t paying enough attention to — the engaged players who make the industry so successful. Building engaging communities enable core and loyal players to have a space, to increase even more engagement, and gaming companies can channel that engagement into new revenue and reduce player churn. Discover what Carlos had to say on our podcast.